#rushdie sarraj

[odinsblog]

“I first started noticing the journalists dying on Instagram. I'm a journalist, I'm Arab, and I've reported on war. A big part of my community is other Arab journalists who do the same thing.

And when someone dies, news travels fast. Recently, I pulled up the list that the Committee to Protect Journalists has been keeping and looked at it for the first time. There are 95 journalists and media workers on it as of today.

Almost everyone on it is Palestinian. Scrolling through, I started to get angry. These were the people carrying the burden of documenting this whole war.

Israel is not allowing foreign journalists into Gaza, except on rare occasions with military escorts. These people's names are being buried in a giant list that keeps growing. What I want to do is lift some of them off the list for a moment and give you a glimpse of who they were and the work they made.

I'll start with Sadi Mansour. Sadi was the director of Al-Quds News Network, and he posted a 22-second video on November 18. That was a report from the war, but it also gave me a picture into his marriage.

Sadi's wearing his press vest and looks exhausted. He's explaining that cell service and the Internet keep getting cut off, and it's often impossible to text or call anyone, including his wife. So they've resorted to using handwritten letters to communicate while he's out reporting, sending them back and forth with neighbors or colleagues.

He ends the video with a picture of one of these letters from his wife. In it, she writes,

‘Me and the kids stayed up waiting for you until the morning, and you didn't come home. We were really sad.

I kept telling the kids, Look, he's coming. But you didn't show up. May God forgive you.

Come home tomorrow and eat with us. Do you want me to make you kebab or maybe kapse? Bring your friends with you, it's okay.

And give Azeez the battery to charge. What do you think about me sending you handwritten letters with messenger pigeons from now on? Ha ha ha.

I'm just kidding. I want to curse at you, but we're living in a war. Too bad.

Okay, I love you. Bye.’

A few hours after he shared that letter, Sadie and his co-worker Hassouna Saleem were at Sadie's home, when they were killed by an Israeli air strike that hit his house.

His wife and kids, who weren't there, survived.

Gaza is tiny, and the journalist community is really close. Reading the list, you can see all the connections between people. Like with Brahim Lafi.

Brahim was a photojournalist, one of the first journalists to die. He was killed while reporting on October 7. He was just 21, still new to journalism.

On his Instagram, you can see that in his posts just a few years ago, he was still practicing his photography, taking pictures of coffee cups and flowers. Then he started doing beautiful portraits and action shots. You can really feel him starting to become a journalist.

Clicking around on Instagram, I found a tribute post about Brahim from his co-worker Rushdie Sarraj. In this photo, Brahim staring intently at the back of a camera, his face lit up by the light from the viewfinder. He looks so young.

The caption reads, My assistant is gone. Brahim is gone. Rushdie himself was a beloved journalist and filmmaker.

And I know that because he's also on the list. He was killed just two weeks after Brahim. I read the tribute post to him too.

I saw this over and over again. Journalists posting tributes, who were then killed themselves soon after. And a tribute goes up for them.

And then the pattern continues.

Thank you.

Something else I saw over and over on the list, journalists later in the war who had become aware that they could be making their last reports. They'd say it at the beginning of their videos. And those were the hardest to watch, especially when it was true.

One video like that was posted by Ayat Hadduro. Ayat was a freelance journalist and video blogger. Her videos before the war covered a wide range from what I can tell, interviews about women in politics.

She even appeared in a commercial for ketchup-flavored chips. She clearly liked being in front of the camera. Once the war started, Ayat's pivoted to covering bombings and food shortages.

On November 20, she posted a video report from her home. You can hear the airstrikes hitting very close to where she is. It's scary.

‘This is likely my last video. Today, the occupation forces dropped phosphorus bombs on Beit Lahya area and frightening sound bombs. They dropped letters from the sky, ordering everyone to evacuate.

Everyone ran into the streets in the craziest way. No one knows where to go.

But everyone else has evacuated. They don't know where they're going. The situation is so scary.

What's happening is so tough, and may God have mercy on us.’

She was killed later that day.

Targeting journalists, in case you didn't know, is a war crime. So far, the Committee to Protect Journalists has found that three of the journalists on the list were explicitly targeted by the IDF, the Israeli military. Investigations by the Washington Post and Reuters, Human Rights Watch and the United Nations have also raised serious questions in these three cases.

And the Committee to Protect Journalists is investigating 10 other killings. When we reached out to the IDF for comments, they said, quote, the IDF has never, and will never, deliberately target journalists. That's the answer they always give in these situations.

Meanwhile, dozens of seasoned reporters have fled Gaza. Journalists who worked for Al Jazeera, the BBC, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Reuters, Agence France-Presse. So many media offices were demolished in Israeli airstrikes that the Committee to Protect Journalists stopped counting.

It's not just individual lives that have been destroyed. It's an entire infrastructure.

Thank you.

The name on the list that was hardest for me to look at was Issam Abdullah, because I'd crossed paths with him once. Issam was a Lebanese journalist, a video journalist for Reuters for many, many years. He had just won an award for coverage of Ukraine.

I'm Lebanese and still report there sometimes, and I'd worked with Issam a couple of summers ago. He helped me film a sort of random story in Beirut. I was interviewing this entrepreneur who had started a sperm freezing company after an accident where he spilled a tray of hot coffee on his private area, burning himself.

I know, ridiculous. It was a really silly shoot. Right after we said cut and started to rap, Issam started this whole bit about being in his late 30s, reconsidering his own sperm quality and everything he now realized he was doing to hurt it, and no one could stop laughing.

It was a really good day that felt good to remember and to remember him that way. Issam was killed by the IDF on October 13. His death was one of the three that the Committee to Protect Journalists has identified as a targeted killing.

He was fired upon by an Israeli tank while standing in an empty field on the Lebanon-Israel border with a small group of other journalists. Everyone was wearing press vests with cameras out. They were covering the Hezbollah part of this war.

A few other journalists were injured in the attack, which was captured on video. The IDF says they were responding to firing from Hezbollah, not targeting the journalists. But multiple investigations, including by Reuters, the United Nations, Amnesty International and the AFP, found no evidence of any firing from the location of the journalists before the IDF shot at them.

The journalists in the group and video footage confirmed that there was no military activity near them. I had only met Issam once, barely knew him, but it affected me so much when he died. I know that he understood the risks of his job, but somehow it still felt so random and unfair that he would be struck down like that, following the rules, wearing his press vest and helmet, and a pack of reporters on a sunny day in an open field.

I find myself thinking about him all the time. His last Instagram post was commemorating another journalist, this iconic reporter Shereen Abou Aql who had been killed by the IDF. When I first saw that post in October, I thought how ironic because a week later, Isam also was killed by the IDF.

But then, after spending time reading the list, I realized how common this had become. I still haven't finished going through the list and looking up the people on it. I keep finding things that stick with me, like the funny way this one radio host would cut off a caller who was rambling on for too long.

A tweet from reporter Al-Abdallah that quoted Sylvia Plath. It read, What ceremony of wars can patch the havoc? I'm going to keep going down the list, even though this story is over now.

Just for myself. My own way of bearing witness. Which is, in the end, all that these journalists were trying to do.”

—DANA BALLOUT, The 95. Dana sifts through a very long list—the list of journalists killed in the Israel-Hamas war, and comes back with five small fragments of the lives of the people on it. Dana is a Lebanese-American, Emmy-nominated documentary producer.

#politics #dana ballout #the 95 #palestine #israel #war crimes #gaza #committee to protect journalists #🇵🇸 #brahim lafi #shereen abou aql #issam abdullah #ayat hadduro #rushdie sarraj #hassouna saleem #sadi mansour

[vyorei]

More on the murder of journalist Rushdi Sarraj in an Israeli air strike

#free gaza #gaza strip #irish solidarity with palestine #free palestine #palestine #gaza #news on gaza #al jazeera #boycott israel #israel #amnesty international #Agnes Callamard #Rushdi Sarraj

[marcogiovenale]

"bank of targets": cinema palestina al detour (roma, san lorenzo) - da oggi, 16 aprile

cliccare per ingrandire Bank of Targets, terra di obiettivi, sponda di macerie, rovina della memoria e polvere mediatica a coprire. Il popolo palestinese non ha mai smesso di raccontare la sofferenza sotto l’occupazione israeliana, in ogni forma possibile. L’autodeterminazione parte dal narrarsi in prima persona, senza filtri occidentali, come atto di resistenza culturale  alla colonizzazione…

View On WordPress

#Bank of Targets #cinema #Circolo di San Lorenzo #Circolo San Lorenzo #Cristina Tuteri #detour #Emad Burnat #film #Gaza #genocidio #Guy Davidi #Maya Issa #Mohammed Alatar #Monica Maurer #Nour Al Ghussein #Palestina #Palestine #proiezioni #Rushdi Sarraj #San Lorenzo #Valeria Belli #video #West Bank #Yaser Murtaja

[gazanarchive]

About the filmmakers:

Director Yassir Murtaja was a Palestinian journalist and filmmaker from Gaza. He was shot and killed by an Israeli sniper while covering the protest of the Great March of Return on April 6, 2018. Many people around the world witnessed Yassir’s wish before he died through his Facebook status: that one day he wanted to be able to see Gaza and the world from the window of an airplane.

Co-Director Rushdi Al-Sarraj was Yassir's best friend and partner. He was killed in Gaza on October 22, 2023,  by a targeted bomb from an Israeli warplane, dropped on his house.

#palestine #gaza #israeli occupation

[chimaeraonwards]

"The stories I never wanted to write" by Tareq S. Hajjaj (2 November 2023)

Mahmoud al-Na’ouk, The Dreamer

Rushdie Sarraj, The Journalist

Ismaeel Barda, The Vendor

Remember them. Palestinians are more than just numbers.

Read the full story here:

#image id in alt text #its my first time doing image ID please let me know if there are any errors or how i can make it better and more accessible #palestine #free palestine #gaza #free gaza #west bank #free west bank #journalism #mondoweiss #human rights #humanity #israeli war crimes #genocide #ethnic cleansing #israel occupation #israel #tareq s. hajjaj

[chaiaurchaandni]

martyred journalist rushdie sarraj's wife writes to her husband

#CRYING IM GONNA BE SICK #HE DIED BEFORE HIS DAUGHTERS FIRST BIRTHDAY #MAY ISRAEL AND IDF ROT IN HELL #as someone who lost her father at a young age and sometimes has trouble remembering his face and his voice this rlly fucked me up #grief #parental death #parental loss #on love and grief and memory #free palestine #palestine #gaza #long live palestine #glory to the martyrs #from the river to the sea palestine will be free #long live the resistance #death to israel #israeli war crimes

[particularj]

(Source: Al-Jazeera, WHO)

In addition, 19 journalists have been killed, including what appear to be targeted attacks: the latest victim is photo journalist Rushdi Sarraj, killed in his home in a targeted bombing.

Additionally, Israel has launched attacks targeting Syrian airports, residents of the West Bank, and areas of Lebanon.

Israel is using genocidal language and actively committing genocide and war crimes, with the UN useless to do anything thanks to the US’ vetoing any accountability as they have a permanent security council seat.

This is not a “defense” to Hamas’ attack.

They are using this as an opportunity to eliminate Palestinians once and for all - something Netanyahu and his cabinet is making clear in their language and actions. Netanyahu wants this as his legacy.

While I continue to support donations to legitimate Palestinian aid organizations (I will reblog my post to encourage such), this will not end until Israel is held accountable. And that won’t end until the US stops its hypocritical support globally of regimes like Israel that commit human rights violations daily, because it benefits the US’ perverse agenda of international order and exploitation.

Write to your representatives in government — tell them you do not support Israel’s genocide. They must know that their constituents do not support the wall of continued blind US-Israeli defense.

#Gaza #Palestine #news #updates

[blogynewz]

"Unveiling the Silent Shadows: The Hidden Sacrifices of 18 Brave Journalists Amidst Israel's Gaza Operations"

The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate has reported that 18 Palestinian journalists have been killed as a result of Israeli bombing in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war on October 7. Among these casualties is photojournalist Rushdi Al-Sarraj, who was killed in an Israeli bombing on the Tal Al-Hawa neighborhood in Gaza City. Al-Sarraj was the director of the “Ain Media” media…

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[blogynewsz]

"Unveiling the Silent Shadows: The Hidden Sacrifices of 18 Brave Journalists Amidst Israel's Gaza Operations"

The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate has reported that 18 Palestinian journalists have been killed as a result of Israeli bombing in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war on October 7. Among these casualties is photojournalist Rushdi Al-Sarraj, who was killed in an Israeli bombing on the Tal Al-Hawa neighborhood in Gaza City. Al-Sarraj was the director of the “Ain Media” media…

View On WordPress

[yousrialghoul]

صباح الحرية يا ياسر. أخبرني يا صديقي.. كيف هانت عليك نفسك أن تترك من تعلقوا بابتسامتك ثم رحلت؟ كيف تركت حلم صعود الطائرة بسهولة؟ كيف أقلعت عن فكرة السفر إلى أصقاع الأرض والسياحة في مساحة أكبر من 365 كيلو متر مربع؟! هل جاءتك طائرة سماوية فابتسمت وركبتها ثم نسيت كل شيء، نسيتنا؟! يبدو أنك أدركت صحة ما كنت أقوله لك: إننا في الجحيم.. فقررت الذهاب إلى الجنة مع رفاق صالحين؛ للراحة قليلاً واحتساء خمر الفردوس بعد كدر هذه الحياة. أتذكر يا ياسر لقاءنا الأول، أم لعلك لا تذكر؟! تشاجرنا في الباص وابتسامتك رغم حدتي لم تفارق وجهك.. كان هذا قبل سبع سنوات أو أقل قليلاً. لعلك نسيت الموقف لكنك لم تنس كيف صرنا بعدها، نذهب دوماً لقضاء الفراغ في شاليهات متواضعة برفقة العديد من الأصدقاء.. هل تذكر آخر مكان قضينا فيه بعض حياة في شاليه لا أذكر اسمه بجوار محطة الكهرباء، أتذكر ماذا فعلتم بحسام Hosam Salem؟ تلتقطون له صوراً مضحكة فيرجوكم ألا تنشروها، ورشدي Rushdi Sarraj الدمث منشغل بالسباحة، بينما يجلس محمد Mohammad Abu AlKomboz (‎محمد هشام أبو القمبز‎) ليشاهد بقايا فلم هندي لسلمان خان. ياسر.. أخبرني بالله عليك حين تصل جنتك.. كيف هو الحال هناك، هل ستكون وجوهنا حاضرة معك؟ هل ستغطس في نهر الجنة فتظل ملتصقاً بأرضية المسبح كأنك ضفدع بشري كما كنت تفعل هنا؟ هل ستصحو لتتناول معنا الطعام وتضحك؟ ياسر.. أتذكر افطاراتنا في رمضان وقت الحرب، سحورنا.. حيث كنا نبيت معاً كل ليلة بمكتب ملاصق لعين ميديا. أعلم أن الأشياء ستلتبس عليك، فهي المرة الأولى التي تسافر فيها إلى هذا المكان السرمدي وربما الأخيرة؛ ما لم تخرج بمهمة أو زيارة لنا ونحن في الحلم/ أنت في الحقيقة. لقد اختلطت عليك الأشياء الآن وباتت الحياة مجرد سيناريو قصير، أظنك ضحكت ونحن نظهر خلاله. ضحكت كآخر مرة رأيتك فيها قبل ثلاثة أسابيع بملتقى المؤثرين تعدني أن تهديني دفتراً جميلاً كالذي أهديتموه لصديق آخر. سأتركك الآن يا صديقي.. لألحق بجنازتك عليّ أحظى بتقبيلك للمرة الأخيرة. سأتركك كغيري وقلوبنا معلقة بك يا حبيب القلب. سامحك الله يا ياسر.. فالموت لا يوجعك أنت، لكنه يقتلنا نحن. وداعاً ياسر، وداعاً. (at Gaza Strip)