Ahmed Najger is a a Palestinian
political economist, writer and
playwright and joins me now. Thanks for
joining me, Ahmed. Um, yeah,
depressingly
this is, you know, yet another story
about journalists losing their lives.
And again, I stress that it's not that
their lives matter more than any other
life that's been lost in in Gaza, but
there are particular concerns, aren't
there, around the fact that stories may
not be told if we don't have eyes and
ears on the ground to tell them in Gaza.
Absolutely. I think this is another
tragedy. We haven't even uh stopped
griefing the Anastas Sharif and his
colleagues that were killed uh a few few
weeks ago. The Al Jazzer uh
correspondents and now we are face faced
with another four journalists being
killed. Journalists have been targeted
from day one in in this genocide that
now uh is mounting to about 240
journalists that have been killed which
is unprecedented. We have never
witnessed any war around the world in in
our history that has that many
journalists being killed. So and and the
fact that also Israel is not allowing
international journalists is to to try
and commit its genocide in the dark. So
definitely right now the the the
journalists are targeted particularly
target targeted and I have just noticed
some of the journalists started in Gaza
started to de deactivate their social
media accounts and they try to keep low
profile which is completely you know
wrong because these guys need to be in
the event and to report on what's going
on. Um, and that's exactly what Israel
really is after is to kill all the eyes
that that are trying to reveal uh the
the Israeli uh war crimes and genocide.
>> I mean, the IDF has said in in response
to all of this, the IDF regrets any harm
to uninvolved individuals and does not
target journalists. So, the line from
the IDF is is still this insistence that
they don't target journalists. But,
>> Ahmed, quite clearly, you're not you're
not you're not satisfied by that.
>> The IDF is a genocidal army. Let's let's
let's admit to this. Let's face it. All
international organizations around the
world or experts in the in genocides are
have concluded that the IDF is
committing a genocide in Gaza. How could
we believe a genocidal army that telling
us that they're not targeting
journalists after killing 240
journalists? Uh and then do you actually
expect us to believe what a word that
coming out from their mouth? We see
their their government is wanted by the
ICC. How could we trust people like
that? I I think I think it's it's absurd
to actually believe one single word
that's coming out from their mouth. They
lie right, left and center. They have
killed uh more than 60,000 people in the
space of uh 2 years. Can you just
imagine that they destroyed all the
entire of Gaza Strip? They they have
they also have actually killed these
journalists in a hospital. So it's not
just the crime of killing journalists.
they have killed them in a hospital. So
they were attacking a hospital which
they have attacked more than 35
hospitals in Gaza. So of obviously
they're going to be repeating their
narrative which is oh we are
investigating. We never target
journalists. we uh we have done this and
that and we've we have uh the story
about the civil defense when they killed
them and buried them and buried their
vehicles and they denied their
involvement in that and later on uh they
found a a mobile phone in the pocket of
one of these people who were killed
filming everything that happened. So,
and then let's talk, you know, if we
want to bring like Sharina Baklage, the
journalist who was sniped by one of the
snipers in the in the West. Um, and then
they denied and then they proved that
they were involved and they targeted her
deliberately. And the list is endless. I
can I can speak about their war crimes
until tomorrow or maybe there won't be
enough time to speak about the the war
crimes that Israel is committing.
>> Yeah. And look, you're not a lone voice
in that. There are many people who are
very concerned about what's happening in
Gaza. uh it's my job as a journalist
just just to introduce the the other
argument. I know I know you understand
that Ahmed and Israel of course denies
that there's a genocide and I suppose
the difference they're trying to point
out is that they say they're not
deliberately targeting journalists. It's
that journalists are are dying in what
is a dangerous zone. But you you clearly
feel that that that's not true that
journalists are actually being singled
out and and targeted. Of course they
killed Anastas Sharif and they accused
him of being Hamas member without having
any any kind of approval or anything.
Look, Israel has been acting with
impunity for far too long and they
actually have killed the those
journalists they have killed him in
front of the camera right in the front
of the camera. That was Alat TV were
filming already the attack that was in
the hospital and they they they attacked
again and and and the journalists were
killed. So, so they they really fear
nothing. They if they actually think
that they will held accountable for
their actions, they wouldn't be doing
that. And let's be honest, the West has
allowed them to do that. Uh they and I'm
sorry uh that the Western media has
covered up for their war crimes for so
long and that's why they dare to to
commit this type of war crimes that
they're committing. Look up up until
>> I don't think that's fair on the Western
media. Actually, I think the Western
media,
>> look at the BBC for example. Look at the
BBC for example. You guys are still not
calling what's happening in Gaza as a
genocide. Why aren't you calling it as a
genocide? Why aren't you naming it as a
genocide? 7th of October, you all named
it as a massacre. Up until this moment,
none of you, absolutely none of you
called any of what happened in in Gaza
as a massacre. Today, we are
encountering a massacre against
journalists. You haven't named it as a
massacre. This is the language that the
Western media is using. And that is
complicit. And that's complicit in this
genocide. You guys have called uh the
Rwanda genocide as a genocide four years
before the the court's decision came
out. In spite of the fact that there are
far more overwhelming evidence that
there's a genocide in Gaza, Western
media still hasn't called it as as a
genocide. This is complicit and this is
allowing Israel to carry on with with
its genocide. Look, the the Western
governments also haven't imposed any
kind of sanctions. They're still selling
arms to Israel. Can you believe it?
There's a declared famine, man-made
famine in Gaza. And the Western
governments are still supplying Israel
with weapons, are still supporting
Israel. They haven't sanctioned Israel.
They're still trading with Israel.
They're still business as usual with
with Israel. Can you believe that? I
mean, what else they need from from
Israel to do to cross how many red lines
for them to act? So, this is directly
being involved in a genocide.