David Collier: Claims That Israel Is Targeting Journalists Are ‘Unsupportable and Disgraceful Fiction’

Even as an expert finds that many "journalists" killed in Gaza were Hamas or Islamic Jihad members or were not journalists, a Palestinian Journalists Syndicate spokesperson claims Israel fabricated reports that Hamas targeted civilians

The Israel-Hamas war, which began on Oct. 7 after Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel from the Gaza Strip and slaughtered some 1,200 people, injured thousands more, and took over 240 people hostage, has caused devastation in Gaza, with nearly 2 million people displaced, over 24,000 killed, and tens of thousands injured, according to local authorities.

One allegation in particular against Israel has captured the attention of the journalistic world: the claim that Israeli forces are specifically targeting journalists.

According to the US-based nonprofit organization the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), “As of Jan. 16, 83 journalists and media workers were confirmed dead: 76 Palestinian, four Israeli, and three Lebanese. Sixteen were reported injured, three missing, and 25 arrested.”

Reuters reported that the Israel Defense Forces had told international media outlets that the safety of journalists could not be guaranteed inside the Gaza war zone.

Shuruq As’ad, a journalist and spokesperson for the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS), told The Media Line that the picture was even more grim.

“We reported that 112 journalists were killed in Gaza. Fourteen of them are female journalists who lost their lives, most of them with their children,” she said. “Ten percent of journalists in Gaza have been killed … and many of their families have been injured or killed as well. At least 80 to 85% of the journalists killed in Gaza were targeted because they are journalists.”

Shuruq As’ad. (Najib al Razem)

However, UK-based independent investigative journalist and media critic David Collier said that claims of journalists being intentionally targeted were entirely without foundation.

In a 150-page report responding to the CPJ and PJS allegations, Collier investigated the deaths of 107 people who presented as journalists in Gaza. He concluded that the claim that Israel is targeting journalists is at best baseless, and at worst is the intentional spreading of Hamas propaganda.

Social media accounts for 100 of the 107 named journalists were identified. … The Hamas list was quickly found to be full of errors, containing many Hamas or Islamic Jihad members, along with others who are not connected to news gathering or reporting.

“Seventy names on the Hamas list are also on the list presented by the CPJ,” Collier wrote. “During the research, social media accounts for 100 of the 107 named journalists were identified, representing 93% of the 107 journalists listed. The Hamas list was quickly found to be full of errors, containing many Hamas or Islamic Jihad members, along with others who are not connected to news gathering or reporting.”

Speaking with The Media Line, Collier said that many on the list had no records of being journalists, and that 35 of the 70 named journalists on the CPJ list openly associated with proscribed terror groups and were therefore active parts of terror organizations at war with Israel.

David Collier. (Courtesy)

“Over half of the people that the CPJ named work for media outlets that are run either by Islamic Jihad or Hamas. That’s the Al-Aqsa news channel, Palestine Today, the Voice of Prisoners radio. … These are all outlets that are effectively Hamas- or Islamic Jihad-led,” Collier said.

As’ad insisted that every journalist on the PJS list had been vetted and had to submit evidence of journalism studies or proof of their work from a journalistic organization.

“None of our members works for Hamas, or Fatah, or anybody. They are journalists. And if they have political opinions, that’s their freedom. But [they are] not engaged in any action. … We’re very strict on that,” she said.

Despite that, As’ad admitted that it was possible that some PJS-affiliated freelance journalists also worked with Hamas-run media organizations such as Al-Aqsa TV. But she adamantly rejected that they were involved in the organizations’ politics.

Some of them [the journalists] we know have communication centers for those terrorist groups. In other words, if somebody is there, and he’s helping the Hamas terrorists to communicate with each other, he’s part of that military. He’s a legitimate target.

Collier, however, found that in several cases, Palestinian journalists and supposed journalists were openly involved in Hamas or Islamic Jihad communiques, at times even calling for terrorist attacks.

“Some of them [the journalists] we know have communication centers for those terrorist groups,” he said. “In other words, if somebody is there, and he’s helping the Hamas terrorists to communicate with each other, he’s part of that military. He’s a legitimate target.”

In one example listed in Collier’s report, the CPJ lists Ahmed Shehab and his father, Abd al-Rahman Shehab, who were killed together in Abd’s home. Ahmed Shehab, a member of the PJS, worked for the Voice of Prisoners radio, an Islamic Jihad outlet. Abd Shehab was a high-ranking commander of the Islamic Jihad terror group who spent decades in Israeli prison before being released in the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange.

“Even if we accept that working for the Voice of Prisoners radio, an Islamic Jihad channel, is acceptable, which I don’t accept, his [Ahmed’s] death is incidental. He died because he was in the house with a leader of the Islamic Jihad,” Collier said. He added that the listing also assumed that he had been targeted to begin with, as opposed to simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Collier said another example was a construction worker being on the CPJ list.

“He runs his own business. He’s got hundreds of images of him out there building. One of his friends put up a morning message [on social media] saying, ‘Oh, we’ve got so many jobs still to finish.’ This guy’s a builder. [But] he’s listed by the CPJ as a journalist. His brother was a journalist, and his brother died in the same attack. So CPJ lists two instead of one,” Collier said.

He said yet another example was Hussana Salim, listed by both the CPJ and the PJS as a freelance photojournalist. The CPJ reported that Salim and colleague Sari Mansour were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. There was no evidence that they were targeted for being journalists.

Collier said that Salim hosted a Telegram channel in which he posted a directive from Islamic Jihad at 6:30 am on Oct. 7, as the attack on Israel was beginning, telling Gazans to “pick up their guns and go [to Israel] now.”

Salim “had a hand in it [the attack]. That’s not what a journalist is,” Collier said.

“Everybody has an agenda. But then there is a truth, and the two things are separate. What we are dealing with here is the question of [whether] these people who died are journalists. Is it fair to call them journalists? And are they being targeted? These are questions to which the answer doesn’t have an agenda, the answer is just the answer.”

There is no attempt here to be dismissive of any innocent life lost in war. This is a research exercise that sets out to challenge lies. The lie is that Israel has targeted journalists so as to silence them, or has killed a disproportionate number of journalists.

In his report, Collier wrote: “There is no attempt here to be dismissive of any innocent life lost in war. This is a research exercise that sets out to challenge lies. The lie is that Israel has targeted journalists so as to silence them, or has killed a disproportionate number of journalists (in comparison with other wars). … This report shows that the claim … is an unsupportable and disgraceful fiction.”

Speaking with The Media Line, Collier said, “I’m not telling you what happened or why a house was attacked. I’m just saying you can’t say they [Israeli forces] are targeting journalists, because you don’t know what happened. You have enough circumstantial evidence here to put a million question marks next to that, because of the associations with the terrorist groups.”

As’ad, however, denied this, saying, “What Israel says is fabrication, in my opinion. It’s a continuation of lies.”

Asked to which lies she was referring, As’ad said that Israel fabricated reports that Hamas targeted civilians, that Hamas raped and burned people, in many cases while they were still alive, that Hamas beheaded people, that Hamas intended to kill as opposed to just kidnapping soldiers, and that Hamas was even responsible for the majority of deaths on Oct. 7. She said that Israel had even admitted to killing the people at the Nova music festival, an apparent allusion to a since-rescinded article by Israel’s Haaretz news that quoted an anonymous police officer as saying that friendly fire at the Nova was a possibility.

Pressed on the overwhelming evidence of the attacks—including the terrorists’ own video footage showing them firing guns, RPGs, and grenades at civilians, beheading people, abducting people, and committing other atrocities, as well as weapons recovered from the corpses of shot terrorists and hours of eye-witness testimonies from survivors—As’ad claimed that The Media Line had not properly investigated.

She then claimed that Israeli soldiers had burned Gazan civilians alive and had intentionally bombed journalists after identifying them and sending them and their families back into a building slated for attack.

The Media Line asked As’ad whether she had investigated these claims or had evidence of them. She replied that she was calling for an independent investigation, but “I know it’s not a lie, because in 1948, [Israelis] shot all the elderly [family members] in a mosque of a village that is now a settlement.”