Reports have placed the number of journalists killed by Israel at 169.
Cape Town - In Gaza, Palestine, press vests guarantee no safety and security for journalists reporting on Israel’s indiscriminate attacks.
Instead, they make those wearing these direct targets, as Israel attempts to block their often harrowing accounts of bearing witness to its crimes.
These are the sentimentsof Al Jazeera Gaza correspondent and award-winning journalist Youmna El Sayed, 36, as she recounted not just bearing witness to the atrocities in Gaza by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), but having survived the war with her family.
El Sayed’s visit to Cape Town was the final leg of the Southern African Media and Journalism Tour, hosted by Salaamedia.
A public event was held at the Bo-Kaap Cultural Hub yesterday, with addresses by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), South African Jews for a Free Palestine, Murals4Gaza, the Muslim Judicial Council, Salaamedia, and anti-apartheid struggle veteran Reverend Dr Allan Boesak.
Reports have placed the number of journalists killed by Israel at 169, an average of one journalist killed every two days since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Israel’s assault on Gaza has killed over 40 000 Palestinians, and injured over 92 000.
In Palestine, journalists are not divorced from the subject of their reportage, facing the same threats of airstrikes or gunfire, famine, starvation and displacement.
El Sayed has been a resident of Gaza for the past ten years and evacuated to Cairo.
However, continues to be an unwavering voice against Israeli brutalities.
Since I came out of Gaza at the end of December and after three months of covering this genocide, I felt that that was the most difficult decision I had to make to leave Gaza at that time. But I was left with only that choice if I wanted my children to survive,” El Sayed said.
When moving from the north of Gaza to the South, she said they were prohibited from going by car and had to walk the entire distance.
“We had to walk kilometres on foot, carrying nothing but a backpack. They asked us to raise our hands, one with white flag and the other with our IDs, to dehumanise us and humiliate us. I was not allowed to carry my five year old, Juju (Joury), so she had to walk all seven kilometres, and I was surprised that she did. Like thousands of other children her age and younger.”
She said the worst part of the journey was seeing decomposing bodies of those senselessly killed by the IDF along the way, as they too had taken the same journey in search of safety.
“How can I make my children see other children killed and thrown on the ground? When I was forced to and I had no choice, we took the journey. I made them promise me that they wouldn't look anywhere, not on the ground, not to the right, not to the left, but just straight ahead.”
“In three months, we were displaced six times; we were shot at in our home.
“We were kicked out of our home under sniper bullets and tank shells, and then our home was completely levelled to the ground.
“We had to escape to the south of Gaza on foot.
“But this is not just my story or the story of my children. We are six members; but I tell you the story of over two million Palestinians in Gaza. so when I speak, I speak of each and everyone of them.”
El Sayed has also been calling out the silence and double standards of international media on its reporting on Gaza.
“This is what has led to the genocide taking all this long.
“They are complicit in this genocide by their silence and if they had done their correct role and responsibility as international journalists and media outlets around the world, we wouldn’t have lost all those numbers of people.”
Boesak reiterated a call he has made on numerous occasions and on several platforms, calling for the South African government to comprehensively cut ties with Israel by implementing boycotts, divestment, and sanctions, stop all economic and cultural trade, cut academic ties, and for South Africans serving in the IDF to be imprisoned.
“We will not remain silent. It is beyond us to stay silent on this issue. It is beyond us because we know Palestinian freedom is also our freedom. It is beyond us to remain silent about that. We cannot see children die and there is not even a doctor to prevent them from dying… and Palestine, we shall fight for you as long as we are alive.”
The forum was held ahead of a massive march scheduled for October 5.
Cape Argus