“For an occupying power, I might pose more of a danger to Israel than a fighter”

IMI exists in solidarity with the people of Palestine who have a right to remain in their homeland and deserve to be free from their occupiers. We condemn all forms of interpersonal and state violence. While the state of Israel ramps up its violence in Gaza, we’re going to highlight the writing of Palestinian journalists who fear a media blackout. We encourage the IMI community to challenge the normalisation of violence against Palestinians and to read the writing of reporters from Palestine.

“Right now, my journalist colleagues who are still alive in Gaza are not only grieving their slain peers, but feel under severe threat themselves. Most of them have no access to the internet or electricity. Gaza is facing a complete media blackout. Many of my friends and people I know in Gaza have been calling me with pleas, asking that journalists come and cover what is happening in their areas that are nearly impossible to access because of the heavy and indiscriminate bombardment. It’s as though entire neighborhoods, innocent souls and dreams are being obliterated without anyone knowing.” – Yara Eid, war journalist and human rights advocate. Read Yara Eid’s full article.

“Everything is telling us that the invasion is going to be ruthless. The pretext of wanting to wipe out the “top political and military leadership of Hamas” is just that – a pretext. The invasion will provide the Israeli government with an opportunity to take the northern part of Gaza and push Palestinians into a smaller prison or, for many thousands, beyond the borders of Gaza. Whichever way you look at it, the situation can only be described as ethnic cleansing and continuation of the Nakba that began in 1948.” – Yara Hawari, Palestine Policy Fellow of Al-Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network. Read Yara Hawari’s full article.

“For an occupying power, I might pose more of a danger to Israel than a fighter. The fighters may die, and their journey will end, but as a writer, my stories can last forever. They are meant to chronicle the history of my people. The power of the occupation stems from its ability to hide history. Our role is to defend and maintain it, to preserve the truth about our people who were systematically slaughtered by their occupiers, whose nation was erased because our colonizer wanted to take our land.” – Tareq Hajjaj, Gaza Correspondent. Read Tareq’s full article.

Image by Patrick Perkins

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