MEMBERS of the South West England branch of the NUJ held a vigil in the centre of Bristol to marks the deaths of scores of journalists in the Gaza conflict since October 7.
Branch members took it in turns to read out the names of 71 journalists who have died – 64 of them Palestinian, four Israeli and three Lebanese.
However, as branch acting chair Paul Breeden told those assembled on Friday December 15 next to the city’s Cascade Steps, the true death toll is likely to be higher as other incidents are still being verified. The branch displayed placards bearing the names of all those killed as verified by the Committee for the Protection of Journalists and the International Federation of Journalists.
The gathering was not a partisan event intended to show support for any faction in the conflict, Paul Breeden said. The NUJ is not taking sides; it is standing up for the right of journalists to do their job without fear of death or injury.
He noted that the NUJ has long been calling for then International Criminal Court to investigate the apparent targeting of journalists by the Israeli Defence Force, including the death of Shireen Abu Akleh in May 2022.
The SWE branch has issued a statement calling for a mutually-agreed ceasefire as the only way of halting the tide of journalist and civilian deaths, and also supports a similar call by NUJ general secretary Michelle Stanistreet.
Also speaking at the candlelit event was Mike Jempson, former journalism lecturer and experienced trainer of journalists worldwide, who talked about the extreme difficulties faced by reporters working in conflict zones.
Reports displayed at the event showed that it is not only journalists who are being killed: many in Gaza have suffered the loss of multiple members of their families. Some, such as Anas Al-Sharif, a reporter and videographer for Al-Jazeera Arabic in northern Gaza, said he had received threatening phone calls from the Israeli military before his father was killed in an air strike on December 11.
Also mentioned was the case of Mustafa Alkharouf, a photojournalist for the Turkish news agency Anadolu, who on the same day as the Bristol vigil was seen being beaten to the ground and kicked in the head by Israeli Border Police officers in video shared by the Union of Journalists in Israel. The Committee for the Protection of Journalists said it was “deeply shocked” by the attack. Police reportedly prevented other members of the press trying to check on Alkharouf as he was being taken to hospital, and also attacked camera operator Faiz Abu Ramila, who was with Alkharouf.
According to the CPJ report, the police officers involved have been suspended, but the police did not respond to queries from the CPJ.
Yet another death of a Gaza journalist was reported on the same day as the vigil. The CPJ reported: “Abu Daqqa, a camera operator for Al-Jazeera Arabic, was killed by a drone strike while covering the aftermath of nightly Israeli strikes on a UN school sheltering displaced people in the center of Khan Yunis, southern Gaza, according to Al-Jazeera and other news reports.”
The SWE branch of the NUJ has made a £500 donation to the IFJ’s Safety Fund, which is providing vital safety equipment to members of the Palestine Journalists’ Syndicate.
