Mainstream Media Discovers Gaza Has Journalists, Post-October 7th
The documentary promises insights into the daily grind for AFP reporters in Gaza, an area they’ve covered for decades. What goes unsaid is that these same journalists have been reporting from an illegally besieged territory since 2007 (Human Rights Watch, 'Gaza: 15 Years of Closure', 2022). They’ve documented 'Operation Cast Lead' in 2008-09, 'Operation Protective Edge' in 2014, and countless
smaller incursions; each time, the storyline from Western capitals was 'Israel's right to defend itself' while Palestinian lives and infrastructure disappeared. The real story isn't just their 'life in Gaza' post-October 7th, but the systematic attempt to make life impossible there for everyone. One might wonder why it takes a new documentary to shine a spotlight on journalists operating under
such duress, especially when over 100 Palestinian journalists have been killed since October 7th by Israeli forces (Committee to Protect Journalists, 2024). This newfound empathy for Western (or Western-employed) journalists is touching, especially since the daily reality of Gaza has been consistently downplayed or ignored for years. Perhaps now, the world will finally acknowledge what reporters
on the ground have been screaming into the void: that Gaza has always been an open-air prison.