"In Gaza, journalists are not just relaying the tragedies of displacement, loss, and starvation. They are experiencing it firsthand in all of its extremities, too. But when journalists are also targets, who reports on them? More than 270 Palestinian media personnel have been killed in 21 months. Who defended them? This was the duty of international journalists: to stand by their peers, to serve as their armour, to amplify their voices." Text Mariam Barghouti | Photography Ahmed Younes & Ali Jadall

The eyes of truth 

From Gaza comes the clearest record of our time, witnessed and told by journalists who risk their lives to preserve it. Their truth must guide us all. When they speak, we must listen; it is our utmost duty now.   September 4th, 2025

AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies]

https://www.dazed.me/feature/the-eyes-of-truth-gaza-journalists

Text Mariam Barghouti | Photography Ahmed Younes & Ali Jadallah 

[CLICK THE LINK TO SEE THE TELLING PHOTOS]

At the time of writing, at least eight journalists have been killed by Israel, adding to the over 270 Palestinian media personnel killed in Gaza during the last 21 months. Among them is photojournalist Mariam Riyad Abu Dagga, who was photographed and interviewed for this feature. She was murdered by Israel in a targeted attack on Nasser Hospital, alongside four other journalists: Ahmed Abu Aziz, Hussam al-Masri, Mohammad Salama, and Moaz Abu Taha. She was 33 years old and is survived by her son, Ghaith.

 International journalists choose calm scenes—they don’t want the scenes of blood, the screaming. But as local journalists, we live the moment in the field. It’s not just the event, it’s us in the event.” – Mariam Riyad Abu Dagga

On 10 August, shortly after my peer Anas Al-Sharif was savagely killed along with an entire Al Jazeera crew that included Mohammed Qraiqea, Mohamed Nofal, and Ibrahim Thaher as well as freelancers Moamen Aliwa and Mohammed al-Khalidi, Hind Khoudary took to X, addressing media outlets worldwide. 

“I will not speak to foreign media about the killing of Palestinian journalists,” wrote the award-winning Palestinian journalist. “I will not sit on your global channels to be part of a segment you’ll forget by tomorrow.” Capturing their hypocrisy and hollow coverage in a matter of words, she added: “To you, we are just a headline—a tragedy to consume, not colleagues to defend.”

In Gaza, journalists are not just relaying the tragedies of displacement, loss, and starvation. They are experiencing it firsthand in all of its extremities, too. But when journalists are also targets, who reports on them? More than 270 Palestinian media personnel have been killed in 21 months. Who defended them? This was the duty of international journalists: to stand by their peers, to serve as their armour, to amplify their voices.

Instead, western coverage of Palestinians is marred by a repeated pattern of contradiction, claiming to uphold objective, non-partisan reporting while framing Israel’s atrocity crimes as “self-defence”. Between what is said and what is actually happening are the Palestinian journalists on the ground, who continue to personify the essence of journalism by holding power accountable and preserving memory against systemic erasure.

Displaced, not defeated   Nour Swirki

Journalists are journalists, not superheroes   Shrouq Al Aila, Hind Khoudary

The sister, the daughter, the mother, the missing  Hind, Nour, Shrouq, and Mariam 

Murder as a passing note  Mariam Riyad Abu Dagga

Absent media, present youth   Renad Attallah

It doesn’t end    ... Say their names, cite their work, defend their lives.

Local sources confirm that Israeli forces have assassinated journalist Anas Al-Sharif and several other journalists after Israeli airstrikes targeted a press tent in central Gaza, which is currently under heavy barrages of fire. #JournalismIsNotACrime

Local sources confirm that Israeli forces have assassinated journalist Anas Al-Sharif and several other journalists after Israeli airstrikes targeted a press tent in central Gaza, which is currently under heavy barrages of fire.

An outpouring of grief and condemnation has followed the Israeli assassination of five Al Jazeera staff in Gaza, including prominent correspondent Anas al-Sharif.  

Al Jazeera English

@AJEnglish

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/8/11/tributes-condemnation-pour-in-for-slain-al-jazeera-journalists-in-gaza

Since October 2023, Israel has killed 269 journalists in Gaza, in the deadliest conflict ever recorded for reporters.

Israel has killed Al Jazeera correspondent Anas Esharif and four of his colleagues in an airstrike on their tent outside Shifa Hospital in Gaza. This deliberate assassination of Palestinian journalists is part of Israel’s ongoing effort to silence the truth and carry out genocide in darkness.

 

#JournalismIsNotACrime

 

Mariam Barghouti مريم البرغوثي

@MariamBarghouti

·

2h

Israel just bombed an murdered the entire Aljazeera staff in Gaza city: Correspondents Anas Al Sharif

@AnasAlSharif0 and Mohammad Qreiqei, killed. 

 

Cameramen Ibrahim Dhaher and Mo’men Aleiwa, killed. 

 

Crew driver, Mohammad Nofal, killed. 

 

All murdered in an Israeli bombing of their TENT stationed by Al-Shifa hospital. 

 

This means, a commander gave the order, and others executed it. 

 

This should be tracked and made public, who killed the journalists. 

 

It wasn’t just a bomb. It was its manufacturer, and the Israeli commanders that are giving the order, and the soldiers saying yes and conducting the strike. 

 

All of these murderers need to be made public by name. Israeli state violence is made by people.

Anas Sharif, @AnasAlSharif0 , renowned Palestinian journalist, & father of two was bombed to death by Israel alongside his peer, Mohammad Qaraqei.

Mariam Barghouti مريم البرغوثي

@MariamBarghouti

 

Tonight, August 10, Anas Sharif,   @AnasAlSharif0, renowned Palestinian journalist, & father of two was bombed to death by Israel alongside his peer, Mohammad Qaraqei. 

 

I will refrain from sharing the gruesome video of his murder, but he died in his press vest, which was mostly burned. 

 

No bulletproof vest can protect against Israeli psychopathy. Anas, like all journalists in Gaza, was killed for sharing the truth without filter. Doing what most journalists in their comfortable offices can’t— their job.

"The West Bank is on lockdown. This means that the gates Israel spent the last ten years erecting at every village and town entrance are closed— effectively caging Palestinians in their own homes. For years Palestinians protested these practices, non violently, and yet nothing changed. The world still normalized Israel and told Palestinians “it’s not a big deal.” As Palestinians are caged in, Israel has also spent the past two years ensuring agricultural destruction. This means in the West Bank, people don’t have access to lands or farms. It means Palestinians must purchase food from Israel, and everything has become more expensive. Palestinian homes are being rampaged, ransacked, and turned to military bases. Israel has also mass destroyed and demolished thousands of Palestinian homes, and displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians in the last few years. Meanwhile, Israeli settlements are expanding deeper into Palestinian towns and cities, drying water sources, destroying lands, killing & maiming people. What is happening to Palestinians as a whole population is extermination." Mariam Barghouti

 Mariam Barghouti مريم البرغوثي

@MariamBarghouti

 

The only reason, Palestinians in the West Bank seem to be enduring is because there is GZ—a place where our people are being mass executed and so in comparison, the West Bank endures.  

 

However when not compared to a mass execution site, the West Bank is facing cruel and inhumane conditions. 

 

 The West Bank is on lockdown. This means that the gates Israel spent the last ten years erecting at every village and town entrance are closed— effectively caging Palestinians in their own homes.  

 

For years Palestinians protested these practices, non violently, and yet nothing changed. 

 

The world still normalized Israel and told Palestinians “it’s not a big deal.”  

 

As Palestinians are caged in, Israel has also spent the past two years ensuring agricultural destruction. 

 

This means in the West Bank, people don’t have access to lands or farms. 

 

It means Palestinians must purchase food from Israel, and everything has become more expensive. 

 

Palestinian homes are being rampaged, ransacked, and turned to military bases. 

 

Israel has also mass destroyed and demolished thousands of Palestinian homes, and displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians in the last few years. 

 

 Meanwhile, Israeli settlements are expanding deeper into Palestinian towns and cities, drying water sources, destroying lands, killing & maiming people. 

 

What is happening to Palestinians as a whole population is extermination. 

 

It is an unbinding of any structures of life to live as a collective people. 

 

 This is colonialism, it’s not just the mass slaughter. It is the fragmentation of people, the separation, the creating of a battlefield of survival so each focuses on surviving just one day. 

 

 It is the erasure of a collective population, and the annihilation of all capacity to live as a collective.

11 Palestinian Voices Shaping the Contemporary Narrative on Palestine (in English)

Hala Alyan - author of Salt Houses

Hala Alyan is a Palestinian-American writer, poet, and clinical psychologist who has become widely known for her lyrical exploration of identity, as well as the burdens and blessings of displacement. Her debut novel, “Salt Houses,” which won the Arab-American Book Award in 2018, tells the story of a Palestinian family who was uprooted from their home as a result of the Six-Day War in 1967.

Addressing the themes of conflict, displacement, assimilation, and belonging, Alyan’s work humanises the struggles experienced by 21st-century diaspora communities around the world. Her words serve as a powerful reminder of the impact that hope, resilience, and empathy can have on the human spirit.

11 Palestinian Voices Shaping the Contemporary Narrative on Palestine

by Selma Nouri 

 October 26, 2023

https://www.gqmiddleeast.com/culture/palestinian-voices-shaping-narrative

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES or quotes IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine] 

 

Rashid Khalidi has become one of the world’s most prominent Palestinian scholars. Born to a Palestinian father and Lebanese mother in New York City, Khalidi has dedicated his life to the intellectual understanding and preservation of Palestinian identity. Across the world, his writing and scholarship have become fundamental to contemporary movements in support of dignity and justice in Palestine.

Plestia Alaqad is a 22-year old Palestinian journalist, who rose to prominence after using social media to share daily video diaries from her home in Gaza. Her videos expose the realities of a life under siege. From the horrifying sound of explosions to close-up images of rubble and destruction near her home, Alaqad’s videos offer a human perspective to the issues of conflict and displacement. Now, with over 800,000 followers on Instagram, Alaquad has transformed the way that many people receive the news, breathing life into the headlines and statistics that many have become desensitised to.

Alongside her twin brother Mohammed El-Kurd, Palestinian activist Muna El-Kurd became known across the world in 2021 for co-founding a viral social media campaign against the forced removal of Palestinian families from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of East Jerusalem. Through her viral posts, El-Kurd offered a window into the unsettling realities of life under occupation and became a voice for the many Palestinian families, who, like her own, sought to protect their homes from forced seizure.

Named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in 2021, El-Kurd continues to use her platform and voice to uplift the Palestinian identity and share their struggles for justice with the world.

Wissam Nassar is an award-winning photographer and 2015 Pulitzer Prize finalist whose images have served as a form of visual activism across the Arab world. Born and raised in Gaza, Nassar’s work has covered the Arab Spring, as well as the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine. His images have been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other noteworthy publications and are widely revered for their ability to capture vivid expressions of humanity amidst conditions of brutal conflict and oppression.

As Nassar explained in an interview with TIME Magazine in 2017, his photographs from Gaza focus on how the people simply “want to live normal lives.” They are human beings with hopes, dreams, and families who, even in the midst of rubble, play sports, listen to music, and share meals with friends. These difficult realities are what Nassar captures through his photos.

Mariam Barghouti is a Palestinian-American writer, researcher, and commentator based in Ramallah. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, and other notable news outlets.

Throughout her career, Barghouti has served as a prominent academic voice for the Palestinian people, bringing their issues to the global conversation on equality, social justice, and human rights. Her honest and poignant reporting has encouraged people from across the world to not only acknowledge but value the Palestinian perspective amid realities of conflict and occupation. 

Ahmed Hijazi

Ahmed Hijazi is a Palestinian content creator capturing the realities of life under siege. With over 1.2 million followers on Instagram, Hijazi has managed to expose the suffering and challenges endured by the Palestinian people.

By communicating via social media, Hijazi is able to reveal a side of conflict and occupation that is most often ignored. Rather than simply reporting on the frequency of attacks or death tolls, he takes viewers into the hearts and minds of those suffering.

Mosab Abu Toha is a Palestinian poet, short story writer, and scholar who was born in Gaza. He is the founder of the Edward Said Library in North Gaza, the city’s first English-language library, and recently published his debut book of poetry entitled, “Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear: Poems from Gaza.”

His poetic words speak for those whose voices have been silenced or whose lives have been cut short as a consequence of conflict, psychological suffering, and deprivation. He is asking them to never turn a blind eye to the realities of conflict or injustice.

With 5 million followers on Instagram, photojournalist Motaz Azaiza is sharing a different side of Palestine with the world. Azaiza explores the duality of life in Palestine, where laughter and smiles can, within milliseconds, be wiped away.

For years, Azaiza has worked with the UN to document conditions on the ground in Palestine. Through this work, he has seen relentless suffering and joy – livelihoods built but then suddenly destroyed. In situations of both laughter and grief, Azaiza is always ready with his camera pointed, proving that, even in the midst of darkness, there is hope and humanity to be captured through images.

Ahmed Shihab-Eldin 

Ahmed Shihab-Eldin is an Emmy-nominated journalist, producer, and actor of Palestinian descent who has become known globally for his unwavering dedication to the achievement of social justice and human rights in the Middle East. Throughout his career, Shihab-Eldin has used his platform as a poignant and skilled journalist to ask “difficult questions,” explore “taboo” topics, and amplify voices that are often ignored by Western media.

Shihab-Eldin has proven that he is never willing to remain silent. This is especially true in his continued support of the Palestinian struggle. When justice is on the line, no amount of censorship, criticism, or indifference will keep Shihab-Eldin from speaking up. 

Mohammed El-Kurd

GQ Middle East’s April 2023 cover star, Mohammed El-Kurd has become widely known across the world for his activism and eloquent writing on the struggles for justice in Palestine and the Occupied Territories.

His debut collection of poetry, titled “Rifqa,” offers a vulnerable and vivid account of the ways in which settler colonialism and occupation can manifest in the lives of those subjected to its brutalities. For many Palestinians and young people across the world,  El-Kurd has become the voice of a generation seeking hope, humanity, and justice in the midst of oppression.

 https://www.gqmiddleeast.com/culture/palestinian-voices-shaping-narrative