An Illumination: Terrorists or Journalists?

The Newseum in Washington, D.C., is considered one of the most comprehensive and enjoyable museums in the way it conveys the development of media since its humble beginnings, and even what it includes today by way of social media and other various media. The museum includes everything it possibly can related to media and the press; it compiles the front page of newspapers from nations around the world in all languages. As a result, it is not only American, but also has an international flavor to include international journalists and all the major events covered by the media such as wars, Sept. 11 and the revolutions of the Arab Spring. This museum, which I’ve visited more than once, is deemed among the valuable museums in the American capital. It can’t be overlooked due to the sheer amount of information it contains in its traditional and modern displays.

As the museum organizes many events dedicated to international journalists around the globe, this year it decided to honor 82 journalists who were killed in the line of duty by adding their names to a memorial wall of over 2,000 journalists who were killed over the course of more than a decade. The museum undertook the task of engraving the names on the glass façade of the museum in Washington, D.C. and honoring their loved ones. Among the journalists to be honored were Mahmoud al-Koumi and Hussam Salama, who both worked for the Palestinian television station Al-Aqsa. However, that same morning, museum organizers decided to “reconsider” whether or not they would honor the two of them. Of course, it is not surprising to learn that the Zionist and Israeli lobby in Washington were behind the Newseum’s sudden change of heart. Since finding out about these two Palestinian journalists’ inclusion in the memorial, they worked tirelessly to pressure the museum to reverse the decision; sure enough, they succeeded. Ironically, the Israeli embassy in Washington welcomed the move, which it sees as being in line with the values of journalism, which include knowing the “full story.”

The museum’s decision does not serve media or journalism — it even contradicts the values that the museum’s organizers urge and promote. When the Palestinian journalists were killed, Israel was launching its assault on Gaza and bombing not only military but also civilian targets with air strikes. As a result, the Israeli Embassy’s statement and the Newseum’s decision justify the killing that is part of the far-reaching Israeli military operations. These operations target more people than just “whoever works for a terrorist organization and for Hamas,” though this is the rationale of those who defend the decision to drop the Palestinian journalists’ names, namely Israel, the conservative Zionist lobby in Washington and those who participated in putting pressure on the museum, such as the research center Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), the Anti-Defamation League (a prestigious Zionist institution) and other Zionist and right-wing groups. But at the same time, they have forgotten that Reporters Without Borders (RSF) classified Israel among the 39 worst state “aggressors against the freedom of the press and media.” Also, in these same attacks in which the journalists were killed last November, Israel killed more than 162 people, the majority of whom were unarmed civilians. Israel has a long history of targeting noncombatants, whether they are reporters, activists or merely civilians.

The targeting of these journalists by Israel, without even supporting its claim that they were “terrorists,” reveals its premeditated intention to accuse and apply prejudices against the Palestinian side, considering them terrorists regardless of whether they carry a weapon or a camera. Israel even used the term “terrorist” and “terrorism” in its description of those journalists, therefore giving journalism a political nature. This is something that should not be done; politicizing the media introduces a lack of neutrality. Israel and the Zionist groups’ pressure and the Newseum’s obedience to them is nothing but a politicizing of the facts and ignoring Israel’s continued crimes that it always gives a legitimate air, whether it be launching pre-emptive or defensive operations. But didn’t the museum organizers ask themselves about the presence of these two journalists at this site with their photographic equipment, and how can one be killed and then afterward accused of belonging to a terrorist group while they are in the middle of doing their work in civilian clothes? Didn’t they wonder, for example, if every journalist or reporter killed during war has had their public and private political affiliations confirmed? Of course not; here it is clear that the rumors are true about the American media being controlled by Zionist pressure groups that promote Israeli government propaganda and Zionist ideology. This isn’t the case all the time, of course, but what happened with the Newseum is an indication of the power of the Zionist lobby in Washington. This lobby makes desperate efforts in defense of Zionism and in trying to make it appear legitimate, humane and logical, even if it means defaming dead people and even if those people are journalists killed by Israeli aggression.

In contrast, there is no Arab lobby similar in force and power to the Zionist lobby in Washington and elsewhere. This makes me wonder: Should we blame the presence of those biased lobbies and Zionist pressure groups or the absence of pressure groups and Arab research centers that could reveal the truths Israel and others falsify?