At the Death of a Journalist

The death of a journalist is the death of so many potential stories aimed to reveal the truth. When a journalist dies, the hope of representing the voice of the under-represented dies too. The killing of veteran Al Jazeera American-Palestinian journalist Shirin Abu-Akleh, while reporting in Jenin while wearing a Press-inscribed vest is beyond tragic. And nauseating is also the horrible view of the ambush that took place during her funeral the Friday after.

Reporting about and from the Middle East is complex for all the wrong reasons. Reporting from any place in the world should actually be complex, but the ideological and emotional weight of the reporting in this part of the world, particularly when it comes to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is poisonous.

Journalists die or are under threat all over the world. In one month only, in Ukraine, Russian forces killed five journalists. Others are missing in action. In 2021, 45 journalists were killed in connection with their work, Mexico being considered the most dangerous country for fair and honest reporting. Do we know the names of those journalists? Do we have long-length editorials and media outrage from politicians, diplomats, other journalists, social media users? Rarely so. 

In death, we are all equal, indeed, but when the circumstances of the death are as gruesome than those surrounding the death of Shirin Abu-Akleh, it´s unsatisfactory. I wish all those responsible for the death of journalists should be punished. I wish the circumstances of the death of journalists are investigated and made public. I also wish people make vigils for all the journalists - and academics - rotting in prisons of dictatorships. Are we informed every day a couple of times about the fate of the opposition Belarusian journalist Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend, both EU citizens, who were literally kidnapped from their Ryanair flight? Are people outraged on social media a couple of times the day about them being paraded on the local TVs and forced to confess crimes they never comitted? 

In addition, I also wish myself that the Middle East will be, one day, a normal part of the world, where humans no matter their religion and flag can mourn, report about news, sip quietly their coffee without the need of staining everyhing with ideology and political militantism. It´s suffocating and kills the soul. Something new should happen. 

Being a Jewish Journalist in Jerusalem

The roads of journalism, especially when it comes to the Middle East, are very hidden and not always - if ever - going through clean zones of the human mind (I am too kitch and fluffy, here I know).

New York Times will have a new bureau chief, who - 'anyone surprised ?' - is not so Twitter-friendly with the Jewish state and many Western journalist sent there, from chief media institutions, are highly recommended for this position if they do not speak Hebrew, and do not like the Jewish state and, if possible, are fluent in Arabic. This remainds me of some situations I am quite familiar with when a journalist with a solid background in the Middle East issues was completely banned of writing news about the area, unless accepted titles consonant with the dirtiest pro-Saddam and pro-Iranian propaganda. 

Comparatively, an undergraduated of Arabic studies will always be qualified to report about the Middle East. I am the first to recognize the important of being able to read the newspapers of the country you are covering in the original language. I am only fighting for the same right of being qualified if a fluent speaker of Hebrew. Anyway, they will not send me to report about Egypt of Bahrain anyway - 'too biased, you know' - but they will not have any second thoughts to do so with a journalist close to Hamas. Are you able to see the logical failures of such an approach?

From many ridiculous points of view, the overall attitude of the New York Times regarding the Jewish issues, is at least schizophrenic: the coverage of the horrific events during WWII was shameful (if you want to know more, pay a visit to the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC and you will give up any effort of reading your NYT ever); but they also used to publish the Jewish dateson the front pages (there were some good Chabad influences here, as far as I know); recently, they  published several articles about the Haredi life (including an article about eating disorders, whose logic I was not able to grasp) but also a fantastic statement of Thomas Friedman, about "Jewish lobby". Balanced reporting means to confuse completely your readers through the fringe of madness?

I don't want to answer. In the last 12 months I am reading NYT maybe once the month and the Guardian probably twice the year. I avoid as much as possible Haaretz.  

PS: I saw this article only now: CNN decided to 'reorganize' its office in Jerusalem by firing the Israeli Jews journalists. Abu-Dhabi looks as a better source of news, for some of Turner's employees...