Dear friend,
“I no longer have any hope of survival…I am certain that I will die in the next few weeks or maybe days," said Bisan Owda, a 25 year old journalist from Gaza. Without her, we wouldn’t know what really happened at Al-Shifa hospital where Israeli airstrikes led to the suffocation of babies in incubators. Motaz, another young photojournalist who was raised in the Deir al-Balah refugee camp in Gaza, has been critical in reporting on the indiscriminate bombings of residential buildings in southern Gaza.
Palestinian journalists are risking their lives to tell the truth. What is the mainstream media doing? The New York Times is doing what it does best: propping up the war machine and throwing Palestinians under the bus. We saw it before the invasion of Iraq and we are seeing it now. The New York Times is a mouthpiece for the war machine!
Tell the New York Times to Report accurately on Gaza!
Western media needs to get its act together because the Israeli military stated that their operations in southern Gaza will be “no less strength” than its offensive in the north. The temporary “ceasefire” is over and the death toll in Gaza has climbed to 16,000 people so far. Thanks to the journalists in Gaza, we’ve witnessed this nightmare with them.
The testimonies on the ground in Gaza since the temporary “ceasefire” ended have been heartbreaking. Another Palestinian journalist named Plestia shared the English translation of one of Motaz’s posts on her Instagram where he says, “the phase of risking your life to show what’s happening is over and the phase of trying to survive has started."
Despite having access to incredible first-hand sources like Bisan, Motaz, and Plestia, the New York Times has done nothing but parrot outright lies that green light the genocide. It's time to demand more of our news outlets! Palestine deserves better.
Although the situation in Gaza and the rest of Palestine is dire, and the news can be depressing, I have a bit of a reminder for you: Oppression is meant to make you feel hopeless, to crush your soul in a way that stops you from ever resisting, but we’re stronger than that. They want us to give up, but we refuse!
Towards Peace,
Nour and the entire CODEPINK team