It Could Happen Here - The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate

Episode Date: October 26, 2023

James talked to Raina from the Palestinian Journalists syndicate about the difficulties and dangers faced by journalists  in Gaza and the importance of reporting from inside the blockade. You can support the PJS fundraiser here https://t.co/qlREIWUdWi See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Thursday. Welcome to Gracias Come Again, a podcast by Honey German, where we get real and dive straight into todo lo actual y viral. We're talking music, los premios, el chisme, and all things trending in my cultura. I'm bringing you all the latest happening in our entertainment world and some fun and impactful interviews with your favorite Latin artists, comedians, actors, and

influencers. Each week, we get deep and raw life stories, combos on the issues that matter to us, and it's all packed with gems, fun, straight up comedia, and that's a song that only nuestra gente can sprinkle. Listen to Gracias Come Again on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Calls on Media. Call Zone Media Hello everyone, it's me James today. I am back from my trip to Kurdistan and I'm talking today with Rania Hayat, a name that I've probably just butchered. But Rania is the communications officer for the Palestinian Journalist Syndicate and And we're very, very lucky to have Rania talking to us.

Welcome, Rania. Thank you, James. Thank you for contacting me and letting me be with you. Yeah, of course. You're very welcome. So I think, Rania, it's been a really hard time to consume news. For the first week of what's happening, I was in mostly Syria and Iraqi Kurdistan, and I wasn't maybe consuming as much news as I normally do, because I was trying to write news instead. And then I got back, and just the barrage of

information and disinformation has been very hard for people to sort of wade through. And I wonder, I think one of the things I'd like us to focus on first and foremost is the impact of Israel's bombing campaign on journalists specifically working in Gaza. I know friends of mine are journalists in Gaza. We featured on this podcast before the people of Parkour Gaza. And I know that many journalists have lost their lives covering what's been happening. So can you explain a little bit about what's been happening and maybe bring us up to date on the amount of every loss is a tragedy, but like the amount of people who have lost their lives covering this.

Yes, James. Well, let's start that journalists in Gaza are civilians who are people who travel, they work, usually they should travel, but they work, they do their job, they try to cover the news with very hard conditions with the daily life of Gaza. Since the beginning of the war against Gaza on the 7th of October, you know how the war started targeting everything in Gaza, not even all the people, more than the people, you know, the buildings, the children, even the animals, the plants, you know, the buildings, the children, even the animals, the plants, you know, just

bombing and bombing and bombing airstrikes the whole time. At the beginning, we tried to, we have some, our contacts with journalists in Gaza, we have our general secretary member and so on. We try to get information from them. At the beginning, yeah, it was not easy, but it was okay to get some information about what's going on. But by the time now we reached to a place that when I called them, they always tell dozens of, we don't know.

We are disconnected. I'm homeless now. I am not able to get any news. I can tell you about my friend or my neighbor next to me, but I'm not able to tell you about further than this. I will just give some statistics. Up to now, we have 18 killed journalists who have been either killed while covering others were killed in their homes through airstrikes with their families and so on

we have also many journalists who have, dozens of them have been injured, I'm really sorry I wanted to have some you know accurate statistics, but I can't give you until now. We are now trying to develop a tool to get some statistics,

but until now it's not working well. Yeah. We have many journalists who lost their homes because it was bombed or, yeah, air strike. Others, they were displaced, yeah. And many of them moved from their homes either because their homes was bombed or other because they were threatened to stay at their home safely so they go to other schools, hospitals and so on. The most tragic is the journalists who are losing their families. When you call a journalist to ask him about anything, they tell you,

OK, I lost my son, I lost my wife, I lost all my family, I lost my mother now. They are completely broken. You can't talk to them. They are, you know, it's really a very tragic situation. Yeah, it's, I mean, it's literally unimaginable. Like, I think I've attended wars, I've lost friends, but nothing. I can't imagine what it's like on this scale. And it's heartbreaking to even think about it.

And I think some of what you said, obviously, like part of the situation this creates is that it's very hard to do reporting on the ground. It's always been hard to do reporting on the ground in Gaza. I have made plans to go to Gaza, which probably won't work out now. But it's hard for foreign press. And of course, there are many very capable journalists within Gaza. We don't need foreign press to go there necessarily. But can you explain a little bit of how, when this war started, it didn't just affect these people in terms of killing them, killing their families, displacing them, destroying their homes. But also, every day this war goes on, it gets harder for us to see, I think, the impact of this war on civilians living in Gaza,

right, because of the damage to infrastructure. Is that fair to say? Yes, this is what's going on. Reporting is getting more and more complicated. Because also, there is no electricity. Communication is very, very difficult. Sometimes through phone calls, I call them just to get something. They tell me, okay, wait until I get some internet and I will get back to you. I wait for hours and hours sometimes for the second day to get a little information. So you can imagine how they can even contact with each other. Yeah.

And yeah, that makes it very hard. I think often we might have more, and this is not uncommon actually, like you have more information. This is not uncommon, actually. You have more information sitting somewhere with a broadband connection and access to Twitter than you do on the ground. They may not know everything that's happening. Yes. I don't know if I can talk about this, but about know about the restrictions that on all social media applications, the restrictions on the Palestinian content

on the social media. We're facing a big, a massive wave against our content, against our news through Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, all those applications.

So we are not able even to reach many people are banned, many people are hacked. And we are just hearing about the banning of many accounts of Palestinians, the very limited reach, the very limited and there are some many times they are blocked or blocked or from posting and so on so even also this is another problem that we are facing to reach out yeah i think this in a sense obviously like it's in terms of specifically getting information about it because i think that is important i think if people could understand what it's like to see someone lose their baby and then i think very few people would be able to in good conscious support that um and the fact

that this has come at a time when i think generally uh certainly for the u.s reporting on things outside the u.s is an all-time low. It's atrocious. And so people lack the context to understand, not through any fault of their own, right? But they've just been fed terrible opinion pieces for the last few years. They lack the context to understand why what's happening is happening.

And I think, obviously, Elon Musk has bought Twitter and it's a cesspool. It's terrible. It's full of false information. And as you say, often videos that... I have friends who are photographers in Gaza. I have friends who are just people in Gaza. And videos that they post will be taken down.

Sometimes they'll just say, it's too graphic, it's too violent. But also that's their everyday life now that's been happening for two weeks. Graphic violence is sadly what's visited upon them every day. Yes. Believe me, what's going on in Gaza is very... You can't hold it when you watch it. is very, you can't hold it when you watch it. Even the TV channels, they try to minimize

how dangerous and how violent are the scenes that we see. At the same time, I had a discussion this morning. I don't want people to cry for us. I don't want people to cry for the babies killed.

And so with very hard pictures and videos, I just want humanity. Without seeing the video, just hear that there is a child is losing his child, children, thousands of children are losing their life for nothing, are losing their hands, their legs. They are now handicapped. They don't know why.

We don't need to see the video. Just know that this is going on. We don't want to make a tragedy. We don't want people to cry with us when we cry. Yes, we want some solidarity, but it's not something to have the emotions and then we sleep and then we wake up. No, no, there is something going on. We don't need the sympathy. We need some actions. We need steps. We need humanity now. Yeah. So I think that's an excellent, really, really excellent point. It's not a film or something you can consume and then step away from. So what sort of solidarity actions can people take to support people in Gaza, to support journalists there, to support the greater cause of not having this issue where every few years, thousands of Palestinian civilians get killed?

few years, thousands of Palestinian civilians get killed. Yes. Well, to be honest, when we want to feel better, we turn on the television to see the demonstrations. When we see the demonstrations, London, Brussels, United States in different cities, Arab world, everywhere. When we see these demonstrations, we feel that somebody knows there is like a kind of movement. This helps us and we need further steps after the demonstration. We need lobbying. We need the people who elect their governments, who support those massacres and to say, no, we give you legitimacy to be human. Stop this inhumanity. We need the people to lobby on their governments that

this should not be supported. This is the real action that we need. Lobbying, lobbying, lobbying by the people, by the power of people. Yeah, I think it's one of those things. Some things will never change in America, at least not by voting. But some things, yeah, if enough people, and I think more people, like, I remember when I moved to America 15 years ago, when I was very young, I was 21. And I came into America and I had a free Palestine, like a badge on my jacket, like to sew things on my jacket, you know, and they sent me straight to secondary, you know, like the the they're like where they pat you down take all your clothes and go through your bags and such and like it just wasn't

as big of a concern i think more people in the 15 years since then have become aware of the tragedy and the loss of life and certainly now i've seen more people wake up to what's happening and and uh like protest or um you know get out and do things in a way that they they wouldn't have done 10 years ago and i think that's really uh it's good like and hopefully that demand for like people to be allowed to live with dignity and safety continues yes i mean i just always want to ask anybody like to say are you going are you happy to pay your tax for killing others? This is the very initial, very first question. Are you happy with this? Do you pay your tax for this or for anything that you like to have your tax to be paid for? Yeah, this is what we want. We are facing killing.

We are facing assassination and bombarding and so on. And we need, all what we need is humanity. Nothing else. Welcome. I'm Danny Thrill. Won't you join me at the fire and dare enter? Nocturnum, Tales from the Shadows, presented by iHeart and Sonora. An anthology of modern day horror stories inspired by the legends of Latin America.

From ghastly encounters with shapeshifters to bone-chilling brushes with supernatural creatures. I know you. Take a trip and experience the horrors that have haunted Latin America since the beginning of time. Listen to Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows as part of my Cultura podcast network available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. I found out I was related to the guy that I was dating. I don't feel emotions correctly. I am talking to a felon right now and I cannot decide if I like him or not.

Those were some callers from my call-in podcast, Therapy Gecko. It's a show where I take real phone calls from anonymous strangers all over the world as a fake gecko therapist and try to dig into their brains and learn a little bit about their lives. I know that's a weird concept, but I promise it's pretty interesting if you give it a shot.

Matter of fact, here's a few more examples of the kinds of calls we get on this show. I live with my boyfriend, and I found his piss jar in our apartment. I collect my roommate's toenails and fingernails. I have very overbearing parents. Even at the age of 29, they won't let me move out of their house. So if you want an excuse to get out of your own head and see what's going on in someone else's head, search for Therapy Gecko on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It's the one with the green guy on it. Hey, I'm Jacqueline Thomas,

the host of a brand new Black Effect original series, Black Lit, the podcast for diving deep into the rich world of Black literature. I'm Jack Peace Thomas, and I'm inviting you to join me and a vibrant community of literary enthusiasts dedicated to protecting and

celebrating our stories. Black Lit is for the page turners, for those who listen to audiobooks while commuting or page turners, for those who listen to audiobooks while commuting or running errands, for those who find themselves seeking solace, wisdom, and refuge between the chapters. From thought-provoking novels to powerful poetry, we'll explore the stories that shape our culture.

Together, we'll dissect classics and contemporary works while uncovering the stories of the brilliant writers behind them. Blacklit is here to amplify the voices of Black writers and to bring their words to life. Listen to Blacklit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I was thinking this morning of how, very obviously, when Russia bombed Ukrainian cities, most people said we should help the Ukrainians, send them arms, send them medical supplies. Some of them went and volunteered to fight for the Ukrainians. And I understand that obviously this conflict began in very different circumstances than the Russia-Ukraine conflict. But nonetheless, little children are being killed and continue to be killed.

And the response wasn't the same. And I think some of that comes from a not particularly hard to see Orientalism in the US and the US media. like, are not particularly hard to see Orientalism in the US and the US media. Also, some of it comes from the complete absence of Palestinian voices, certainly in the English language press in America. And I wonder, like, I know that there are certain organizations which have specifically worked to make it harder for Palestinian journalists, like my friend Hossam Salem. He's an excellent photographer.

You can find him on all the places where you find people on the internet uh but we worked on stories together and like i know he's he's now had he's lost contracts with major outlets um because of this sort of campaign of accusing him of bias i think um it's hard not to be biased when you see little children die um but i wonder if you could talk about that, like how Palestinian voices are excluded or missing from, even now, right, the Atlantic, since two weeks of bombing now, and I was looking this morning and they've managed to find two Palestinian voices to share.

Like, you know, it may be none. I'll have to check that after we've done. But I was flicking through these big sort of opinion piece type outlets. And it's very clear that even now, people haven't, editors specifically or the greater press has not stopped excluding Palestinian voices. So maybe we could talk about how that happens, what allows that to happen and what people can do to help lift up those voices. can do to help lift up those voices? Well, yes. Palestinian voices are being banned all over by different movements. They

are many times fired from their works in big news outlets and media outlets for different political reasons. If you want to go in through the stories you find that some people are just trying to make to make problems for those people to let them leave their work and stop writing or telling the news

or analyzing or anything about the Palestinian cause and what's going on we're facing this globally and we have many cases recorded and documented in the PGS and we can give you many examples about them. But I have to tell about something that we are a member of the International Federation of Journalists and we have also even our president of the Palestinian Journalist Syndicate. He's a vice president of the International Federation of Journalists. He has been elected last year in the last Congress.

We have sister unions. One of them, one of the best friends of us are the National Writers Union, the American National Writers Union, which is a very big supporter to us. They even, Larry Goldbetter, the general secretary, even he visited us in Palestine a few months ago. And he is a very supporter of what's going on, of all our statements, of our news. At the beginning of the war, they produced a statement about bias and misleading news and so on, how to avoid them, supporting the Palestinians, supporting our right to life and so on. So we would highly appreciate this movement. Of course, he's not the only one.

Many, many syndicates, many unions all over the world sent us solidarity letters. Some of them supported us even with some in-kind contribution with some funds in addition to solidarity in addition to demonstrations and so on which which really gave us a lot of power of hope so we can continue and we are not alone yeah i think that's really powerful yeah and well i mean it's not enough but it's something that unions think people also, if they're members of a union can encourage their union to do that, right. Just to make a statement. Yeah. Just to show some solidarity.

I wonder like what, um, you talked about in-kind donations and you talked about the support you're getting from unions. I know, uh, one unions, um, which I'm a member of the industrial workers of the world, uh, One of the unions on which I'm a member, the Industrial Workers of the World, FJU, just did a fundraiser or is still doing a fundraiser for a flak vest, a bulletproof vest for journalists. What kind of support can people give like in a concrete sense beyond getting in the streets and protesting and writing letters and emails and phone calls? Is there stuff that they can do with their money if they have some money well it's not a kind of money it's a kind of um i will tell you now in the situation in gaza we we can't all what we do we need is a ceasefire to be honest they even don't have fresh water to drink by the way and they try to minimize the water they drink

and they know that the water they drink is not very clean but just to survive so you can start with this very basic need of life and then you go further as i already told you the safety vests are very important but when you are under airstrikes, this will never help you. But if I want to talk about the daily life, about how it's going in the West Bank and Gaza, our journalists, we all work under the same conditions of aggressive events, covering aggressive events and so on. So we try as

PJS to contact all the media outlets in Palestine to offer or provide safety kits for all journalists who work in the field. But for example, our freelancers, they work

on their own responsibility and in very dangerous situation. freelancers, they work on their own responsibility and in a very dangerous situation, we try to tell how dangerous that what they do when you go to cover with, you don't have very full safety

kits or vests. It's very dangerous for them, but they are not able to cover it and they want to they need to work they need to do their job so they do it in a very strange sorry dangerous conditions so one of the things that we can support journalists is yes safety kits which are very important medical kits also are very important. Medical kits also are very important. What else?

We try to do, also we try to raise the awareness to make some materials for the journalists about safety. Safety is very important for us. We try to teach them more about how to take care of themselves, how to report and so on about their security and so on. Yeah.

This is mainly what I can talk about for the needs or the in-kind contribution. As I told you in the current situation, for example, we try to support through some donations, to support the journalists with charging batteries because of the lack of electricity and power sources in Gaza. So just to keep them connected currently, and they are very useful for them and it helps now. Yeah, I can see it. And it's probably best that you guys just have money and then you can be flexible in getting what people need. I think that's generally the best advice is when there's a crisis is to send the

people nearest to it money and then they can decide what they need. I certainly, I found that I found that in a lot of places I worked. Um, so you talked about the power situation. I think that sort of has gone relatively unreported. I mean, they'll say, like, the power and water have been cut off. But that creates a lot of other dangerous situations, right? Like, obviously, some people rely on that power if they're infirm, if they have medical devices, that kind of thing.

But also, like, where there are places to charge, that results in a very high concentration of people. My friend was telling me that their parents were in a hospital to charge their devices. They wanted to call their child and say, we're safe, we're alive. But their phone had run out of battery, so they had to go to the hospital.

Can you explain a little bit of some of the things that that has resulted in the loss of power for people? Yes, of course. First of all, let me tell you that we already requested all our journalists in Gaza to be in the hospitals for their safety. We try. We expect that it would be a safe place, but there is no safe place in Gaza now, as you already know about the hospitals that have been targeted. But we already asked them to be in the hospitals.

We try to make some press zones in the hospitals, some places where it's for press, for journalists to be there, so they can get some electricity, power, and so they can all be together, try to exchange information and work together. So it will be better for them to work and safer, between brackets always, for them to work. To be honest, yes. I don't know if you see the news now. We had, the sun has set,

so it's completely dark in Gaza. You just can have some light in spots, which are the hospitals. And you know that even the solar and the, sorry, the fuel for hospitals is about to finish in two days, I think maximum. But we will see, maybe they will have some trucks or they will get something inside Gaza for fuel and so on. But I'm not sure about this. Yeah, I think every day it's changing, I guess. And I wonder, talking about getting things into Gaza,

getting things to people in Gaza, a thing that seems to be completely like, I don't know, it genuinely seems to me that people think people could just walk out of Gaza and go somewhere else. So I guess just to be extremely clear on that, can you explain the situation for people in Gaza with respect to their mobility and their ability to leave? Because I think it's something that, again, has been criminally overlooked in the United States discourse. Ability to leave Gaza, you mean?

Yeah. Or lack thereof would be more accurate, right? The complete absence of that. Well, unfortunately, people in Gaza are blocked. They are not allowed to leave Gaza with any kind of borders. Even the people who have international passports like American, European or whatever have international passports like American, European or whatever passports, they are not able to leave Gaza. They have to face their fate now. They are just displaced from place to another. Some people have been displaced four times in four areas, different areas, and others were displaced and bombed later. So, no, they are blocked. They are blocked in a very limited area,

which is under strikes the whole time. No place is safe. Even the Baptist hospital, they thought that it would be a Baptist hospital, a hospital related to a church and so on. It was a strike massively, cruelly. More than 500 have been killed. They were all children. Mothers are sitting just as a thinking that it would be a shelter for them.

So, yes, this is the situation in Gaza. There is no safe place, no hospitals. If you are in a hospital, you will be bombed. If you are in a school, you will be bombed. If you are in a mosque, you will be bombed. If you are in a church, you will be bombed. No safe place, unfortunately. Yeah, it's unimaginable. And like, the don't know, the act of bombing, we were talking about this before we started, but like, when you're being bombed, it's very different from like a small arms conflict, or even like a, you know, whatever, artillery, mortars, rockets, like,

there isn't much you can do to be safe. It's not like there is no cover from bombs. There are no shelters in Gaza. By the way, there are no underground shelters. Now they are in tents, by the way. They were in houses. Houses were falling on their heads, so they went to tents. So when the tent falls, it's... they went to tents so when the tent falls it's... Not so... yeah, Jesus, yeah, it's bleak. It's unimaginable, like I said. I just spent a week in a place that was being very... They are protected by the sky, which is full of planes bombing them. Yeah, yeah, and every time you look up you wonder what that is, and is this still time or is this still one?

Welcome. I'm Danny Thrill. Won't you join me at the fire and dare enter? Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows, presented by iHeart and Sonora. Tales from the Shadows, presented by iHeart and Sonora. An anthology of modern-day horror stories inspired by the legends of Latin America. From ghastly encounters with shapeshifters to bone-chilling brushes with supernatural creatures. I know you.

brushes with supernatural creatures. I know you. Take a trip and experience the horrors that have haunted Latin America since the beginning of time. Listen to Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows as part of My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I found out I was related to the guy that I was dating. I don't feel emotions correctly. I am talking to a felon right now, and I cannot decide if I like him or not. Those were some callers from my call-in podcast, Therapy Gecko.

Those were some callers from my call-in podcast, Therapy Gecko. It's a show where I take real phone calls from anonymous strangers all over the world as a fake gecko therapist and try to dig into their brains and learn a little bit about their lives. I know that's a weird concept, but I promise it's pretty interesting if you give it a shot. Matter of fact, here's a few more examples of the kinds of calls we get on this show. I live with my boyfriend and I found his piss jar in our apartment. I collect my roommate's toenails and fingernails. I have very overbearing parents. Even at the age of 29, they won't let me move out of their house.

So if you want an excuse to get out of your own head and see what's going on in someone else's head, to get out of your own head and see what's going on in someone else's head, search for Therapy Gecko on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It's the one with the green guy on it. Hey, I'm Jack Peace Thomas, the host of a brand new Black Effect original series, Black Lit, the podcast for diving deep into the rich world of Black literature. I'm Jack Peace Thomas, and I'm inviting you to join me

in a vibrant community of literary enthusiasts dedicated to protecting and celebrating our stories. Black Lit is for the page turners, for those who listen to audiobooks while commuting or running errands, for those who find themselves seeking solace, wisdom, and refuge between the chapters. From thought-provoking novels to powerful poetry, we'll explore the stories that shape our culture. Together, we'll dissect classics and contemporary works while uncovering the stories of the brilliant writers behind them. Blacklit is here to amplify the voices of Black writers and to bring their words to life.

Listen to Blacklit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So I think one thing people are really struggling with is like overload of information, misinformation, right? with is overload of information, misinformation, some of the worst pieces I've ever seen in opinion pieces, things sent on social media. It seems that we've returned to peak Islamophobic rhetoric of September 12th, 2001, and we've learned absolutely nothing from 20 years of killing and dying. So I wonder where you would recommend if there are members of your syndicate or other places where people can find reliable reporting, which is fact-checked, which is not overloading them. If you go on Twitter to try and find your information at the minute, you're just going to get into an argument with someone who has

the worst opinions in the world. And it's not good. And it can dissuade you from taking action in the ways that you've mentioned, which are actually useful. So is there a place you'd suggest people look for information, outlets or individuals they could follow? Well, who wants to know the truth will be will find it um you know the media is always any media outlet it has its um it has its mandate and vision and so on so i just advise everyone

when you go for any outlet media outlet just try to read about it what's what's its mandate who's they are related to who's are they are supporting and so on or so to know from which perspective you will know the truth i can't tell now the names of outlets because um i am it's not me who to decide who's the right one. As you know, I work in a syndicate, which is like a union, which is for all journalists with all outlets. So they are all our members. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I think that's good advice so that people can take more. It's good advice that people can take more broadly because i think people are completely unaware the ownership of some outlets that mandate their perceived biases yes try to read about them not only the new itself not the the the news itself

but try to see about this outlet about this, how it's working, what their objectives are, how do they work, and what are their connections and so on. So you will know which kind of news they are covering and how do they cover it. Yes. Yes, this is what I can say. For us as the Palestinian Journalist Syndicate, we try now to report about journalists because this is our mandate. This is our work to tell about what's going for our members to try to get any protection for them. Actually, we are disabled in this very hard condition.

But we try through our friends, through our relations, through our supporters, through our memberships and so on, to have some international support for them through information, through like a flow of information telling what's going on, how many journalists have been killed, how many journalists are displaced, how many, and so on. So we try to give data. Those data are not, as I already told you, it's really a hard job that we are doing now. It's getting more and more difficult. We are trying to co-opt, trying to develop new tools to cope with this hard, very hard situation. But we try our maximum to be

honest, to get very real and true information, not to get any misleading information. There's a flow of misleading information. Even we hear about many journalists that they are killed. But when we try to make sure that we found that they are not journalists, we don't put them in our lists. We try to investigate as much as we can. So to put our lists to be limited to journalists, to our members, to the people who work with us within our mandate and so on. So to be a credible source of information. Yeah, I think it's very important. I don't know if you guys who shared it, I

showed a video early on um it was when i was still in syria and kurdistan but we were watching it of a funeral of three journalists who have been killed um yeah and like someone was saying at the funeral that they were speaking and said someone else will pick up his camera and like keep documenting things which really was very emotional for me and my friends uh yeah it was really sad but um yes it is yes i believe you it's it's uh it's just you know that's a thing that i do and i see people you know dressed like me people i know uh and it's been very of your coverage of that has been very i don't know emotionally challenging for me but it's should be emotionally challenging

it's terrible um but i think people should definitely tune into it if they can. I wonder, are there like social media accounts that the PJs has that people can follow? Yes, we have a, um, um, Facebook page. Uh, it's, uh, on Facebook. Yes. It's a Palestinian journalist syndicate. Um, just, uh, and we try to we try to download all our news on it. Also, we have our website, which is www.pjs.ps.

Also, you can find some news, statements, updates, and so on. Yeah, that's great. And I encourage people to follow that if they're able to. I wonder, Renee, is there anything else you think that people, like anything that's been missing from the media narrative that you'd like people to know about the situation now in Palestine or the situation more broadly that hasn't been reported on as much as it should be?

I just want to add something about besides what's going on in Gaza, even journalists in the West Bank, even Palestinian journalists in Israel are facing a lot of threats, facing a lot of problems. There is a massive campaign of arrests. So up to now, in,000, in three days, 1,000 persons have been arrested. We're trying to find the number of journalists, which is, I'm not sure about it, but I can't give you the figure, as I told you, because of the big number,

we're trying to make sure who are the journalists. But a massive arrest campaign is taking place now. Also, journalists are facing a lot of threats about a lot of violations while covering. Many times they are prevented from coverage, they are threatened by weapons, they are threatened sometimes by the settlers, armed settlers even, not the army, while covering. Many of them also, they are subject to incitement through social media pages, like spreading their photos or their... and so to make a kind of incitement how to kill them or to to get rid of them and so on so also the journalists are facing a very hard time now um yeah they are under a threat yeah damn yeah that's terrible um and yeah completely unacceptable so um yeah i'm glad you

shared that and i think it's important that people follow this and do whatever they can to help um do whatever they can to to i don't know to encourage people to stop bombing other people like it's never a good situation when people are bombing children and hopefully it comes to an end like it i don't know i've never seen this much outgoing support for palest the United States, but this is an unprecedented act of war crimes. So it's very hard to see where this is going, I suppose. Yes, we believe that the voice is reaching, maybe a little little by not that fast, not that easy because it's not easy

but we believe in every person who thinks and say no this is inhuman I should not, I should be with those people who are under attack who are under yeah a lot of hard life yeah it's a hard life a lot of hard life.

Yeah, it's a hard life. A lot of oppression. So when we see the, as I told you, when we see the demonstrations, it really gives us power. It really gives us that we have right to life.

This is a minimum right that we need people to tell us, yes, you have a right to life. Yeah, I think that's nice to hear. It's like if you can feel that you're helping, even just helping people feel a little bit elevated, a little bit better, a little bit less despairing. Because I can see how it would be very easy if you're stuck in Gaza

to feel like the world's abandoned you, because it has to a large degree. The world's allowed you because it has to a large degree right like the world's allowed this to happen um and it's you know it's not it's american bombs american planes dropping bombs on little children unfortunately um it yeah so i think that's really good to hear it's good to hear that that um has made some difference thank you so much for giving us some of your time. I know it's getting late. Thank you, James. Thank you for having me with you. I wish you all good luck. Thank you.

Thank you all who are listeners to this podcast. I hope that I was able to give you an overview of what's going on. And let's pray that this violence will end very soon. Yes. Yeah, yeah, indeed. Thank you very much. It was wonderful. Thank you. It Could Happen Here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, visit our website, coolzonemedia.com,

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