Journalists in London protest colleagues’ killings in Gaza

The UK’s National Union of Journalists (NUJ) organised a vigil at Downing Street in London to commemorate the lives of journalists who were killed by Israel in the nearly two-year war on Gaza.

The NUJ held the event on Wednesday, with journalists carrying posters highlighting the deaths of over 240 of their Palestinian colleagues since the onset of the conflict in the Strip on 7 October 2023.

A symbolic Islamic burial ceremony was also help at the vigil.

Representatives of the NUJ delivered a letter to UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, questioning his response to Israel's increasingly brutal war on Gaza amid widespread concern over the lives of Gaza City’s one million residents, including journalists.

The letter addressed to Starmer asked what steps his government will take to ensure that surviving Palestinian journalists in Gaza can continue their work.

It also requested details on what measures Starmer would take to allow non-Palestinian journalists to enter Gaza and operate freely and independently.

At least 247 journalists have been killed by Israel in Gaza over the past 22 months, according to the United Nations.

The letter further called on the government to provide a clear guarantee of its support for an International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation into the targeting of journalists and media workers by Israeli forces.

Speaking outside Number 10, Pennie Quinton, who heads the London freelance branch of the NUJ, said that she wanted "more than just words" from the Prime Minister regarding the killing of journalists in Gaza.

"We are calling for justice, for an independent investigation, and for international journalists to be allowed into Gaza to work alongside their Gazan colleagues and to bring the truth of what’s happening in Gaza out," she said.

Quinton also said however that she welcomed Starmer's condemnation of the 10 August Israeli attack near Gaza's al-Shifa Hospital that killed five reporters - including prominent Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif and his colleague Mohamed Qreiqeh.

Another five journalists, who worked for publications such as The Associated Press, Al Jazeera and Reuters, were later killed in a double strike on Nasser Hospital on 25 August. 15 other people were also killed.

The Israeli military claimed it had been targeting a Hamas surveillance camera- despite witnesses and health officials reporting that the first strike killed a Reuters cameraman while he was conducting a live broadcast.

'The most dangerous famine and genocide of our time'

During the vigil, veteran Palestinian journalist Wael Al-Dahdouh, whose son Hamza was among Gaza’s journalists killed by Israel, sent a recorded audio message calling for continued action on behalf of journalists and other civilians in Gaza.

He urged UK journalists peers to "do everything you can for the sake of your colleagues in the Gaza Strip, for the sake of humanity in the Gaza Strip, and for the famine and genocide in Gaza."

Dahdouh added: "The British government, the Prime Minister, the British Parliament, the unions, each of you can carry out many tasks that will, no matter how simple, lead to the cessation of the most dangerous famine and genocide of our time."

Speaking to The New Arab's sister site Al-Araby al-Jadeed, former UK Labour leader and independent MP Jeremy Corbyn, who participated in the vigil, criticised mainstream media coverage of the war in Gaza and accused it of contributing to the devastation.

"If news channels can't provide any human news values in their comments - don't make any comments, just show a film about what's happening in Gaza and let the public make their own decision," he said.

The ongoing Israeli war represents the deadliest period for journalists since the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) began collecting data in 1992.