It has been said and written many times that the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza is “the first live broadcast war” in history. And that, as a result of this historic first, no one can now claim ignorance of what is happening in Palestine. Few, however, have asked themselves: thanks to whom was this war broadcast live? And even fewer have dared to give an answer to this question. What follows is a tribute to all those who did so at the risk of their lives…
The channel that monopolized this live broadcast is Al Jazeera. And it monopolized it not because it wanted to, but because the vast majority of TV channels around the world either refused to cover “the events in Gaza”, or stopped doing so in the face of threats and assaults, sometimes murderous, from the Israeli invader, who did everything in his power to ensure that there were no eyewitnesses to his crimes. Only Al Jazeera did not give in and carried out its mission against all odds, thus saving the much-maligned honor of the world press!
So, taking advantage of the ceasefire, which means that journalists and other media professionals stationed in Gaza are – at last! – taking off their war gear (helmets, bulletproof vests, etc.) and feeling safe from Israeli drones, shells and snipers, let’s do them justice by taking stock of their professionalism, courage and heroism. For it is thanks to them that we know what happened in Gaza’s killing fields, and that the executioners will one day have to answer for their crimes…
So, we start with that extraordinary Hani Mahmoud, the Al Jazeera journalist who has entered our lives by waking us up every morning for the past 15 months, to inform us of everything that had happened in Gaza during the previous night and sunrise. This Hani Mahmoud always standing in the ruins or in front of one of the Gazan hospitals repeatedly bombed, recounting in impeccable English and with exemplary rigor, without ever betraying his emotions, the massacres of the last few hours while the characteristic noise of the drones flying overhead sometimes drowned out his voice and the bombs often exploded behind his back! And all this while Hani Mahmoud and his family shared the fate of the Palestinians of Gaza forced to wander, hungry and thirsty, from one place to another under a rain of bombs that could hit them at any moment…
These bombs hit hard the family of Wael Al-Dahdouh, Al Jazeera’s Gaza City bureau chief, killing his wife, children and grandchildren while he continued to inform us, allowing himself only a few tears. But that’s not all. A few months later, Wael Al-Dahdouh was targeted by an Israeli missile, and while he escaped with injuries, he lost his cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa, killed instantly. And to complete his personal tragedy, his eldest son, also a journalist, is killed by an air strike in early January 2025…
Alas, the case of the great Wael Al-Dahdouh is by no means exceptional. According to the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists, “As of January 21, 2025, CPJ’s preliminary investigations showed at least 166 journalists and media workers were among the more than tens of thousands killed in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel, and Lebanon since the war began, making it the deadliest period for journalists since CPJ began gathering data in 1992”(1). But according to Al Jazeera itself, which publishes an eloquently titled survey “Learn their names” with images and names of “Palestinian Journalists Killed by Israel in Gaza”, the toll is even more terrible:
“From October 7, 2023, to December 25, 2024, at least 217 journalists and media workers had been killed in Gaza. Five more were killed on December 26 when an Israeli air strike targeted a news van near al-Awda Hospital. These most recent killings of journalists underscore the perilous environment in which media professionals are operating in Gaza. Simply put, this has been the worst conflict for journalists — ever”.(2)
Unprecedented in any journalist’s memory! A carnage unparalleled in the history of the world press! For Israel, the elimination of Palestinian journalists is an absolute priority, rivaled only by the systematic elimination of Palestinian doctors. All the more so as, for many months now, Al Jazeera’s Palestinian journalists have been the only ones covering Israel’s ongoing genocide of their people. All other international media refrain from doing so, with too few exceptions. (3)
That’s why you only need to follow Al Jazeera for a few hours to realize that what all the other TV channels around the world are doing, or rather not doing, is simply… disinformation, pure brainwashing. And that’s because Al Jazeera is not at all exclusively about Palestine or even the Middle East. It covers, with correspondents on the spot (!) everyone from Northern Ireland and Botswana, to Indonesia and New Zealand. And above all, she places great importance, with in-depth investigations, on the major issues of our time, such as feminism and the status of women, climate catastrophe and the struggle of ecological movements, racism and anti-Semitism, LGBT rights and oppression, world famine, and so on. And always on the side of the weak and with the eyes and sensitivity of those from below, which leads Al Jazeera to give priority to all those whom our media traditionally despise and “forget”, such as Black Africa, the countries of the Indian Ocean, those of the former USSR or…indigenous nations and peoples. Unlike our mainstream media, for Al Jazeera, some lives and deaths don’t count for more or less than others, which is why it often gives the floor to the relatives of Israeli hostages held by Hamas, and even to Israeli generals and officials who defend the policies of the Netanyahu government! In short, to do things that are simply unthinkable not only for the Israeli media, but also for the mainstream media in our Western countries. So, our conclusion is simple and self-evident: for those who would like to form an opinion of what this Al Jazeera, so hated by Netanyahu and his Western friends and others, is all about, here’s the link to click on to follow its broadcasts live.
And don’t forget to click on the video below to listen to the song for Hani Mahmoud and his colleague Tareq Abu Azzoum, composed and sung by the modern-day Woody Guthrie, the Jewish-American David Rovics.
Notes
1. https://cpj.org/2025/01/journalist-casualties-in-the-israel-gaza-conflict/
3. See also our January 2023 article, “Because it does not want witnesses to its crimes Israel methodically kills journalists it cannot silence!”