The foreign media and academic institutions have come under fire from International Relations Minister Naledi Pandor for what she sees as their lack of response to Al Jazeera’s apparent suspension in Israel.
Following a vote by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government on Sunday to close the channel due to its coverage of the Gaza war, the Qatar-based station was taken off the air in Israel.
Pandor gave the University of Johannesburg’s second annual Shireen Abu Akleh Memorial Lecture on Wednesday.
This talk honors the memory of prominent Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was assassinated in the continuing conflict between Israel and Palestine by the Israeli military.
Targeting journalists in Gaza and the West Bank is a common tactic used to stifle the press, according to Pandor.
In my opinion, the unsettling backdrop of this presentation is the clear loss in media freedom, with practitioners who were formerly champions of free media and expression offering recommendations of complexity.
Imagine the media’s outcry if South Africa banned the SABC; but, consider what they say about Israel’s treatment of Al Jazeera today.
“The targeting of journalists in the Occupied Territories is a flagrant violation of international law and is part of a pattern of silencing the free press.
An occupying force is required by international human rights legislation to permit protests and freedom of expression.
Journalists must be able to report on events as they happen, and attempts to intimidate and kill media personnel should not be permitted to go unpunished.
“Shireen would have been in the Gaza trenches day and night, documenting the horrors occurring in the hopes that the international community would notice and stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people, if she were alive today.
The conflict between Israel and Hamas has not changed much, according to Pandor, even with the recent verdict by the International Court of Justice.
“The Israeli state has carried on its heinous assault on the Gazanian people with impunity, murdering more civilians and maiming thousands more. It has also continued to bomb houses, other structures, and infrastructure, disrupting the people of Gaza in every way.
“This encompasses medical facilities, emergency response vehicles, several educational institutions, all 14 of Gaza’s universities, places of worship, and much more. Women and children make up the great bulk of the deceased and injured, the speaker stated.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 97 journalists and media professionals—including Palestinians, Israelis, and Lebanese—have died since the start of the conflict.
According to an AFP calculation of Israeli official estimates, more than 1,170 people, largely civilians, died as a result of Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 strike on Israel, which set off the conflict.
Israel’s retaliatory attack, which it declared would destroy Hamas, has killed at least 34,789 people in Gaza, the majority of them women and children, according to the health ministry of the Hamas-run enclave.
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