The Foreign Press Association demands that Israel lift the media blockade on Gaza now. If it does not, Israel’s Supreme Court must intervene.
International journalists have for decades traveled into dangerous war zones around the world to report independently on the ground. But not in Gaza – not for the last 19 months.
From Iraq and Afghanistan to Ukraine and Syria, independent first-hand reporting is the best way we know to give the public the most complete and accurate picture of war and its consequences. It is what drove us, under sustained rocket fire, into devastated Israeli communities along the Gaza border in the days and weeks after Hamas’ October 7 attack. Israel welcomed our coverage at the time.
But since then, Israel has barred international journalists from entering Gaza to report freely on the devastating toll the war has taken on the Strip and its more than two million residents. These restrictions have greatly hindered coverage of a conflict with enormous global implications and placed a heavy and sometimes deadly burden on our Palestinian colleagues in Gaza.
It is long past time for this practice to end.
We, as members of the Foreign Press Association, renew our call for Israel to lift this unprecedented media blockade immediately. And if the Israeli government does not act, we urge Israel’s Supreme Court to immediately grant our request for access to Gaza when it hears our petition later this month.
Our most central and basic task as journalists is to report what we can see and hear with our own eyes and ears. To be able to inform the public about what we have witnessed first-hand and to investigate conflicting claims. Our job is to be on the ground, even – or perhaps, especially – when that work is dangerous.
Democracies recognize that duty as a right. And yet Israel, which describes itself as the Middle East’s only democracy, is actively preventing us from exercising that right.
Israel’s reasoning has changed over time. Initially, it said the presence of journalists would endanger soldiers inside Gaza and security personnel working along the border. More recently, it claimed it could not ensure the safety of reporters. Both arguments could be raised in any conflict around the world, yet neither has so thoroughly prevented us from reporting in dozens of other war zones, including four previous conflicts in Gaza.
To be clear, our demand for access does not take away from the heroic work of our Palestinian colleagues inside Gaza, who brave unfathomable danger and hardship to report the reality on the ground. But they should not have to bear the burden of covering this war on their own, and their ability to do so is increasingly being pushed to the limit.
After nearly nineteen exhausting months of war, most are now living and working out of squalid tents and bombed-out buildings. Every aspect of doing their jobs is challenged by the lack of reliable access to electricity, fuel, food, communications, and equipment, especially since Israel imposed a total blockade of humanitarian aid to Gaza in early March. As conditions get worse, the onus of coverage is falling on a shrinking press corps as dozens of Gaza’s most experienced journalists have managed to leave the war-torn strip.
Those able to move around face the constant threat of Israeli fire or detention by Israeli forces. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 168 Palestinian journalists have been killed since the start of the war, making the period since October 7 the deadliest for journalists in the past three decades.
This grim statistic calls into question Israel’s commitment to the safety of Palestinian journalists. We believe the presence of international journalists – working for well-known international organizations, the individual citizens of Israel’s closest allies – would invite far greater scrutiny and accountability.
The Israeli military, at times, has offered the international media opportunities to “embed” with its forces for a few hours at a time, with a focus on showcasing Hamas tunnels and the mission of its own forces. These brief, selective glimpses into Gaza are no substitute for independent and unfettered access. They are highly controlled, narrow in scope, and don’t allow interviews with Palestinian residents.
They have also been few in number. Even the world’s largest Western news outlets, which Israel prioritizes, have entered Gaza no more than a dozen times – a minuscule figure in a conflict that has stretched nearly 600 days. Many international media organizations have not entered at all.
These restrictions do a disservice to international audiences and risk setting a dangerous precedent, stifling coverage of a conflict in which significant U.S. funding, weapons, and diplomatic capital are involved.
Allowing access to Gaza shouldn’t just be an imperative for Israel’s critics. It should also be the answer to questions and concerns raised by its supporters.
The Israeli government and those who back it have repeatedly cast doubt on reports by Palestinian journalists, disputed the number of Palestinian civilians killed, and more recently, downplayed severe food shortages in Gaza, accusing Hamas of stockpiling aid. Israel’s supporters should welcome an independent international press corps in Gaza to explore these claims.
Yet throughout this war, Israel has only rebuffed our repeated requests for dialogue or access. Appeals and letters from senior news executives around the world have been ignored.
The Foreign Press Association, which represents hundreds of journalists and dozens of international media outlets covering Israel and the Palestinian territories, has turned to Israel’s Supreme Court for relief from this unprecedented blockade. In December 2023, the FPA filed its first request for entry. With fighting raging at the time, the court sided with the government but encouraged us to reapply when security conditions improved. We filed a second case last September. The government responded and requested five delays to hold the proceedings. The case is now set to go before the High Court on May 21.
We acknowledge the security challenges of working in a war zone and have worked tirelessly to keep our Palestinian colleagues out of harm’s way. Our organizations have years of experience operating in challenging environments and believe that we, and not the Israeli government, should be deciding where to operate and what risks are worth taking for journalistic purposes.
Nineteen months of media blackout is far too long. We urge Israel to uphold its stated democratic ideals and to let us in.
Josef Federman, Jeremy Diamond & Tania Krämer are members of the board of the Foreign Press Association in Israel and the Palestinian Territories.
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