RSS
Shocking Revelation: Gaza Photojournalists Shared Call to Infiltrate Israel on Oct. 7
The bodies of people, some of them elderly, lie on a street after they were killed during a mass-infiltration by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip, in Sderot, southern Israel, Oct. 7, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad
A Gaza photojournalist working for the international media called on residents of the coastal enclave to cross the border into Israel on October 7, after Hamas terrorists had breached it, an HonestReporting investigation has found.
Mohammed Fayq Abu Mostafa, a freelancer who has been working for Reuters, made the comments while excitedly displaying footage of Hamas atrocities on an Instagram Live hosted in Gaza by another photojournalist, Ashraf Amra.
Amra has been working for AP, Reuters, and APA Images, as well as for Turkish agency Anadolu. The investigation also found Amra had been honored with kisses by Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on two previous occasions.
The revelation casts doubt on the journalistic impartiality of the two freelance photojournalists and the vetting procedures of media outlets that have relied on their work.
The following information was compiled based on a probe of Amra’s and Abu Mostafa’s social media accounts. We also looked at articles and visuals published online and checked image databases of relevant media outlets.
“Whoever Can Go — Go”
On October 7, Amra hosted an Instagram Live from Khan Younis to provide updates following Hamas’ deadly cross-border assault on Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and some 240 taken hostage.
During the broadcast, Amra willingly let a thrilled Abu Mostafa, who had just returned from Israeli territory, display the brutal acts that he had captured on his phone at the breached border area.
Amra can be seen laughing and smiling while Abu Mostafa presented footage of the lynching of an Israeli soldier:
Abu Mostafa went on to say: “We were there two hours ago, since the beginning.”
He detailed what he saw at the border and deep inside Israel, in Sderot. He described breaking into a room where Israelis were hiding before being taken by Hamas terrorists.
He then called on people to cross into the sovereign Jewish state: “Advice, whoever can go — go. It is a one-time event that will not happen again.”
And Amra replies: “Really, it will not repeat itself.”
Abu Mostafa’s border photos, one of which seems to show the lynching he had shared on Amra’s Live, were recently selected by Reuters and The New York Times to be included in their 2023 “Images of the Year.”
Amra was also at the border earlier in the day. In the Instagram Live he said:
I just returned from the Khuza’a area, near the Khuza’a area on the eastern border of the Gaza Strip. Tens of armed Palestinian men are constantly storming the border toward the settlements around Gaza.
Some media outlets published a photo credited to “Ashraf Amra/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images,” showing a digger breaching the border fence. Reuters selected another photo by Amra, taken on October 7 inside Gaza, as one of its “Pictures of the Month” for October 2023.
In November, HonestReporting published an expose that raised serious ethical questions regarding the early morning presence of Gaza photojournalists — including Abu Mostafa — at the breached Gaza-Israel border on October 7.
We questioned the morality and professionalism of those photojournalists who appeared to accompany Hamas terrorists on their rampage and inquired as to what level of knowledge these freelancers had prior to the Hamas infiltration, asking whether it was only physical borders that were breached.
Now, the exposure of a journalist who proudly proclaims he has been at the border “since the beginning” — coupled with his call to infiltrate Israel while displaying Hamas atrocities — crosses more boundaries. Particularly when he had been given the platform to do so by another fellow journalist, who was happy to share it with his 188K Instagram followers.
Kissed By Haniyeh
Amra’s willingness to utilize his social media channel in this manner may be explained by the special personal treatment he has received from Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
In mid-September, the terror group leader paid a visit to Amra who was being treated for a hand injury in an Istanbul hospital.
Amra had been injured while covering Gaza border riots (without a press vest), and he blamed Israeli troops for targeting him.
In the photos and videos published after the meeting, Haniyeh is seen kissing Amra’s cheeks and arm cast.
According to media reports, Haniyeh told Amra during the visit that he appreciated his role and that of the Palestinian media in exposing “the crimes of the occupation.” Amra replied that the injury won’t prevent him from returning to his “national role.”
The high-profile hospital visit was not the first time Haniyeh had honored the veteran photojournalist, to whom he presented an award back in 2012:
Does Haniyeh provide such VIP treatment to every Gaza-based journalist who may have been injured while working? What is the nature of his connection with Amra? Does it explain Amra’s easy access to coverage of Hamas leadership and training in Gaza?
Interestingly, according to the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, Amra has also been working alongside Hassan Eslaiah, a freelance photojournalist whose infiltration into Israel and close ties with Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar were detailed in HonestReporting’s expose in November. Subsequently, AP and CNN cut ties with Eslaiah.
All of the above should sound the alarm bells for news organizations and their audiences worldwide.
The exhilaration at the display of Hamas atrocities, along with the sharing of a call to infiltrate Israel, where Hamas had been brutalizing, raping, and murdering innocent Israelis on October 7, are appalling in their own right.
So is the flattery their actions earned from the head of a genocidal terror organization.
There are serious questions for the international media outlets who prominently showcased these photojournalists’ work:
Did they vet Amra and Abu Mostafa before publishing their work?
Were any outlets aware of the photojournalists’ social media activity and of Amra’s recognition by the leader of a proscribed terror group?
What exactly are their vetting procedures for freelancers in Gaza?
And, if there are different codes of conduct for freelancers vs. permanent staff, then why isn’t that disclosed on every article that a freelancer works on?
A commitment to journalistic ethics should prompt the news organizations we have named to answer these very basic questions.
And basic humanity should compel them to answer these questions.
HonestReporting is a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
The post Shocking Revelation: Gaza Photojournalists Shared Call to Infiltrate Israel on Oct. 7 first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
EU Ministers Reject Proposal to Suspend Dialogue With Israel
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell attends a press conference on the day of EU-Ukraine Association Council in Brussels, Belgium, March 20, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Yves Herman
European Union foreign ministers on Monday did not support a proposal by the bloc’s outgoing foreign policy chief to suspend regular political dialogue with Israel in response to the Jewish state’s ongoing military campaign against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza.
Top EU diplomat Josep Borrell last week had proposed the suspension of dialogue in a letter to the bloc’s foreign ministers ahead of their meeting on Monday in Brussels, citing “serious concerns about possible breaches of international humanitarian law in Gaza,” the Palestinian enclave ruled by Hamas. He also wrote, “Thus far, these concerns have not been sufficiently addressed by Israel.”
The proposal was met with widespread resistance, with several ministers either expressing support for Israel’s position or arguing that severing dialogue with the Jewish state would be counterproductive.
“We know that there are tragic events in Gaza, huge civilian casualties, but we do not forget who started the current cycle of violence,” Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told reporters after Monday’s meeting in Brussels, seemingly referring to the fact that Hamas began the conflict with its invasion of southern Israel last Oct. 7. “And I can tell you that there was no agreement on the idea of suspending negotiations with Israel.”
The regular dialogues that Borrell sought to break off were enshrined in a broader agreement on relations between the EU and Israel, including extensive trade ties, that was implemented in 2000.
“In light of the above considerations, I will be tabling a proposal that the EU should invoke the human rights clause to suspend the political dialogue with Israel,” Borrell wrote last week.
A suspension needed the approval of all 27 EU countries, an unlikely outcome from the beginning.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock publicly rejected the proposal last Thursday.
“We are always in favor of keeping channels of dialogue open. Of course, this also applies to Israel,” the German Foreign Office said of Borrell’s plans.
The Foreign Office added that, while the political conversations under the EU-Israel Association Council provide a regular opportunity to strengthen relations and, in recent months, discuss the provision of humanitarian aid to Gaza, severing that mechanism would make little sense.
“Breaking off dialogue, however, will not help anyone, neither the suffering people in Gaza, nor the hostages who are still being held by Hamas, nor all those in Israel who are committed to dialogue,” the statement continued.
Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp similarly said that he disagreed with the proposal and that the EU needed to continue its diplomatic dialogue with Israel.
“Apparently, the high rep [Borrell] takes a 180-degree turn. I don’t fully grasp that,” Veldkamp told reporters in Brussels. “In the view of the Netherlands, this door should be kept open, and we should start a discussion with the Israeli ministers. There will soon be a new high rep. Let’s use these opportunities to get a dialogue running, because there’s a lot to discuss, including the catastrophic humanitarian situation the Gaza Strip.”
Borrel, whose formal title is the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, is set to leave his position, with his five-year term as the EU’s foreign policy chief coming to an end next month. His successor is former Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas.
The EU has been divided over how to address the war in Gaza. While some member countries, such as Spain and Ireland, have been fiercely critical of Israel since the outbreak of the conflict, calling on the bloc to review and even suspend its free trade agreement with Israel, others have been more supportive. For example, Hungary, Austria, and the Czech Republic have so far largely backed Israel’s military efforts.
“Most of the member states considered that it was much better to continue having a diplomatic and political relationship with Israel,” Borrell told a press conference after the meeting on Monday.
“But at least I put on the table all the information produced by United Nations organizations and every international organization working in Gaza and the West Bank and in Lebanon in order to judge the way the war is being waged,” he added.
Earlier, Borrell said he had “no more words” to describe the situation in the Middle East, before chairing his last planned meeting of the bloc’s foreign ministers.
“I exhausted the words to explain what’s happening in the Middle East,” he said, citing the death toll and humanitarian crisis in Gaza. “There [are] no more words.”
Hamas launched the ongoing conflict with its invasion of southern Israel last Oct. 7. During the onslaught, Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists murdered 1,200 people, wounded thousands more, and kidnapped over 250 hostages while perpetrating mass sexual violence and other atrocities.
Israel responded with a military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in neighboring Gaza.
Israel says it has gone to unprecedented lengths to try and avoid civilian casualties, noting its efforts to evacuate areas before it targets them and to warn residents of impending military operations with leaflets, text messages, and other forms of communication. However, Hamas has in many cases prevented people from leaving, according to the Israeli military.
Another challenge for Israel is Hamas’s widely recognized military strategy of embedding its terrorists within Gaza’s civilian population and commandeering civilian facilities like hospitals, schools, and mosques to run operations, direct attacks, and store weapons.
Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said last month that Israel has delivered over 1 million tons of aid, including 700,000 tons of food, to Gaza since it launched its military operation a year ago. He also noted that Hamas terrorists often hijack and steal aid shipments while fellow Palestinians suffer.
The Israeli government has ramped up the supply of humanitarian aid into Gaza in recent weeks under pressure from the United States, which has expressed concern about the plight of civilians in the war-torn enclave.
Nonetheless, Borrell said ahead of the meeting that his proposal was meant to put pressure on the Israeli government after it had, in his view, ignored several pleas to adhere to international law in the Gaza war.
“Many people tried to stop the war in Gaza … this has not happened yet. And I don’t see a hope for this to happen. That’s why we have to put pressure on the Israeli government, and also, obviously on the Hamas side,” Borrell said, without mentioning Hamas’s rejection of recent ceasefire proposals.
Borrell has been one of the EU’s most outspoken critics of Israel over the past year. Just six weeks after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks, he drew a moral equivalence between Israel and the terrorist group while speaking to the European Parliament, accusing both of having carried out “massacres” while insisting that it is possible to criticize Israeli actions “without being accused of not liking the Jews.”
Borrell’s speech followed a visit to the Middle East the prior week. While in Israel, he delivered what the Spanish daily El Pais described as the “most critical message heard so far from a representative of the European Union regarding Israel’s response to the Hamas attack of Oct. 7.”
“Not far from here is Gaza. One horror does not justify another,” Borrell said at a joint press conference alongside then-Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen. “I understand your rage. But let me ask you not to let yourself be consumed by rage. I think that is what the best friends of Israel can tell you, because what makes the difference between a civilized society and a terrorist group is the respect for human life. All human lives have the same value.”
Months later, in March of this year, Borrell claimed that Israel was imposing a famine on Palestinian civilians in Gaza and using starvation as a weapon of war. His comments came a few months before the United Nations Famine Review Committee (FRC), a panel of experts in international food security and nutrition, rejected the assertion that northern Gaza was experiencing famine, citing a lack of evidence. Borrell’s comments prompted outrage from Israel.
In August, Borrell pushed EU member states to impose sanctions on some Israeli ministers.
On Monday, beyond his push to suspend EU-Israel dialogue, Borrell also sought to introduce a ban on the import of products from Israeli settlements in “occupied Palestinian territories according with the rules of the International Court of Justice.”
The post EU Ministers Reject Proposal to Suspend Dialogue With Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Mississauga vigil for Hamas leader was called off, but the Jewish community says the mayor should apologize for defending it
The group said members were going to be volunteering on an urgent food security issue instead.
The post Mississauga vigil for Hamas leader was called off, but the Jewish community says the mayor should apologize for defending it appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
RSS
Amsterdam Police Identify 45 Suspects Linked to Violent, Antisemitic Attack Targeting Israeli Soccer Fans
Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters are guarded by police after violence targeting Israeli football fans broke out in Amsterdam overnight, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 8, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ami Shooman/Israel Hayom
Dutch police said on Sunday that they have identified and are investigating 45 suspects of whom they have images in connection to the violent attacks targeting Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam earlier this month.
“Because of the seriousness of the crimes, but also because of the social impact, we immediately scaled up to a special investigation team,” Dutch police chief Janny Knol said in a statement.
All 45 suspects are being probed for serious violent crimes, according to Dutch media. Nine of them have been arrested so far and remain in police custody, authorities said on Sunday, including a suspect who reported to police on Saturday night after his unblurred photo was released to the public.
On Friday, police said they were investigating 29 more suspects, including two who ultimately turned themselves in and have been arrested. Unblurred photos of the some of the other suspects have been online since Friday night and more images of suspects will be released soon, according to a police spokesperson cited by the NL Times.
Following a match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and the Dutch team Ajax in Amsterdam on Nov. 7, anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian gangs violently attacked Israelis who attended the soccer game. The premeditated and coordinated attack took place in various parts of the city late that night and into the early hours of Nov. 8. Israeli fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv were chased, run over by cars, assaulted, and taunted with anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian slogans such as “Free Palestine.” Five people were reportedly hospitalized for injuries.
Police are “looking at all crimes committed in the run-up to the game and in its aftermath,” Knol said after the violence erupted in the Dutch capital.
A Dutch court last week arraigned eight suspects, including minors, who were arrested in connection to the violent attack in Amsterdam, the NL Times reported. Those suspects include a 21-year-old man from Almelo, a city in eastern Netherlands; a 37-year-old man from Amsterdam suspected of pulling someone off his bicycle; two men, ages 19 and 21, who were arrested over the weekend; and two 26-year-old men, one from Amsterdam and one from Utrecht, who are suspected of publishing posts on social media that incited violence against the Israeli soccer fans.
The post Amsterdam Police Identify 45 Suspects Linked to Violent, Antisemitic Attack Targeting Israeli Soccer Fans first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login