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On August 15, 2024, we announced that, alongside Defending Rights & Dissent and Roots Action, the Courage Foundation has co-organized a new coalition of media freedom advocates, news rooms and journalists, to co-author a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, urging the U.S. to immediately cease sending weapons to Israel amid the country’s widespread killing of journalists in Palestine.
As we write to Sec. Blinken, Israel has killed at least 160 journalists in Palestine since the beginning of its assault on Gaza, it has imposed military censorship on both its own journalists and international reporters and has intentionally targeted reporters to shield its war from global scrutiny. The letter calls the U.S. to immediately stop abetting Israel’s war on journalists by ceasing the transfer of all weapons to the country.
“By providing the weapons being used to deliberately kill journalists, you are complicit in one of the gravest affronts to press freedom today.”
The letter was signed by seven press freedom organizations, 20 news outlets, and 113 journalists, including Pulitzer Prize-winners Spencer Ackerman, Laura Poitras, Kai Bird, and Chris Hedges, WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson, James Bamford of PBS, Tareq Hajjaj of Mondoweiss, and Ryan Grim of Drop Site News, among many more.
The Nation op-ed
The following day, our Executive Director Nathan Fuller and Defending Rights & Dissent’s Policy Director Chip Gibbons published an op-ed in The Nation magazine, explaining why we organized this coalition now.
“After 10 months of indiscriminate bombing, we all must speak up. Only with contentious people around the world loudly condemning these horrific abuses can we hope to create the necessary international pressure to bring them to an end.
Earlier this year, Secretary Blinken called on “every nation to do more to protect journalists” while affirming “unwavering support for free and independent media around the world.” But just 13 days after Israel killed Ismail al-Ghoul, and 12 days after the IDF justified his murder, the United States approved a $20 billion weapons package to Israel, to include fighter jets and other military equipment. Blinken’s words ring hollow, and the journalist death toll continues to rise.”
Read the full piece here.
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Defending Rights and Dissent
Freedom of the Press Foundation
Roots Action
Media Coverage
Democracy Now
Literary Hub
Antiwar.com
Common Dreams
Middle East Eye
World Beyond War
Al Mayadeen
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