Gaza journalists who defied Israel deserve their gongs
Three times last night, a thousand media folk crammed into the grand ballroom of London’s Hilton Hotel, got to their feet.
Once to toast the Queen and twice in spontaneous praise of the cameramen and journalists of Gaza.
The event was the normally stuffy self-adulatory annual Royal Television Awards. The Royal bit explains the first stand-up, but the two standing ovations deserve a little more attention.
When the Israeli government under then Prime Minister Olmert decided to launch an assault on the Gaza strip, targeting Gaza City for particularly heavy bombardment, amongst the hundreds of thousands of civilians in their firing line were dozens of journalists from Gaza itself, and from elsewhere in the region.
The Israelis made no secret of their determination to seal Gaza from the outside world. I was one of many international journalists who tried to enter Gaza in those January days.
Like the rest, I failed, and was stranded instead on the “Hill of Shame”. This was a small hillock outside Gaza about two miles back from the border.
From time to time, we would be joined by small handfuls of Israeli extremists who would come up to cheer the rockets and bombs raining in on Gaza’s population.
It was from there that I saw the tell-tale white phosphorous clouds. It was from there too that some of the material for our own documentary “Unseen Gaza” was shot. Indeed that film itself was hugely dependent on the courageous filming by Gaza’s camera crews.
Whilst the journalists and camera crews who defied the Israeli media blackout were lauded last night, less mention was made of the technicians whose ingenuity outflanked targeted attempts by Israeli forces to destroy their satellite and microwave hardware.
Without this, there would have been even fewer images of Gaza available to the outside world.
This was a moment in history when the media made a difference to the course of events. The international community could not ignore what was being done. The UN was forced to investigate.
Reluctant western governments were forced to identify their own positions, even if it took some, like the UK, many days to do so.
Mossad’s success over time has been to assassinate opponents with fake heart attacks and the rest and to avoid detection. Whoever murdered the Hamas operative in Dubai was exposed not by the media but by CCTV technology.
Historically, Israel has been open about its wars with the Palestinians. I benefited myself with full Israeli accreditation to cover the war against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Gaza represented a new tactic of secrecy. It failed. Its failure was down to today’s media.
The brief but searing tribute in pictures that rolled in London last night reminded what a horrific event the war on Gaza proved to be.
They also made me think that we should be there now to witness the action which may be less spectacular, less televisual, but at least as concerning as what happened two years ago.