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Terrorists Aren’t Journalists
Israeli soldiers fire mortar shells, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, near Israel’s border with Gaza in southern Israel, Jan. 3, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Violeta Santos Moura
The headlines blare: More than 70 journalists have been killed in the Israel-Gaza war. But those headlines are misleading, and used to demonize Israel.
As of January 5, 2024, according to information published by the Committee to Protect Journalists, 24 of those 70 Palestinians who died were affiliated with Hamas media outlets, two were affiliated with Hezbollah, and one with Palestinian Islamic Jihad. All of these groups are designated terrorist entities by the United States. While these individuals were likely not combatants, they would, nevertheless, seem to be supporting nefarious propagandist activity, not engaging in legitimate journalism.
Facts matter, and saying that 70 journalists are dead, without specifying that so many are affiliated with terror groups, or that others are Israeli journalists, completely distorts the story.
For example, the Committee to Protect Journalists casualty list includes more than 10 people affiliated with Al-Aqsa TV. In March of 2010, under US President Barack Obama, Al-Aqsa TV was designated “a television station financed and controlled by Hamas.” According to the US government, it is “a primary Hamas media outlet and airs programs and music videos designed to recruit children to become Hamas armed fighters and suicide bombers upon reaching adulthood.”
The Treasury Department at the time further stated that it “will not distinguish between a business financed and controlled by a terrorist group, such as Al-Aqsa Television, and the terrorist group itself.”
The conflated deaths of Hamas propagandists with journalists is an attempt to assail Israel. The bias can be seen in a November 9 public letter signed by hundreds of editorialists and reporters, demanding “an explicit commitment from Israel to end the violence against journalists and other civilians.”
This letter jettisons any pretense of objectively, and reveals a clear anti-Israel antipathy, accusing the Jewish state of genocide, and the intentional targeting of journalists.
“We have not seen any evidence that Israel is intentionally targeting journalists” said US Department of State Spokesperson Mathew Miller on December 18; but the November 9 letter seemed to have attracted more attention than either his denial or the absence of factual support for the accusation.
Moreover, the letter from the press community rejects the casus belli for the Gaza invasion — the terrorist mutilation and massacre committed against civilians by Hamas on October 7. Hamas’ suicidal stranglehold of Gaza civilians and holding of Israeli hostages is also ignored.
Given this obvious tendentiousness, it is easy to see why reporters consider Hamas propagandists as benign or innocent victims in the Gaza war.
By contrast, in the United States war against Al-Qaeda, there was no mainstream, editorial sentiment that Adam Gadahn, the American who traveled to the Afghanistan/Pakistan region in order to serve Osama bin Laden, was an innocent, unintended fatality, when killed by a US drone attack.
Gadahn was labeled, even by the mainstream press, as a terrorist and a “Propagandist for Al Qaeda Who Sold Terror in English.” As a spokesperson for an infamous terror group, Gadahn was seemingly considered an appropriate target for elimination. His killing at the time was largely unquestioned by the United States press corp.
To be clear, there are legitimate journalists, of multiple nationalities and partisan interests, who have been unintentionally killed in Israel’s war of defense in Gaza. These deaths are all tragic. Journalism is a noble endeavor that serves the common good. Naturally, even anti-Western partisan journalists should be protected in battle, and their unintentional deaths mourned.
But those on the payroll of organizations designed to promote and defend the actions of terrorists should not be considered in the same class as journalists. They do not objectively or even subjectively report news. Their only evil, criminal purpose is to abet the machinery of mass murder and terror. To mourn the deaths of these terror propagandists is another example of media hypocrisy and glaring bias.
Barry Ziman is a novelist and government relations professional living in Virginia.
The post Terrorists Aren’t Journalists first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Netanyahu Urges Red Cross to Aid Gaza Hostages
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference, in Jerusalem, May 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/Pool
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he spoke with the International Red Cross’s regional head, Julien Lerisson, and requested his involvement in providing food and medical care to hostages held in Gaza.
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Tens of thousands Join Pro-Palestinian March Over Sydney Harbour Bridge
Protesters gather to walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge during the Palestine Action Group’s March for Humanity in Sydney, Australia August 3, 2025. Photo: AAP/Dean Lewins via REUTERS
Tens of thousands of demonstrators braved pouring rain to march across Sydney’s iconic Harbour Bridge on Sunday calling for peace and aid deliveries in the war-torn Gaza Strip, where a humanitarian crisis has been worsening.
Some of those attending the march, called by its organizers the “March for Humanity,” carried pots and pans as symbols of the hunger.
“Enough is enough,” said Doug, a man in his 60s with a shock of white hair. “When people from all over the world gather together and speak up, then evil can be overcome.”
Marchers ranged from the elderly to families with young children. Among them was Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Many carried umbrellas. Some waved Palestinian flags and chanted “We are all Palestinians.”
New South Wales police said up to 90,000 people had attended, far more than expected. The protest organizer, Palestine Action Group Sydney, said in a Facebook post as many as 300,000 people may have marched.
New South Wales police and the state’s premier last week tried to block the march from taking place on the bridge, a city landmark and transport thoroughfare, saying the route could cause safety hazards and transport disruption. The state’s Supreme Court ruled on Saturday that it could go ahead.
Acting Deputy Police Commissioner Peter McKenna said more than a thousand police were deployed and the size of the crowd had led to fears of a crush.
“No one was hurt,” he told a press conference. “But gee whiz, I wouldn’t like try and do this every Sunday at that short notice.”
Police were also present in Melbourne, where a similar protest march took place.
Diplomatic pressure ramped up on Israel in recent weeks. France and Canada have said they will recognize a Palestinian state, and Britain says it will follow suit unless Israel addresses the humanitarian crisis and reaches a ceasefire.
Israel has condemned these decisions as rewarding Hamas, the group that governs Gaza and whose attack on Israel in October 2023 began an Israeli offensive that has flattened much of the enclave. Israel has also denied pursuing a policy of starvation and accused Hamas of stealing aid.
Australia’s center-left Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said he supports a two-state solution and Israel’s denial of aid and killing of civilians “cannot be defended or ignored,” but has not recognized a Palestinian state.
Therese Curtis, a marcher in her 80s, said she had the human right and privilege of good medical care in Australia.
“But the people in Palestine are having their hospitals bombed, they’re being denied a basic right of medical care and I’m marching specifically for that,” she said.
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UK Plans to Provide Medical Treatment for Children in Gaza
Displaced Palestinian children wait to receive free food at a tent camp, amid food shortages, as the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, February 27, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
i24 News – The United Kingdom is preparing to launch a new initiative aimed at offering urgent medical care to children from Gaza, with up to 300 expected to be transferred to the UK for specialized treatment through the National Health Service (NHS).
Each child will be accompanied by a parent or guardian, and in some cases, siblings. The Home Office will oversee biometric and security checks ahead of their arrival.
The plan is part of a broader humanitarian effort and will be formally announced in the coming weeks.
A government spokesperson said, “We are moving forward with our plans to evacuate more children in need of urgent care, including welcoming them to the UK for specialized treatment, when it is in their best interest.”
The initiative complements the work of the NGO Project Pure Hope, which has already helped three Gaza children receive private medical care in the UK. So far, about 5,000 children have been evacuated from Gaza to Egypt and Gulf states.