Wheat pasteup on street of beirut between bulletholes by Maham, Josephine, Saleh. Image by Peonica Fernando (@bypeoni)
In Palestine, people wake up to the sound of Israeli bombs hitting a neighbourhood nearby, and go to sleep fearing being hit by one at night. They spend most of their days collecting bodies and pulling people from the rubble, hoping to pull just one more person alive from under the tons and tons of debris.
They have tended to a child with dismembered legs and no face but still alive because while an Israeli bomb was able to take his face away, it couldn’t kill him. The child can’t show emotions because he has no face, and can’t cry because he has rubble stuck in what remains of his throat. He lies on what seems like a table in the hospital as men try to wash the blood off of his face and head with a small bottle of water.
In another instance, I see a father pulling his daughter from the rubble and running in the direction of the hospital on foot in hopes that she is still alive. He gets to the hospital only to find that she has already died.
This kind of content would usually demand a content warning, but I reject the idea of putting warnings over lived realities of a group of people who the world is collectively denying peace to. The barbaric violence that Israel is inflicting on people in Palestine must be seen by the world, it must be felt by them, it must make people uncomfortable, it must make them feel sad, angry and agitated, and it must make them go out to protest the cruelty that their leaders fund and support.
I know the realities of Palestinians under Israel’s occupation because I have actively watched this content in the past 40 days through the social media accounts of a few Palestinian journalists who are still alive and online despite various threats, attacks and intimidation they constantly receive to force them into silence. Every morning, I wake up to check if they are still alive and what they are posting for the world to believe that Israel is an apartheid state. If you know anything about the violence residents of the besieged Gaza and occupied West Bank in Palestine are facing today, it is most likely because of the few resilient voices who consistently log back in to their social media accounts amidst chaos around them to show us the scenes that we would have never hoped or expected to witness.
I recently wrote about how tech companies are silencing Palestinian voices and violating their right to free speech which is a protected fundamental right under every law and human rights treaty and convention; yet it is also the right that is most frequently stifled, and repeatedly so in the case of Palestine.
Where freedom of expression is a direct target of tech companies like Meta, Israeli occupation forces are actively targeting freedom of the press in Gaza by killing journalists who are protected under international humanitarian laws along with citizens, schools, hospitals, ambulances, communication services and basic living necessities that Israel has specifically targeted and historically barred on Palestinians for years.
Where freedom of expression is a direct target of tech companies like Meta, Israeli occupation forces are actively targeting freedom of the press in Gaza by killing journalists who are protected under international humanitarian laws.
The targeted blanket attacks of Israel in Gaza have resulted in the murder of over 14,000 Palestinians since October 7, most of which include children. While this is the reported number of casualties, it is safe to assume that the actual number of people killed by Israel is much larger. The extent of the destruction in Gaza can be determined by the fact that, according to Politico, “there was some concern in the [United States] administration about an unintended consequence of the [humanitarian] pause: that it would allow journalists broader access to Gaza and the opportunity to further illuminate the devastation there and turn public opinion on Israel.”
Israel has intentionally aimed to stop journalists from reporting in Gaza, by killing them. It has so far murdered 48 journalists, as reported by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on November 22. Whereas, threats and intimidation to deter those journalists still alive from reporting on-ground realities are rampant, the extent of which includes targeting and killing the families of journalists who continued their reporting on Israel’s war crimes.
Those who are still alive and reporting, do it with gratitude as if being alive is a privilege, that being safe while everyone around them is dying is a privilege, when the right to safety must be guaranteed to every citizen in any conflict zone. I can't help but wonder what it tells us about the state of the world when rights become privilege, and all of us collectively allow it to happen.
For Palestinians, this is a reality. And where the international mainstream media has gone above and beyond to disregard and deny Israel's settler colonialism and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, young Palestinian voices are pushing back against this propaganda and mobilising the world to speak up against the human rights violations and war crimes.
Palestine’s Free Voices
Some of the most vocal Palestinian voices within and outside of Palestine educating the world and raising awareness through Instagram about the violence of Israel on civilians, journalists and medical staff in besieged Gaza, are as follows.
This is, in no way, an exhaustive list and many more people are putting the time, resources, labour, and their safety at risk of being attacked to show the realities of Gazans and Palestinians during the ongoing genocide.
Wael Al Dahdouh
Wael Al Dahdouh, the Bureau Chief of Al Jazeera in Gaza, who has been leading his news publisher’s coverage from the city, lost his family to Israeli airstrikes when he was reporting on the consistent bombing by Israel in Palestine on October 25. The targeted attack on Al Dahdouh’s family occurred a day after the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken asked the Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed to “turn down the volume” on Al Jazeera's news reporting.
Wael Al Dahdouh has been in the forefront of this coverage for the world, in hospitals, on the streets, from his office showing the airstrikes as they happen. Israel killed his family to deter him, and yet he was back reporting from the roof of Al Jazeera’s building in Gaza the next day his family was killed.
Motaz Azaiza
Motaz Azaiza, one of the loudest and most proactive journalists reporting from Gaza, wrote in one of his Instagram posts dated October 26, “If something happened to me I will never forgive anyone who is able to stop this madness war and he didn’t.” While referring to the murder of Al Dahdouh’s family, he added, “Yesterday, I saw the correspondent of Al-Jazeera when he lost his whole family and believe me or not I was going to delete everything here, I don’t want to lose more for just showing the world.”
Prior to Israel’s attacks on Gaza on October 7, 24-year-old Motaz was just a photographer who wanted to travel the world. His Instagram feed shows sunsets, the sea, children smiling to his camera and the beautiful skyline of his city. On October 5, he posted a photo of a girl standing on the shore of the sea with the sun setting right behind her with a caption, “Little Gaza”.
The one on October 7 is of debris, people crying, bloodied faces, destruction and children with confusion on their faces. He captions one of his posts from the same day, “It’s became to look like ghosts street.” Since then, the world sees the destruction of Gaza happening before their eyes through Motaz's Instagram account.
Plestia Alaqad
Plestia Alaqad, a young journalist based in Gaza, has been relentlessly reporting on the situation as missiles after missiles fall over the city. She had to evacuate her house in the middle of the night as the neighbourhood she lived in was targeted by Israeli airstrikes on October 9. She says in one of her videos while visiting the area to check on her house the next day, “I thought my grandparents were exaggerating when talking about Nakba 1948, but 2023 we’re literally living it right now."
Much like every other person from Gaza, Plestia’s Instagram account looked completely different pre-October 7. She posted photos of her posing for the camera in glamorous makeup, of her photoshoots, those with family, friends and pets, and said that her dream was to write a book. All of this changed on the 7th. Now she considers one bucket of clean water for showers a privilege that she doesn’t take for granted. She wrote in her instagram post on October 12, “I’m trying to hold up as much as I can, but literally my heart and brain can’t understand or process what’s happening.. It feels like a nightmare and this nightmare is the reality that we Gazans wake up to."
Bisan Owda
“Hi everyone, this is Bisan from Gaza. I’m still alive.”
This is how Bisan Owda, a “Filmmaker, Traveler and a dreamer” starts her videos updating the world about the situation in Gaza on her Instagram account. Prior to October 7, she was in Lebanon to attend a feminist lab in Beirut; three days before the attack, she posted a reel of her exploring Palestine with a caption in Arabic that translated to, “One country, to travel not to travel.” Now, Bisan’s Instagram account is her valiantly reporting on the conditions of her country-people under occupation.
She posted that she can’t even go to the washroom out of fear of neighbours being bombed while she’s in there. Such has been the life of 2 million Palestinians living in the largest open-air prison, and of what remains of its inhabitants after the constant Israeli bombardments since the first week of October. This has not deterred Bisan from reporting on the ground. She has spent hours outside of hospitals, in the refugee camps, on the streets and around bombed homes to appeal to the world for a ceasefire.
Bisan highlights how Israel’s attacks have led to people struggling to access basic necessities. She evacuated her house soon after the attacks began after realising that homes that are supposed to be the safe space of people, are no longer safe for Gazans. As she sheltered in a hospital, she shows people lining up for hours to access basic necessities like food, water or even to go to the bathroom; she says, “Not enough bathrooms for all people.” In another video, she captions that she lost her 500 ml share of water for that day because a kid needed it. “This is a catastrophe. [...] Today is 10 times worse than yesterday, 100 times worse than the first day [of Israeli attacks].”
The Palestinian journalists who we routinely see on our screens had dreams that did not include becoming a war journalist or to publish life around them in its most vulnerable form. The 6000 Gazan children who have been killed by Israel in the past 45 days had dreams of becoming doctors, artists, architects so they could serve their country. For the fathers and mothers who were killed, they wanted to see their kids achieve their dreams.
Yara Eid
“I don’t know how I would live without my mother.”
Yara Eid, a journalist and a human rights activist from Gaza working in the UK, posted photos with her mother on October 1. Since then, she has lost constant communication channels with her mother, and has lost 30 members of her immediate family and her best friend in Israeli airstrikes. Like all other Palestinians, she has been challenging the media narrative and calling it out for its biassed reporting that led to more violence and attacks targeted towards Palestinians. In a recent interview to Sky News, she said, “I think language is really important to use because, as a journalist, you have the moral responsibility to report on what's happening,” adding, “Palestinians don't just die, they get killed. They are actually being subjected to ethnic cleansing, to genocide for the last 75 years.” Eid also adds in her comment to the interviewer, “You need, as a journalist, to report on what's happening and say it as it is."
Eid has been appealing the world to keep the momentum, to keep speaking up about the Israeli genocide in Gaza, and to keep speaking up for the freedom of Palestine. As her Twitter bio says, “Whenever I stand, I stand with Palestine,” and she hopes for the world to do the same as they take the streets in thousands and millions around the world to demand a call for ceasefire from their governments and to revoke support and funds to Israel that it uses to kill children in Gaza.
Mohammed El Kurd
Mohammed El Kurd is one of the loudest Palestinian voices who, for years, have been in the forefront challenging the propaganda that mainstream western media is promoting. He has been fighting against it since 2021 when Israeli settlers and occupation forces attacked his hometown, Sheikh Jarrah. Since then, Mohammed has written a book, has addressed the United Nations, and has spoken to mainstream media directly calling their lies out and dismantling their propaganda.
In his speech in the UN in 2021, Mohammed said, “Palestinians mobilised and resisted, and around the world people demonstrated in support of the Palestinian right to liberation and decolonisation. But months later, the world’s attention has moved away. The reality for Palestinians, however, has not changed.”
Two years later, the reality is the same for Palestinians, much like it has been since the first Nakba 75 years ago in 1948.
Through his social media accounts, he calls out media outlets for their hypocrisy, like a video he posted on October 15 starting it with, “Let's do a quick media literacy lesson,” where he talks about how the language that western media like The New York Times uses to refer to the situation in Gaza is rooted in the bias that these news outlets hold against Palestinians and in favour of Israel.
Mohammed is amplifying the voices of on-ground Palestinian journalists sharing the situation in Gaza under Israel’s massacre and ethnic cleansing. His work has been revolving around the freedom of Palestine for years.
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One common trend amongst most of these journalists and content creators is that they all are young people at the forefront of movement to mobilise the world for a #FreePalestine. To say that they are doing it fearlessly would be naive because much like the rest of the world, they are scared – for their lives, for their families’ lives, for the lives of the people of Palestine. Yet they show up.
Why do the victims have to always be strong and put a display of their dead to receive humanity from the world that constantly partakes in their murder?
As the world stands in support of Gaza and for Palestine, we must acknowledge that we have contributed to this genocide when we chose to remain silent or when we looked the other way. The Palestinian journalists who we routinely see on our screens had dreams that did not include becoming a war journalist or to publish life around them in its most vulnerable form. The 6000 Gazan children who have been killed by Israel in the past 45 days had dreams of becoming doctors, artists, architects so they could serve their country. For the fathers and mothers who were killed, they wanted to see their kids achieve their dreams.
[Suggested: As part of his series, “Dreams in Gaza”, filmmaker Mohannad Abu Rizk asked the children in Gaza in 2021, “What is your dream?”]
We expect resilience, strength, patience and composure from the victims of violence as if that is the only way they can prove their humanity and that they are worthy of empathy and support. Why do the victims have to always be strong and put a display of their dead to receive humanity from the world that constantly partakes in their murder? As if for a person to be considered worthy of any empathy, they will have to be dead.
This generational struggle of Palestinian for freedom must come to an end. For our collective freedom from colonialism, genocide and ethnic cleansing, Palestine must be free.
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