17 Jan 2025 | Israel, Middle East and North Africa, News and features, Palestine
What do you do when your culture has been destroyed? When your studios, galleries, and universities all lie in rubble? How do you plan to rebuild when war continues? And how do you find hope amidst utter devastation?
These were some of the questions asked during Archiving Gaza in the Present, a two-day conference held at SOAS University by the Arab British Centre and the Centre for Palestinian Studies in December. The conference brought together artists, writers, journalists, architects and more to discuss the desperate situation facing those in Gaza today.
A ceasefire deal has now been agreed in principle between Israel and Hamas, which is due to come into effect this Sunday. The Israeli Cabinet still needs to vote on the deal, and if it passes, this could see an end to the current conflict.
But since the siege on Gaza began 15 months ago, more than 45,000 people have been killed and roughly 1.9 million people displaced. The impact of the war on Gaza’s institutions is also devastating. According to a report by Human Rights Watch, more than 93% of Gaza’s schools and all of their universities have been destroyed or significantly damaged. What’s more, 195 heritage sites, 227 mosques and three churches have also been damaged or destroyed.
It was amidst these horrifying figures that conversations unfolded, as artists, architects and cultural leaders from Gaza gathered to reflect on what has been lost and to consider the path forward.
A conversation between artists Hazem Harb and Malak Mattar put things into perspective. Harb, an artist from Gaza now based in Dubai, spoke about the destruction of Gaza’s Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) building where he first learnt art as a teenager. It was in that space that he also met some of the artists who he continues to work with today. Since then, the YMCA has been destroyed along with their art studios.
Malak Mattar, a painter and illustrator representing a younger generation of Gazan artists, is now based in the UK. Witnessing the war from abroad, including the destruction of her family home, has profoundly influenced her artistic practice. Once characterised by vibrant colours, her work now relies solely on black and white.
During the session, she discussed her piece No Words, inspired by real events in Gaza that she observed online. At its centre, a young boy sits on a horse-drawn cart with all his belongings strapped on to it. To his left, limbs protrude from the wreckage of destroyed buildings, birds pick at decaying flesh, and a mother clutches her baby in fear. To his right, a soldier takes aim with his rifle while men are lined up as prisoners. The painting evokes echoes of Iraqi artist Dia Al-Azzawi’s Sabra and Shatila Massacre mural, created in response to the massacre of civilians at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut, Lebanon in September 1982.
“This is not only my painting, it belongs to the people of Gaza, and I hope it really disturbs you, I hope it haunts you forever…” Mattar said in an interview with The Markaz Review.
Even before October 2023, Gaza was a challenging place to be an artist. Israel’s blockade on Gaza since 2006 has had a profound impact on all aspects of life including the economy, freedom of movement, and the arts. The blockade limited access to art materials and supplies and severely restricted travel, preventing many Gazan artists from engaging with the wider world. What’s more, artists faced censorship and self-censorship under the control of Hamas, including restrictions on free expression. Gaza’s Hamas-run Culture Ministry cracked down on work that did not conform to its edicts and all artists and performers were forced to get permits from the Hamas authorities in order to put on cultural events.
But as bad as things might have once been, they are certainly worse now.
Yet all is not lost. During the conference, cultural practitioners shared how they are already working to rebuild what has been destroyed.
One such example is artist Salman Nawati and the NAWAF collective, who have created the Sahab Museum project, an imaginative virtual museum. Their latest initiative, BARRA (Off-site), is a virtual reality experience where participants can explore, collect, and reflect on artworks that have been lost or damaged and symbolically return them to the Sahab Museum. The project aims to create “a space to rethink and imagine—a space for our dreams to take shape despite the weight of Gaza’s violent everyday life”.
Others, such as RIWAQ director Shatha Safi, are already planning the rebuilding of Gaza. RIWAQ is an organisation that works on preserving and restoring archeological sites across the West Bank and Gaza. Before October 2023, they had successfully restored a number of historic buildings in Gaza, transforming them into vibrant community spaces. Now, those same buildings are either partially or completely destroyed. However, they don’t plan to give up. Today, they are documenting information about the level of destruction on Gaza’s old city. With an end to the war now hopefully in sight, they plan to work with the local community in the future to rebuild once again.
It is hard to reflect on the conference without feeling despair and hopelessness. Yet, for people in Gaza, hopelessness is not an option. And with a ceasefire now on the horizon, there is a glimmer of hope for the opportunity to begin cultural reconstruction. As one speaker reminded us at the end of the day, the late Palestinian-American academic Edward Said famously said, “where cruelty and injustice are concerned, hopelessness is submission”.
11 Oct 2024 | Brazil, Israel, Mexico, News and features, Newsletters, Palestine, United States
Hello, readers. This is Sarah Dawood here, the new editor of Index on Censorship. Every week, we bring the most pertinent global free speech stories to your inbox.
This week, headlines have been dominated by the ongoing devastation of the war in the Middle East, where the death toll is now more than 42,000 in Gaza, and more than 2,100 in Lebanon. Monday also marked a painful milestone for Israelis and Jewish people everywhere, as the first anniversary of Hamas’s attacks, which killed 1,200 people. You can read Jerusalem correspondent Ben Lynfield’s forensic analysis on the region’s risks to journalists and press freedom below.
Attention has also been on the destructive Hurricane Milton in Florida, which has killed at least 16 people. The climate event has resulted in human tragedy, physical damage and the distortion of truth, with false information and AI-generated images accumulating millions of views on social media, including a fabricated flooding of Disney World in Orlando. Such imagery has been seized upon by hostile states, far-right groups, and even US politicians to advance their own aims: Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti reposted the fake Disney World photos to its Telegram channel, whilst Republican members of Congress have proclaimed conspiracy theories of government-led “storm manufacturing”. This emphasises how crises can be manipulated and monopolised to stir up division.
But while disinformation can undermine democracy, so too can information blockades. This brings us to some important stories coming out of Latin America. In Brazil, the social media platform X is now back online after a shutdown in September. The platform was banned by a top judge during the country’s presidential election campaign, in an attempt to prevent the spread of misinformation. But as Mateus Netzel, the executive director of Brazil-based digital news platform Poder360 told Reuters, social media bans not only restrict public access to information, but can undermine journalists’ ability to gather and report on news. Elon Musk himself was using X to post about the development of the ban, but this was inaccessible to Brazilian journalists. “In theory, there are journalists and outlets who do not have access to that right now and this is a very important restriction because they need to report on this issue and they will have to rely on indirect sources,” said Netzel.
We also heard frightening news from Mexico, where a local politician was murdered and beheaded just days after being sworn in as city mayor of Chilpancingo. Whilst we don’t yet know the reason that Alejandro Arcos Catalán was killed, his murder is yet another example of journalists, politicians, and other public figures being routinely targeted by criminal gangs. Bar active war zones, Mexico has consistently been the most dangerous country in the world for journalists, topping Reporters Without Borders’ list in 2022.
Meanwhile, in El Salvador, climate activists are being silenced through false imprisonment. Five protesters, who fronted a 13-year grassroots campaign to ban metal mining due to its devastating environmental impacts are now facing life in prison for the alleged killing of an army informant in 1989. The charge has been condemned by the UN and international lawyers as baseless and politically motivated, and echoes heavy-handed prison sentences being handed to climate protesters globally, including in democratic countries. As Index’s Mackenzie Argent reported last month, human rights lawyers have called out the UK’s hypocrisy in claiming egalitarianism whilst disproportionately punishing environmental activists, pointing specifically to the sentencing of Just Stop Oil’s Roger Hallam to five years in prison in July. These two stories, although taking place 5,000 miles away from each other, underline how climate defenders are currently on the front line of attempts to be silenced.
8 Oct 2024 | Israel, Middle East and North Africa, News and features, Palestine
Yesterday marked a year since Hamas’s brutal incursion into Israel, where nearly 1,200 people were killed, including 815 civilians, making it the deadliest day for Jewish people since the Holocaust. The militant group also abducted 251 people, and at least 97 are still thought to be held hostage in the Gaza Strip. Following the attack, Israel launched a devastating assault on Gaza, and has since killed nearly 42,000 Palestinians, of whom nearly 14,000 are children. The conflict has now expanded to Lebanon – where more than 2,000 people have been killed – and Iran, with serious concerns it could escalate into a full-blown regional war in the Middle East.
Amongst the horrendous loss of life and destruction, there has been significant repression of free speech. Israel has banned international journalists from Gaza, whilst the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)’s investigations have found that at least 128 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed over the past year, of which five were directly targeted and murdered by Israeli forces. Communication blackouts, such as internet shutdowns, have also prevented individuals from reporting on the situation to the world via social media. Such stifling of free expression makes it impossible to know the full extent of war crimes being committed by both sides.
Israeli journalists have also faced repression, censorship and intimidation by their own state, and they cannot enter the blockaded Palestinian territory unless under strict surveillance by the Israeli Army. According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), in October 2023 alone, at least 15 journalists were attacked or threatened by the Israeli Security Forces or citizens, with reports of journalists being forced to evacuate their homes, threatened, arrested or assaulted for covering the war.
Additionally, grassroots organisations that join up Israelis and Palestinians in peace-making initiatives have been targeted – Standing Together, an organisation which works with Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel “in pursuit of peace, equality and social and climate justice” saw two of its members arrested last year in Jerusalem for putting up peace-promoting posters.
There are also reports of Hamas crushing dissent in Gaza, including of Palestinians who have publicly criticised the 7 October incursion and have said it has made a peaceful solution between Israel and Palestine even less attainable. According to reporting from Reuters, Palestinian activist Ameen Abed was beaten by masked men and hospitalised after speaking out about the atrocity.
Index looks back at its coverage of the conflict over the past year, which showcases how free speech and journalistic reporting continues to be suppressed in Israel and Palestine.
Israel and Palestine – the key free speech issues
Freedom of expression looked certain to be a casualty as the Gaza Strip exploded into conflict.
The stakes are high for free expression in Israel-Hamas conflict
In the first month Index CEO Jemimah Steinfeld wrote on the many threats to free expression from the conflict.
Silent Palestinians in Gaza and Israel
Index contributor Samir El Youssef wrote on how Palestinians were being silenced in Gaza and Israel by multiple forces.
The unstilled voice of Gazan theatre
In Gaza, cultural institutions such as the Ayyam al Masrah theatre have been destroyed. Yet, theatre remains a crucial voice for the displaced, wrote Laura Silvia Battaglia.
The suffering of Wael al-Dahdouh in “deadliest conflict for journalists”
The war in Israel/Gaza has been the “deadliest conflict for journalists.” Read our interview with Youmna El Sayed on the immense suffering of Al Jazeera English bureau chief in Gaza, Wael al-Dahdouh.
Telling fact from fiction: how war reporting is being suppressed
Journalistic “black holes”, such as in Gaza and Sudan, curtail people’s ability to understand geopolitics and conflict, wrote Index editor Sarah Dawood.
Art institutions accused of censoring pro-Palestine views
The past year has seen an eruption of censorship in cultural institutions across the world, particularly targeting pro-Palestinian voices, wrote Daisy Ruddock.
Are people in Israel getting the full story on Gaza?
The world is seeing a completely different war from the domestic audience, wrote Index CEO Jemimah Steinfeld.
X marks the spot where Israel-Hamas disinformation wars are being fought
The Elon Musk-owned social media platform used to be the go-to in times of crisis but its strengths for truth-telling are eroded and all but gone, wrote Sophie Fullerton.
Standing together for peace in the Middle East
Activists working for peace in Israel and Palestine came together at the end of last October to raise their voices.
The world needs to learn from Masha Gessen moments
The Russian-US writer was at the centre of a controversy yet things were not exactly as they first seemed.
From the Danube to the Baltic Sea, Germany takes an authoritarian turn
German authorities are increasingly silencing pro-Palestine activism in an effort to stamp out anything they fear could be seen as antisemitic, wrote Jakob Guhl.
Sport faces growing censorship problem over the Israel-Gaza war
Governing bodies are becoming increasingly heavy-handed in their attempts to remain neutral in the conflict, wrote Daisy Ruddock.
The unravelling of academic freedom on US campuses
When the lines between speech and action have been ambiguous, US colleges have moved too far towards clamping down on what people say. Now pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli students feel victimised and unsafe but the answer is not more silencing, wrote Susie Linfield.
Israel’s closure of Al Jazeera’s West Bank office is a blow to press freedom
Another example of Israel’s suppression of Palestinian journalists, which stops them from documenting the brutal war in Gaza and beyond, wrote Youmna El Sayed.
Israel’s trajectory into a nascent police state
Israel’s push towards authoritarianism by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition is not slowing down during the country’s ever-expanding military operations. If anything, it is intensifying, wrote Ben Lynfield.
4 Oct 2024 | Israel, News and features, Newsletters, Palestine, Sudan
If a tree falls in a forest, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? This well-known philosophical question most likely stems from the work of 18th century philosopher George Berkeley, who questioned the possibility of “unperceived existence”. In other words – did something really happen if no one is around to witness or perceive it?
This might seem a lofty and pretentious way to start this week’s Index newsletter. But the first-hand observance and subsequent documentation of events is the fundamental basis of rigorous journalism, and enables injustices to be accurately reported around the world. It provides us with the ability to understand truth from falsehood. And it is being increasingly undermined.
Journalistic “black holes” are appearing in conflicts globally, stopping the world from being able to witness what is happening on the ground, and therefore causing us to question reality.
Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, triggered by Hamas’s incursion into Israel on 7 October 2023, Israel has banned foreign media access in Gaza. Only very limited international news crews are allowed in under strict conditions. This has left the world reliant on press statements, the words of government officials, and individual Palestinian journalists, who have risked their lives to showcase the brutality of the war on social media.
And many have lost their lives in the process. According to investigations by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), as of 4 October 2024, at least 127 journalists and media workers are among the more than 42,000 Palestinians and 1,200 Israelis killed since the war began, making it the deadliest period for journalists since the organisation started gathering data in 1992. The CPJ has determined that at least five of these journalists were directly targeted.
Major broadcasters have also been targeted. Last month, Al Jazeera’s office in the West Bank was raided and shut down for 45 days by Israeli soldiers, following the closure of the channel’s East Jerusalem office in May, on claims that they are a threat to Israel’s national security. But as Al Jazeera English’s Gaza correspondent Youmna El Sayed writes for Index this week, such shutdowns of legitimate news providers prevent global audiences from being able to see the pain and suffering that is being endured by both Palestinians and Israelis, encouraging misinformation to propagate.
As hostilities escalate across the Middle East, news channels continue to be curtailed. This week, an air strike destroyed the headquarters of the religious al-Sirat TV station in Beirut, Lebanon, on grounds that it was being used to store Hezbollah weapons, a claim which Hezbollah denies. Foreign correspondents are, however, still allowed in Lebanon – but in Iran all broadcasting is controlled by the state, with foreign journalists barred, meaning access to objective reporting is essentially impossible.
Outside of the region, other countries’ severe reporting restrictions and intimidation of journalists have made it difficult for global audiences to comprehend what is happening in conflicts. This includes Kashmir, the disputed mountainous region between India and Pakistan, and Sudan, where it is estimated that 90% of the country’s media infrastructure has been wiped out by the civil war.
What is the impact of this? The worrying rise in press suppression not only creates huge risks for journalists, but severely curtails people’s ability to understand geopolitics, conflict, and in future, historical events. It stops us from being able to weigh things up and form opinions based on what we have perceived.
Ultimately, it is impossible for any news producer, whether they be an individual correspondent or a major broadcaster, to be truly “objective”. People are driven by motives, both emotional and financial, and their own lived experiences. A news organisation, backed by a particular country or group, will appear truthful to some and severely biased to others.
But the only way to ensure some level of objectivity is to retain access to a broad range of sources, from the BBC to Al Jazeera, helping us form a more rounded world view. To go back to Berkeley’s philosophical analysis, the only way to verify the truth is to have the privilege of witnessing the evidence. Without this, it becomes virtually impossible to be able to tell fact from fiction.
