While setting up a WhatsApp video call with Ramallah, in the West Bank, I was thinking about what to say to the person on the other end without the words being vainly pathetic. Even now I don’t know what to say to the people whose compatriots in Gaza are hungry and for the last 180 days they are thinking this may be their last on Earth.
Rania Keyyat from the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate soon appeared on the screen. I told her that I didn’t know what to say and that I was taught that in these cases it is best to remain silent. We understood each other. And the conversation started about the current situation in Gaza.
“They are under attack because they are Palestinians, they are our people. I have many friends in Gaza. I am embarrassed to contact them because I have no words to say to them. They are in tents, they are hungry. When I eat, I feel guilty because I have something to eat and they don’t. We are trying our best to help them in any way we can. We are trying to keep in touch with them so they know we are with them and feel their pain. This is one of the worst times of my life and I am heartbroken. People in Gaza need food or they will die from hunger, that’s the priority now,” Rania explains, adding that it is extremely difficult to deliver any aid to Gaza.
However, even with such circumstances, the Syndicate managed to support more than 100 journalists by sending money to their accounts. Those who still have bank cards would be able to withdraw money from one of the few ATMs that are still functioning and buy what’s left of food in Gaza.
It is even more difficult for female journalists. “We managed to send some cash so that 220 of them could meet their intimate needs as women,” explains Rania. According to the Syndicate estimates, there are around 1500 journalists and media workers in Gaza. About 300 are women. So far, 126 journalists and media workers have died.
One of the reasons for our conversation is March 8th – International Women’s day, and the campaign of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate “Being a Female Palestinian Journalist”. This is another in a series of campaigns that try to keep Palestine in the focus of the world public, so the publication of video testimonies of female journalists about their experiences will soon begin.
“You have to be a journalist and a mother and a wife and show that you are strong. Many journalists are torn between work and motherhood,” says Rania as she describes to me some of the experiences they have gathered from female journalists.
One of the journalists said that while reporting, she looks at the sky to make sure that the airstrike is not in the direction of her house. “When I see an ambulance, I wonder if my son is in it, if he is injured, killed.”
They report about their own homes being destroyed, family members and friends killed. One journalist told them how she survived the air raid with a younger child in her arms. When she pulled herself out of the rubble, she was told that her six-year-old daughter was dead. Her daughter was left without an arm, with serious injuries, but they still managed to save her in the hospital. She, on the other hand, as a journalist, had to report on her own tragedy.
“All the time you are torn between your own pain and the responsibility to report what is happening,” Rania describes how female journalists in Gaza feel.
While there are no airstrikes on the West Bank, there are many other dangers.
“The situation is very dangerous, there are many restrictions, our movement is limited, it is not even safe to move too much. You can always expect checkpoints on the way and you cannot be sure that you will reach your destination. You must prepare for the possibility that you will be arrested, held in custody for several hours. Now at the checkpoints they look at our cell phones, see what you have on them. If you have anything they deem suspicious, they will arrest you, beat you, and confiscate your cell phone.
It is very difficult for journalists to do their job. They are threatened by settlers, the Israeli army, they are not allowed to do their work, sometimes the army confiscates or destroys their equipment, their cars are shot at or directly at them. So far, about 65 journalists have been arrested and all of them are in the so-called administrative detention. It is a type of detention that can last for months without a concrete indictment. Some have been in prison for years,” Rania tells me.
And while this in itself is a horror, Rania keeps coming back to journalists in Gaza. “We try to support them. They are dying, they work in difficult conditions. We Palestinians who live in other parts of Palestine feel guilty because they are in such difficult conditions, we try to send them money, food, but whatever we do is like a drop in the ocean. The needs are enormous. Another problem is communication with Gaza. We often cannot reach them, get information about what is happening.”
When it comes to the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, she explains that they are trying to spread information to the world about what is happening to the Palestinians. Documenting the death of colleagues is difficult and demanding work. For each of them, they verify how he/she was killed, where, for which media he/she worked. Getting such information is difficult because they have to verify everything from different sources in order to confirm that everyone was a journalist.
When asked if there is solidarity towards the Palestinians, she says that from six months ago to today, she notices a change in public opinion. “In the beginning, everyone was kind of hesitant to give their support, but as this aggressive war against everyone and everything in Gaza, in which journalists are the target, flared up and when it was seen how much fake news is on the air created by Israel, people started to understand .”
He also says that every news about the protest for Palestine lifts their spirits. As a true trade unionist, she believes in solidarity and people.
“As I am in charge of public relations in the Syndicate, I notice that there is more and more support from all sides. Now we feel that something is changing and that is the only good thing in this terrible war – that people have become aware of what is happening to the Palestinians and that they want to know.
The Israelis forbid the entry of international journalists to Gaza and the only ones reporting from Gaza are Palestinian journalists who are at the same time the target of attacks. Many have been left without homes, without their families, friends, but they still continue to do their work and report on what is happening in Gaza,” Rania points out, hoping that her words will reach far.
Zoran Pehar