12 Times Journalism Came Under Attack In Israel's Assault On Gaza

The latest assault and ground invasion of Gaza has provoked what many are calling a "media war" over fair coverage of the conflict. The infringements on journalists and the press, sometimes with deadly force, are listed chronologically below.

1. The Gag Order & Allegations Against Hamas

Suppression of journalism began before Operation Protective Edge was launched, shortly after the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank. In the ensuing weeks, the Israeli government blamed Hamas and launched Operation Brother's Keeper in the West Bank -- during which it raided hundreds of homes and arrested over 600 Palestinians. The operation also resulted in five Palestinian casualties. Israel justified its operation as a manhunt to find the teens and the Hamas leaders responsible. However, a recorded emergency call by one of the teens the day of the kidnapping, which included the sound of gunshots, was strong evidence that the teens had been killed by their kidnappers soon after being abducted. The Israeli government put a gag order on the tape - barring journalists from reporting not only its contents, but from even mentioning the existence of such a tape and the gag order itself. The order was only lifted after the teens' bodies had been found nearly three weeks later.

On July 25th, BBC Sydney correspondent Jon Donnison sent a series of tweets reporting his conversation with Israeli foreign press spokesman Micky Rosenfeld. According to Donnison, Rosenfeld clarified that a "lone cell" was responsible for the kidnappings and Israel had been aware that Hamas leadership was not involved since the beginning of the investigation.

2. West Bank Raids Target Palestinian Press

While the Israeli press were dealt the gag order, Palestinian press in the West Bank suffered from repeated raids and confiscations of their stations and journalists. A full report of these transgressions are listed here.

The raids included seizing computers from print magazines This Week in Palestine and Filistin Ashabab, as well as the raiding the offices of Transmedia, where Israeli military personnel seized roughly $1 million worth of equipment and forced it to shut down. Several radio and TV journalists were arrested during night raids and had their phones confiscated. Aziz Kayed, general director of Al-Aqsa TV, was arrested and detained.

3. Israeli Airstrike Hits Press Car, Killing Driver

On the second day of Operation Protective Edge, an Israeli airstrike hit a press car belonging to the Gaza-based news service, Media 24. The strike killed Hamid Shihab, a driver for the company. As seen in the photo above, the car was clearly marked "TV."

4. NBC News Pulls Aymon Mohyeldin From Gaza

NBC News' announcement that it would reassign veteran reporter Mohyeldin out of Gaza, the day he reported on the beach attack on four children, stunned and angered many -- including journalists and staff at NBC News. Glenn Greenwald reported that the decision was made by NBC executive David Verdi, and that Mohyeldin was criticized on pro-Israel websites as being a "Hamas spokesman." The same day, Mohyeldin had deleted, for reasons never explained, social media statements he had made reporting the State Department's reaction to the beach attack. NBC's announcement that he was being moved for security concerns didn't hold up to scrutiny - they assigned Richard Engel to report from Gaza to replace Mohyeldin. After a massive uproar, NBC News reversed its decision and sent Mohyeldin back to report from Gaza.

5. Israeli Media Deceived Over Ground Invasion

As Barak Ravid reports for Haaretz, Israel Defense Forces told the media a decision on a ground invasion would only be made Friday, July 18th - though it had already been authorized in a meeting on Tuesday. In fact, the security cabinet had a secret meeting Thursday night and decided to launch the ground invasion immediately, despite announcing that any such decision would be made at a Friday 11AM meeting.

6. CNN Reporter Threatened by Israeli Spectators

CNN's correspondent, Diana Magnay, was threatened by Israeli civilians while she reported near the Gaza border on the Israelis who were watching and cheering the Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, which Magnay described as "macabre." After her report, Magnay made the above tweet, saying that the Israelis in attendance had threatened to "'destroy our car if I say a word wrong.'" She describes them as "scum." Magnay deleted the tweet 20 minutes later, but was then reassigned to Moscow.

7. Palestinian Journalist Killed in Ambulance Shelling

Khaled Hamad was a Palestinian journalist and cameraman for Continue TV, a Palestinian media company. He had been riding in an ambulance documenting the dangerous work of Gaza paramedics when the ambulance was shelled by the Israeli military. Hamad and the paramedics attempted to flee, but were shelled again, killing Hamad and paramedic Khaled Fouad Jaber.

8. Israeli Foreign Minister Seeks to Ban Al-Jazeera

Avigdor Lieberman called Al-Jazeera "a central pillar of the propaganda apparatus of Hamas" and said he would work to ban the Doha-based company from operating in Israel. Those comments arguably incited:

9. Gunshots Fired Into Al Jazeera's Bureau

The next day, Al Jazeera's Stefanie Dekker reported "two very precise shots" had been fired by an Israeli soldier straight into Al Jazeera's bureau on the 11th floor of a building in a residential area. The building (shared with other news outlets like AP) was immediately evacuated.

10. BBC Reporter Shoved on Air by "Angry Israeli"

BBC Arabic reporter Faris Khatib was shoved (hard) by an "angry Israeli" while giving a live report from the Israeli city of Ashkelon about the situation in Gaza. Khatib, an Arab Israeli citizen, was unharmed.

11. Jabreal Criticizes Media Bias, Cut by MSNBC

Ex-MSNBC contributor Rula Jabreal caused a stir when she called out her own network for its media bias, which she claimed gave disproportionate coverage to Israeli officials like Benjamin Netanyahu. She even called out Andrea Mitchell by name in the video above. Apparently, her criticisms caused a stir with more than just viewers at home, because she tweeted soon afterward that all her upcoming TV appearances had been canceled. Max Blumenthal reported for Alternet that MSNBC cut their contract with Jabreal, a report that appeared to have been confirmed when MSNBC host Chris Hayes brought her on his show with the tagline reading "Palestinian reporter" (her tagline earlier in the week read "MSNBC contributor").

12. Israel Broadcast Authority Refuses to Play Radio Spot Naming Palestinian Child Casualties

Israeli human rights organization B'tselem created the above spot to be played on IBA Radio, but were turned down on the grounds that the spot "belonged on newscasts." B'tselem's appeal, according to their press release, was also rejected by the Israel Broadcast Authority.

So what about the Palestinians' behavior towards journalists? So far, we haven't seen many complaints by any journalists on the ground. However, Jonathan Miller of Channel 4 News in the UK tweeted the following earlier in the week:

Over 800 Palestinians - the vast majority being civilians - have been killed in this latest assault. We can only hope that journalism - in Israel, in Palestine, and internationally - is not another such casualty.