Protests in Vancouver against Israel’s killing of journalists

A group of protesters gathered in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery on Saturday, Nov. 2, to protest the killing of journalists by the Israeli military over the past year. The protesters arrived around 2pm, most riding bicycles and carrying banners and flags. Some of the protesters wore blue vests with “press” emblazoned on them in white and had makeup to mimic fatal injuries such as headshot wounds or blood on their faces. 

Soon after arriving at the gallery, some participants brought cloths wrapped to resemble shrouded bodies, with red paint splattered on them, and lined them up on the steps of the art gallery. Most protesters wore Palestinian keffiyehs, the black and white checkered scarves symbolizing Palestinian solidarity. 

At around 2:45 pm, the first speaker, the MC, who did not identify their name, took the stage. Attendees then observed a moment of silence for the journalists killed in the conflict.

The MC introduced the first speaker, Alex Reid, and described him as an Indigenous writer. Reid spoke about colonialism, capitalism, and the media in his speech. 

“Our media is a colonial propaganda outlet. It is the megaphone that blares. It is the tool of our ruling class that divides us,” Reid said. “I want to say that we cannot lose our resolve. The Holocaust was legal. Apartheid was legal. The colonial and capitalist law is the weapon of our oppressors. It is their way to set forth a long process that determines the slow unfolding of our society. Under capitalist society, Indigenous people and marginalized people’s existence is criminalized,” he added. 

The second speaker was introduced as “Layla” and had her face covered with a scarf. 

“The language used by media outlets plays a critical role in shaping public opinion, allowing atrocities to be framed as mere collateral damage...The media regularly uses a passive and hypocritical tone. Whenever there are Israeli casualties, they are killed or butchered by Hamas, but Palestinians, they lose their lives or die with seemingly no perpetrator,” Layla said. “In less than one month, Human Rights Watch documented over 1,000 cases of content takedowns and suppression; this repression on the internet mirrors the repression on the ground as experienced by Palestinian journalists and Palestine supporters.” 

Other speakers included a Palestinian journalist introduced as Nasser, who spoke about his experiences and the loss of several of his colleagues in the current conflict. He mentioned the names of several of his friends and colleagues who were killed. 

“I would like for the next second to repeat the following names to the best that you can. Those were my friends. I was seeing them on a daily basis, working with them, eating with them,” he said. “Respect and salute to brave Israeli journalists in Haaretz and +972 for bringing out the truth,” he added. 

The final speaker at the protest was Adel Iskandar, associate professor of global communication at SFU, which is located in Burnaby. Iskandar spoke about the bias in the media coverage, the issues with framing the conflict in mainstream media, and how this affects public perception. 

“The Israeli press and media, with the few exceptions that Nasser mentioned, have reproduced a system of complete obfuscation and erasure of Palestinian life and history. Palestinians are not only absent, they are designed to disappear in the Israeli press,” Iskandar said. “No single conflict has been deadlier for journalists than this current genocide in Gaza. The Committee to Protect Journalists has documented more violations in a single year in Gaza than any other time in documented history.”  

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) a non-profit that documents attacks against journalists and is headquartered in New York with offices around the world, at least 137 journalists have been confirmed to have been killed in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, and Israel since Oct. 7, 2023. 

“Journalists in Gaza face particularly high risks as they try to cover the conflict, including devastating Israeli airstrikes, famine, the displacement of 90% of Gaza’s population, and the destruction of 80% of its buildings. CPJ is investigating more than 130 additional cases of potential killings, arrests and injuries, but many are difficult to document amid these harsh conditions,” the CPJ said on its website. “To date, CPJ has determined that at least five journalists were directly targeted by Israeli forces in killings which CPJ classifies as murders: Issam Abdallah, Hamza Al Dahdouh, Mustafa Thuraya, Ismail Al Ghoul, and Rami Al Refee. CPJ is still researching the details for confirmation in at least 22 other cases that indicate possible targeting.”

This piece was made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.

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