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An Israeli journalist just called for the death of all media workers in Gaza

A journalist on Israel’s i24 television channel has openly called for the murder of all journalists in Gaza. Zvi Yehezkeli, who served in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and worked for Shin Bet unleashed his diatribe after Israel carried out a ‘double tap’ bombing on a hospital in Khan Yunis. That bombing killed five journalists: Mohammad Salama, Hussam al-Masri, Mariam Abu Daqqa, Moaz Abu Taha, and Ahmed Abu Aziz. And, as the Canary reported:

It has only been fifteen days since Israel killed six journalists, after striking a different hospital, Al-Shifa in Gaza City.

According to UN estimates, Israel have now targeted and killed 240 Palestinian journalists.

However, this wasn’t enough for the bloodthirsty Yehezkeli.

Israel baying for blood of journalists

SKWAWKBOX reported that Yehezkeli said:

If Israel has indeed decided to eliminate the journalists, then it’s better late than never.

He then repeated the Zionist propaganda of seeing Hamas everywhere:

To be clear, these are journalists hiding in hospitals, setting up operations rooms there, and presenting to the world a completely opposite image, while continuing to serve opposite interests.

The latest group of slain journalists worked for, amongst other outlets, Al Jazeera, Middle East Eye, Associated Press, and Reuters. Israel have routinely bombed hospitals, schools, refugee shelters – and this from the most moral army in the world with apparently world-leading precision weapons.

Yehezkeli continued:

One could say they are the spearhead of Hamas’s military wing, these so-called journalists. Therefore, Isreal did well to eliminate them.

In my opinion, it was far too late, but there are still many of them causing damage to Israel’s image and narrative in a battle that, unfortunately, we are not very skilled at.

SKWAWKBOX explained how Nazi Julius Streicher:

did not participate in Hitler’s military or the Holocaust, yet was sentenced to death for crimes against humanity for his incitement of the persecution and murder of Jews at a time when he must have known that what he was inciting was taking place.

Israel’s genocide in Palestine has been arguably the most well-documented genocide in real time. There is no chance that Yehezkeli is unaware of Israel’s bloody attempt to exterminate all journalists in Palestine. So much so, that Yehezkeli is, incredibly, urging on the systematic killing of anyone documenting the genocide of their own people.

Peace for who?

We are far past the point where a two state solution is possible – if it ever even was a realistic prospect. Western media is entranced with their own notions of showing ‘both sides’ in a conflict. But, in doing so, they’re only whitewashing Israel’s genocidal actions and numerous war crimes as something that is a ‘defence.’ Every repetition about the reach of Hamas, or about the release of hostages is an alignment and defence of Israel’s genocide of Palestine. Yehezkeli is one of many Israeli settlers who want more for Palestinians: more starvation, more genocide, more terror.

Be it Israeli ministers, settlers attacking Palestinians themselves, or, as i24 News themselves reported:

A new poll by the Accord Center has found that 62% of Israelis believe that “there are no innocent people in Gaza,” reflecting widespread hardline attitudes nearly a year into the ongoing conflict.

There is willing consent for Israel’s policy of starvation, bombing, and ethnic cleansing of Palestine. And, as is the case with Yehezkeli, an appetite for even more destruction.

Action, not words

Over the past few days, thousands of Israelis have demonstrated against the planned incoming bombardment of Gaza. A huge group of people rallied to urge the Israeli government to bring hostages home. One protester told the Guardian:

We could have ended the war a year ago and brought all the hostages and soldiers home. We could have saved hostages and soldiers, but the prime minister chose, again and again, to sacrifice civilians for the sake of his rule.

Another said:

We just want to stop the war, bring home the hostages and stop the starvation in Gaza.

However, it is one thing to want to bring hostages home and stop starvation, and quite another to resist and oppose the genocide of Palestinians. The limits of the protesters wishes are stark, as associate editor of The Electronic Intifada, Nora Barrows-Friedman, pointed out:

Barrows-Friedman’s comments calls to mind a particular moment from Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land. Throughout the film, Palestinian Basel Adra and Israeli Yuval Abraham navigate their uneasy friendship as the reality of settler colonialism impacts them very differently. Basel is evidently bereft, feeling trapped with no future. Yuval, meanwhile, is able to cross borders with ease and confront IDF soldiers with the confidence of having citizenship with the occupying power. No Other Land confronts the limits of such a relationship against a backdrop of Western fantasy about friendship and brotherhood conquering all.

Barrows-Friedman is right. Just as Basel and Yuval discovered, when it comes time to go home their realities are markedly and painfully different. What did those Israelis at the protests do, the evening after the protest? Have homes to go to? Food to eat? Living as they do in the heart of a genocidal settler colonial colony, and gathering for mass dissent means very little if there isn’t collective dissent that culminates in physically stopping their own communities from starving, bombing, and torturing a historically besieged population.

Yehezkeli and his comments are not an aberration or an anomaly. They are a product of a murderous settler colonial society.

Featured image via Wikimedia/Ran Yehezkel via Creative Commons 3.0

By Maryam Jameela

This post was originally published on Canary.