We will be all Gazan journalists’ megaphones

LONDON Freelance Branch Committee member Mariam Elsayeh was among the speakers at the National March for Palestine rally in London's Parliament Square on 3 August.

Mariam Elsayeh speaks

Mariam Elsayeh speaks in Parliament Square on 3 August

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At least 123 journalists have been killed in Gaza on and since 7 October 2023. For Mariam, who works for Al Jazeera among other outlets, it was particularly painful to hear four days earlier, on 31 July, of the killing of her colleagues Al-Jazeera reporter Ismail Al-Ghoul and cameraman Rami Al-Refee, in an Israeli airstrike on their car immediately after they had finished a report of an attack on Al-Shati camp in northern Gaza.

Three journalists have been killed in Lebanon, with multiple independent investigations concluding that they were directly targeted by Israeli armed forces because of their work there. Two journalists were killed in connection with their work, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, in the incursion into Israel on 7 October.

Mariam said: "If the Israeli Defence Forces think that killing a journalist is silencing them, they need to change strategies. Journalists don't fear bullets: Palestinian journalists don’t like war, but if there is a call for it we will be covering it, in the front line.

"You beheaded Ismail Al-Ghoul to silence him. We will be all Gazan journalists' megaphones.

"I urge Keir Starmer now, not tomorrow, to keep his word and promise and immediately recognise the state of Palestine.

"Great Britain can't wait for permission from the White House to recognise Palestine."

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