https://arab.news/z24qk
One of Israel’s best-selling pitches for many years, which has helped it maintain the support of the US and Europe while getting away with the occupation of Palestinian land and an aggressive foreign policy, was to keep repeating the mantra that it is “the only democracy in the Middle East.” In reality, for quite some time now, Israeli democracy has been a struggling one. It is in constant retreat in the face of nationalist, populist and religious authoritarian elements, one characteristic of which is the animosity held by the right-wing ruling parties toward the media. This phenomenon has been steadily growing ever since the onset of the war in Gaza.
No country can boast of being a liberal democracy when it treats journalists fulfilling their duty of honestly reporting from a war zone as if they were enemies of the state. Only last week, while visiting the UK, Israel’s president — in a role that is mainly symbolic — was claiming that all Israel’s actions fall within what is permissible under international law. But if this is so, we must ask him and his government: why are they blocking foreign media access to Gaza? Instead, it has been left to the extremely brave local Palestinian journalists to report from this Israeli-inflicted catastrophe, an unprecedented number of whom have already paid with their lives.
