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          <div>Dear all:  Most of us like to try to keep up with the
            news, especially as it concerns Palestine. And most of this
            news has come to us from Palestinian reporters in Gaza, at
            least 260 of whom have been targeted and killed in Israeli
            attacks. So here's some news that it'll be crucial to keep
            up with in the coming months and years. This interview with
            the <i>New York War Crimes</i> first appeared in <a
href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/09/06/the-living-record-of-gazas-journalists/"
              target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">CP+</a> \u2014 it's also
            on my not-quite-open-to-the public website, <a
              href="http://snidelines." moz-do-not-send="true">snidelines.</a></div>
          <div><br>
          </div>
          <div>Be well; do not behave\u2014sd</div>
          <div><br>
          </div>
          <div>
            <div style="text-align:center"><img
src="https://www.counterpunch.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/anas-al-sharif-reporting-israeli-attack.jpeg"
                width="436" height="245" style="margin-right:0px"
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            </div>
            <p style="font-weight:400"></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif"><b>\u201cWe Call Them
                  Martyrs Because That\u2019s What They Are\u201d \u2022 The Living
                  Record of Gaza\u2019s Journalists</b></font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif">T</font><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif">hanks to books
                deconstructing Western mass media, from <i>Manufacturing
                  Consent</i> to <i>How to Sell a Genocide</i>, we on
                the US left are getting pretty good at spotting the
                journalistic techniques that legacy news uses to
                normalize the geopolitical gutting of Palestine. But,
                although we may despise genocide-rationalizing outlets
                like the <i>New York Times</i>, lots of us stay
                grudgingly attached to them. Western media may scarcely
                mention Gazan journalists like Anas Al-Sharif; they may
                gloss over events like Israel\u2019s August 2025 bombing of
                the media tent outside Al-Shifa Hospital that killed
                Al-Sharif and five of his crew. But outlets like the <i>New
                  York Times </i>roll on. They remain the <i>power</i>,
                the <i>establishment</i>\u2014the only game in town.</font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif">But what if we\u2019re in
                the wrong town?</font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif">The Palestinian press,
                far less powerful and established, is barely in the
                game. Yet, journalistically, it is the moral and
                political opposite of outlets like the <i>Times</i>.
                For decades, Israel has targeted and killed Palestinian
                journalists. But, because of their coverage of what
                Israel has recently done to Gaza, Israel has murdered at
                least 260 Gazan journalists since October 2023. So,
                forget the <i>New York Times</i>. We need to pay
                attention to this.</font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif">The Living Record will
                help. The Record is a recently launched interactive
                website, an online memorial to Anas Al-Sharif and the
                growing number of his slain colleagues. A project of
                Writers Against the War on Gaza (WAWOG), along with the
                Palestinian Youth Movement and the Palestinian Feminist
                Collective, <a
                  href="https://newyorkwarcrimes.com/livingrecord/"
                  target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">The Living
                  Record</a> is the largest oral archive created since
                Israel\u2019s October 7th onslaught began.</font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif">The Record is ordered
                into two groups: \u201cmartyrs,\u201d the slain media workers, and
                \u201ccontributors,\u201d the survivors who remember them. Scroll
                over the name of any journalist; you\u2019ll see their press
                photo. Now, click to see more photos, the journalist\u2019s
                biography; hear friends, family, coworkers, talk about
                them in Arabic, as you read their words in English. At
                this point, only about 50 of the assassinated
                journalists appear online, but more will be added. This
                is a project that will go on.</font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif">The Record is produced
                largely by the <a href="https://newyorkwarcrimes.com/"
                  target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"><i>New York War
                    Crimes</i></a>, a newspaper started by WAWOG in
                November 2023, which displays an anti-legacy masthead
                promising \u201cAll the Consent That\u2019s Fit to Manufacture.\u201d
                The <i>NYWC</i> focuses mainly on stories about Gaza,
                as written by Palestinians. It\u2019s run by a collective
                whose members remain in touch with writers in Gaza and
                the West Bank, and commission their work. In fact, one
                of those writers, with whom the collective had developed
                a close relationship, was Anas Al-Sharif.</font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif">The <i>NYWC </i>collective,
                weary of the <a
href="https://lithub.com/a-protest-newspaper-is-gaining-traction-but-whats-next-for-the-new-york-war-crimes/"
                  target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">Western cult of
                  prestige</a>, is also committed to remaining
                anonymous. So, when I interviewed a collective member
                about The Living Record, they asked not to be
                identified. I began by asking \u201cNYWC\u201d how The Record got
                started, and why it\u2019s centered around Anas Al-Sharif.</font></p>
            <img
src="https://www.counterpunch.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/anas-al-sharif_hossam-shabat.jpg"
              width="354" height="261" style="margin-right:0px"
              moz-do-not-send="true"> </div>
          <div><br>
          </div>
          <div><b><span style="font-family:georgia,serif"><font size="4">Born
                  and remained in Gaza</font></span></b></div>
          <div>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif"><b>NYWC: </b>We never
                imagined that Anas al-Sharif would be martyred. Not
                because the Zionist genocide would spare him, but
                because he existed as an enduring symbol in our minds,
                as the man who once stood in front of the camera and
                announced the first ceasefire, and therefore, as the man
                who would do so again.</font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif">After he was
                assassinated on August 10th, 2025, we asked ourselves:
                How do we commemorate him? What is our responsibility to
                Anas and to journalists like him? How should he be
                remembered by those of us who failed to protect him?
                Collectively, on a call, we reached out to his
                colleagues, and from that initial call, we received
                responses that were inspiring and instructive.</font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif">Everyone who knew Anas
                said that he would not want to be exceptionalized. He
                was someone who put the cause before his career, before
                his life. And, you know, when he wrote for the <i>New
                  York War Crimes</i>, reporting about his colleague <a
                  href="https://newyorkwarcrimes.com/stand-with-fadi"
                  target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">Fadi al-Wahidi</a>,
                who was rendered paraplegic after being shot in the neck
                by an Israeli sniper, he refused our offer of payment.
                \u201cMy job is to tell the story,\u201d he said.</font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif">We realized one job we
                could do was to compile an oral and textual history,
                heeding the words of, for example, <a
href="https://newyorkwarcrimes.com/livingrecord/anas-al-sharif/#samira-nassar"
                  target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">Samira Nassar</a>,
                who says that the names of not only Anas, whom she
                loved, but of all the martyred journalists should be
                written in gold\u2014actually, she says, <i>liquid</i> gold,
                <i>living</i> gold. We hear versions of this sentiment
                over and over again, the call to keep their names alive,
                keep the record alive.</font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif">Israel has killed more
                than 260 journalists since October 7th. By the time you
                publish this, it may be more than 270. This project is
                our attempt to remember 50 of them\u2014to honor not just the
                martyrs, but the family, friends, and colleagues they
                left behind, who must continue to live without them. We
                needed to immortalize the record as an attempt to never
                forget their sacrifice.</font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif"><b>sd:    </b><i>Can
                  you give me a profile of a typical Gazan journalist? </i></font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif"><b>NYWC:     </b>Bisan
                Owda said it best in her <a
href="https://newyorkwarcrimes.com/livingrecord/journalists-as-a-collective/#bisan-owda"
                  target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">testimony</a>:
                \u201cI am incapable of seeing Palestinian journalists as
                ordinary humans who do their jobs, then leave\u2026. We sleep
                on the street. We sleep in tents. We die, and so do our
                families, who are also targeted. We live in schools. We
                live without water. We search for food and after that,
                water and shelter. We provide for the hungry children
                waiting for us at home.\u201d</font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif">Almost every single
                journalist in this project was born in Gaza and remained
                in Gaza. They reported on their own streets, their own
                camps, their own families. For example, Anas al-Sharif
                was from Jabalia refugee camp, and he began reporting
                there. Imagine, you\u2019re telling a story about the block
                where you were born. Of course, you\u2019re going to do
                everything you can to tell it truthfully, because it\u2019s
                your duty and because, if you fail, you\u2019re letting down
                people you\u2019ve known your whole life. That\u2019s different
                from taking an assignment and going out into the field.</font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif"><b>Reporting that
                  needs to happen</b></font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><b><font size="4"
                  style="font-family:georgia,serif">s</font><font
                  size="4" style="font-family:georgia,serif">d:  </font></b><font
                size="4" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><i>Have most
                  of these journalists had formal training?</i></font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif"><b>NYWC:  </b>Many
                have, yes. Some are professors of journalism or media,
                and others are students. Some are practicing a family
                trade. <a
href="https://newyorkwarcrimes.com/livingrecord/hossam-shabat/#wissam-shabat"
                  target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">Wissam Shabat</a>
                talks about learning photojournalism from his brother <a
href="https://newyorkwarcrimes.com/livingrecord/hossam-shabat/"
                  target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">Hossam</a>. <a
href="https://newyorkwarcrimes.com/livingrecord/hamza-al-dahdouh/"
                  target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">Hamza
                  al-Dahdouh</a> followed in the footsteps of his
                father, Wael Dahdouh, who was Al Jazeera\u2019s bureau chief
                in Gaza. Israel killed Hamza in January 2024. Adam Abu
                Harbid\u2019s father, Zakaria, took the famous footage of the
                <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSI--W9UTY4"
                  target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">girl on the
                  beach in Gaza</a>, screaming after her family was
                martyred, in 2006. And Israel <a
href="https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2025/7/25/palestinian-journalist-adam-abu-harbid-killed-in-israeli-strike"
                  target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">killed Adam</a>
                twenty years later, in a strike on his family\u2019s tent.
                This is one of the contradictions of Israel\u2019s attempt at
                silencing Gaza\u2014the more journalists they kill, the
                clearer it becomes that reporting is a thing that needs
                to happen.</font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif">Of course, there are
                many journalists who\u2019ve learned organically,
                nontraditionally. Some of the contributors of the
                testimonies in the Living Record, and the martyrs also,
                were pushed into journalism by the genocide, or forced
                into a different kind of journalism, into war reporting.
                <a
href="https://newyorkwarcrimes.com/livingrecord/alhassan-matar/#abubaker-abed"
                  target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">Abubaker Abed</a>,
                for instance, wanted to be a sports commentator before
                the genocide. At twenty years old, he became a war
                correspondent instead.</font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif"><b>sd: </b><i>Are
                  journalists in Gaza sometimes resented because of
                  having a certain status</i>?</font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif"><b>NYWC: </b>In the
                West\u2013and rightly so, after decades of mainstream media
                carrying water for hundreds of war crimes\u2013there\u2019s a
                cynicism one feels about media and capital-J Journalism.
                But Gazan journalists don\u2019t have that. What we know and
                see and hear is that they\u2019re admired. <a
href="https://newyorkwarcrimes.com/livingrecord/hassan-eslayeh/"
                  target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">Hassan Eslayeh</a>
                was one of the best-known journalists in the strip,
                someone who worked for CNN and Associated Press and
                foreign press consistently. When Israel killed him, he
                was mourned everywhere in Palestine, particularly in
                Gaza.</font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif"><b>sd: </b><i>What </i><i>about
                  the major media outlets? If these journalists are
                  doing good work, can we trust Al Jazeera, Reuters, AP,
                  etc. to get it out there? Also, why did </i><a
href="https://ifex.org/al-jazeera-terminates-employment-of-palestinian-journalists-and-media-workers-amid-ongoing-war/"
                  target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"><i>Al Jazeera
                    recently fire 24</i></a><i> Palestinian journalists?</i></font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif"><b>NYWC:  </b>Al
                Jazeera hasn\u2019t explained itself. What we know is that 24
                Palestinian journalists and media workers lost their
                contracts last month. They were offered freelance work
                instead: no benefits, no insurance, no security. One of
                them was <a
                  href="https://www.instagram.com/mahmoud.b.shalha/"
                  target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">Mahmoud Shalha</a>,
                who was fired in a 15-second phone call after three
                years on staff. This happens as the world is looking
                away from Gaza, paying much less attention, now that, on
                paper, there\u2019s a ceasefire.</font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif">All these major
                international outlets rely on Gaza\u2019s journalists to send
                footage and information, because Israel refuses to let
                foreign journalists into the strip. The freelance model
                in Gaza is exploitative. The safety of a staff writer or
                photographer is rarely, if ever, considered. Journalists
                work short contracts for very little money, without any
                control over their work, and these institutions take no
                responsibility for the journalists or for what they
                publish.</font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif">American legacy
                outlets, especially, have committed malfeasance on every
                level when it comes to how they cover the war on Gaza,
                how they frame the footage they get from Gaza\u2019s
                journalists. These are images of the most horrifying
                devastation, starvation, starving children. And they
                appear next to headlines that diminish or justify what
                we can all see with our own eyes. Look at what happened
                when the <i>New York Times</i> finally\u2013after months of
                pressure\u2013put the <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/24/world/middleeast/gaza-starvation.html"
                  target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">famine on the
                  front page</a>. The Israeli government and the
                American Zionist watchdogs went after them. By the way,
                the father of the <i>Times </i>executive editor Joe
                Kahn was a board member for one of these <a
href="https://theintercept.com/2024/01/28/new-york-times-daily-podcast-camera/"
                  target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">media watchdog</a>
                groups, <a href="https://www.camera.org/"
                  target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">CAMERA</a>\u2014so
                the <i>Times</i> immediately caved. After two years of
                lies and obfuscations, they issued a correction. They
                all but <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/30/pageoneplus/editors-note-july-30-2025.html"
                  target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">apologized</a>
                for telling the truth.<b> </b></font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif">Obviously, the<i> New
                  York Times</i> has been an asset to the Israeli
                occupation. The day after al-Sharif was killed, for
                example, they parroted claims that he was a Hamas
                operative and that Al Jazeera backs \u201cterrorist\u201d
                organizations. This readiness to peddle <a
href="https://www.newarab.com/news/understanding-hasbara-israels-propaganda-machine"
                  target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">hasbara</a> is
                one of the many reasons why we urge readers and writers
                to <a href="https://www.boycottdivestunsubscribe.com/"
                  target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">boycott,
                  divest, and unsubscribe</a> from the <i>Times</i>.</font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif">Hossam Shabat <a
href="https://newyorkwarcrimes.com/the-martyr-hossam-shabat"
                  target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">said it clearly</a>:
                "Language makes genocide justifiable. A reason why we
                are still being bombed \u2026 is because of <i>The New York
                  Times</i> and most Western media. They continue to
                spread misinformation, and are willing to jump many
                hoops instead of stating that Israel is committing
                genocide or that Israel is killing Palestinians daily."</font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif"><b>sd:  </b><i>What
                  are the conditions under which reporters work now,
                  during the so-called ceasefire? And what\u2019s going on in
                  terms of covering the West Bank?</i></font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif"><b>NYWC: </b>Certainly,
                what\u2019s happening in the West Bank goes hand-in-hand with
                the situation in Gaza. Perhaps the attacks in Gaza now
                are less than they were than at the peak of the
                genocide\u2014but in July alone, there were more martyrs than
                at any time since the beginning of the \u201cceasefire.\u201d
                Military raids are surging in Jenin Camp in the West
                Bank, where occupation forces just killed three
                Palestinians in a bombing. Last week, there was a mass
                funeral held in Gaza for over 100 martyrs. The
                aggression continues, as does the famine and starvation.
                The conditions of the blockade, the bottlenecked
                aid\u2014which is one of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation\u2019s
                tactics of murder\u2014continue. Their extremity may have
                lessened, but what\u2019s important is that all this
                bombardment and starvation continue, with less attention
                being paid to them.</font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif">Meanwhile, Israel is
                dismembering Gaza. Piece by piece, Gaza is being taken
                apart and reoccupied. If we don\u2019t do something, Gaza
                will be lost.</font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif"><b>sd:  </b><i>After
                  so many reporters have been killed, w</i><i>hat\u2019s the
                  quality of journalism coming out of Gaza now?</i></font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif"><b>NYWC:  </b>It\u2019s
                important to understand how journalism in Gaza works, in
                practice. Most of the internet\u2014like most of the
                electricity\u2014is actually in very particular places,
                usually hospitals. Actually, the first anniversary of
                the death of <a
href="https://newyorkwarcrimes.com/livingrecord/mariam-abu-dagga/"
                  target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">Mariam Abu
                  Dagga</a> was on August 25. She was killed in an
                attack [at <a
href="https://www.npr.org/2025/08/25/nx-s1-5515630/israel-gaza-journalists-killed-hospital"
                  target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">Nasser Hospital
                  in Khan Younis</a>]. When deaths like these happen,
                the Zionist accusations come out: <i>What were they
                  doing at the hospital? How could they all have been
                  there?</i></font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif">They\u2019re there because
                that\u2019s where the electricity and internet are. That\u2019s
                why many of the journalists tend to be around these
                hospitals. For example, when the <i>New York War Crimes</i>
                commissions a journalist to write something, typically,
                the journalist has dedicated hours. To work outside
                their home, they often have to walk many, many miles,
                charge their laptop for an extended period of time, and
                then, within those constrained hours, come back home.</font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif">It\u2019s miraculous that
                journalists in Gaza continue to break news and report
                with such accuracy and depth and relentlessness, despite
                the threat of detainment, imprisonment, or death. As <a
href="https://newyorkwarcrimes.com/livingrecord/journalists-as-a-collective/#sami-abu-salem"
                  target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">Sami Abu Salem</a>
                points out in his testimony, the Second World War lasted
                six years and 69 journalists were killed. Israel killed
                more than 200 media workers in the first twenty months
                of this genocide. Yet for every martyr, a new voice is
                born. So these stories will not only be told, but will
                be told with the utmost devotion.</font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif"><b>Hire these people,
                  publish their work! </b></font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif"><b>sd:  </b><i>H</i><i>ow
                  is that quality getting out there? Where can we find
                  their work?</i></font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif"><b>NYWC:  </b>Most
                journalists run their own Instagram pages, so you can
                reach out there. A place to start would be the <a
href="https://newyorkwarcrimes.com/livingrecord/#contributors"
                  target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">contributors</a>
                on The Living Records website or the <i>New York War
                  Crimes</i>. Unfortunately, outside of social media,
                many of them get ignored.</font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif">So it\u2019s incumbent upon
                left-aligned publications, especially those with writers
                and editors who support Palestine, to hire these people,
                to publish their work. They don\u2019t want special
                treatment. They go through the standard protocols:
                pitching, receiving edits, that\u2019s how they want it. It
                baffles us when these outlets bring in a foreign
                correspondent, or God forbid, an Israeli, to talk about
                the situation in Gaza.</font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif"><b>sd: </b><i>Could
                  you comment on the fact\u2014taken for granted by Western
                  media\u2014that Israeli journalists are basically embedded
                  in the IDF? Yet Palestinian journalists are often
                  accused of being agents for Hamas.</i></font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif"><b>NYWC: </b>Actually,
                there\u2019s a testimony by <a
href="https://www.aljazeera.com/author/ahmed-al-najjar" target="_blank"
                  moz-do-not-send="true">Ahmed Bassam al-Najjar</a>
                [coming out this fall]. He tells the story about an
                Israeli journalist named Yinon Magal who goes into
                southern Lebanon with the army, <a
href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/israelis-blow-house-southern-lebanon-memory-slain-soldier"
                  target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">blows up a
                  building</a>, even brags about it, and nothing happens
                to him. Meanwhile, if you read Western media, you get
                the impression that Israeli journalists need to embed
                with the military because it\u2019s so dangerous in
                Gaza\u2014without a word about who\u2019s making it so.</font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif">And it isn\u2019t only
                Israeli journalists who embed with the occupation army.
                American journalists embed with the Israeli military
                too, which their editors argue, is the only way to get
                into Gaza. These are the same editors who will
                immediately fire a stringer whose second cousin is a
                member of Hamas. The stated intent is to preserve
                so-called <i>objectivity</i>, a concept understood to
                be the special dominion of those who can afford to keep
                their distance from death\u2014which, by the same logic, is
                out of reach for those dying and mourning. The effect is
                to delegitimize the Palestinian claim to the Palestinian
                narrative.</font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif">So it\u2019s an overtly
                racist, colonial double standard at work. There is no
                form of Palestinian resistance that will ever be granted
                legitimacy by the world\u2019s most immoral army, the Israeli
                occupation forces. If resistance were legitimate from
                the point of view of empire, it would not be resistance.</font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><b><font size="4"
                  style="font-family:georgia,serif">Martyrs incompatible
                  with the Knight Foundation</font></b></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif"><b>sd: </b><i>T</i><i>he
                  concept of martyrdom permeates The Living Record. Why?</i></font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif"><b>NYWC:  </b>It\u2019s
                important to understand that \u201cmartyr\u201d within Gaza is
                principally an Islamic conception. To be a martyr is to
                be someone who was killed, fighting for the cause of
                God. Those martyrs are taken to the highest levels of
                heaven, of Jannah. <i>Shahid</i>, the Arabic word for
                martyr, has the same root as the word for witness.</font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif">Sometimes people
                wonder, \u201cHow do we make this foreign \u2018martyr\u2019 concept
                more compatible to organizations like the Knight
                Foundation or the Committee to Protect Journalists?\u201d But
                the inherent point of The Living Record is that there <i>is</i>
                no compatibility. What you\u2019re hearing is voices, edited
                only to make them as clear and real as they were in the
                original. There\u2019s no way to make it more compatible.</font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif">On the site is
                testimony from <a
href="https://newyorkwarcrimes.com/livingrecord/roshdi-sarraj/#shrouq-al-aila"
                  target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">Shrouq al-Aila</a>,
                who talks about her husband [<a
href="https://newyorkwarcrimes.com/livingrecord/roshdi-sarraj/"
                  target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">Roshdi
                  al-Sarraj]</a> using his body to shield her and their
                daughter from an Israeli missile. Truly, the belief that
                her husband died protecting his family, in defense of
                Palestine, in defense of God\u2019s will, and is now in a
                better place\u2014it\u2019s an immensely powerful thing. It would
                be impossible to keep going in Gaza without that
                intimate and inherent belief. So, we call them martyrs
                because that\u2019s what they <i>are</i>.</font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif"><b>sd: </b><i>Where
                  do you see The Living Record going over the months or
                  years?</i></font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif"><b>NYWC: </b>Unfortunately,
                the project will continue to expand because Israel
                continues to reach across the region and target
                journalists. Already, there are literally hundreds more
                journalists in Gaza, the West Bank, and in Southern
                Lebanon, whom we would be humbled and honored to help
                memorialize. We\u2019ve had several contributors to the<i>
                  New York War Crimes </i>from the West Bank, a few of
                whom have been imprisoned for journalism. And in South
                Lebanon, what we\u2019re seeing is fundamentally the same
                thing we see in Gaza, an incremental occupation, a
                targeting of journalists, a restriction of movement that
                makes it harder to report on what\u2019s happening.</font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif">We see this archive as
                a record of failure\u2014massive institutional failure but
                also individual failure. None of us have done enough. We
                ask that, at the least, you follow and support
                Palestinian journalists. Cancel your subscription to the
                <i>New York Times</i> and give the money you save to the
                <a
href="https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/gaza-journalist-fund-support-evacuation"
                  target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">Gaza Journalist
                  Fund</a><b>\u2014</b>that\u2019s where any proceeds from The
                Living Record go.</font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif">Also, refuse the lie
                that the ceasefire agreement has stopped the killing,
                because July was the deadliest month this year in Gaza.
                <a href="https://cpj.org/data/people/ahmed-abu-mutair/"
                  target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">Ahmed Abu
                  Mutair</a> was killed ten days into this so-called
                ceasefire, when Israel targeted the offices of Palestine
                Media Production in Deir al Balah. <a
href="https://www.ifj.org/media-centre/news/detail/article/mohammed-salah-qashta-anas-ghneim-abdul-raouf-shaat"
                  target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">Mohammed Salah
                  Qashta, Anas Ghneim, and Abdul Raouf Shaat</a> were
                killed together in one airstrike in al-Zahra in January.
                <a
href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/8/israeli-attack-kills-al-jazeera-journalist-mohammed-wishah-in-gaza"
                  target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">Mohammed Wishah</a>
                was martyred in April in a targeted strike on his car,
                and two months later Israel killed his brother <a
href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/6/20/al-jazeera-cameraman-ahmad-wishah-killed-in-israeli-attack-in-gaza"
                  target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">Ahmed</a>\u2014they
                were both Al Jazeera cameramen\u2014in a strike on his house.</font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif">We are still learning
                these names too late. If you work in media, pressure
                your newsrooms, pressure your institutions, not only to
                hire, but defend and protect the journalists of Gaza.</font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif"><br>
              </font></p>
            <img
src="https://www.counterpunch.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/anas-al-sharifcolleages.png"
              width="309" height="303" style="margin-right:0px"
              moz-do-not-send="true"> <img
src="https://www.counterpunch.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/The-Living-Record_homepage-1536x808.png"
              width="578" height="304" moz-do-not-send="true"><br>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><br>
            </p>
            <p style="font-weight:400;text-align:center"><font size="4"
                style="font-family:georgia,serif"># # #</font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400;text-align:left"><font
                style="font-family:georgia,serif" size="2"><b>\u2014susie
                  day, 2026</b></font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400;text-align:left"><font
                style="font-family:georgia,serif" size="2"><b>Photos:</b></font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400;text-align:left"><font size="2"><i><font
                    style="font-family:georgia,serif"><b>Top:</b> Anas
                    Al-Sharif reporting Israeli attack on Gazac(Photo:
                    New York War Crimes)</font></i></font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400;text-align:left"><font size="2"><i><font
                    style="font-family:georgia,serif"><b>Middle:</b>
                    Hossam Shabbat and Anas Al-Sharif </font><font
                    style="font-family:georgia,serif">(Photo: New York
                    War Crimes)</font></i></font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400;text-align:left"><font size="2"><i><font
                    style="font-family:georgia,serif"><b>Bottom:</b>
                    Anas Al-Sharif with colleagues in Gaza </font><font
                    style="font-family:georgia,serif">(Photo: New York
                    War Crimes)</font></i></font></p>
            <p style="font-weight:400"><br>
            </p>
            <p style="font-weight:400">Susie Day
              <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:suzetsky@gmail.com">&lt;suzetsky@gmail.com&gt;</a></p>
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