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Palestinian Journalist Fatally Shot While Covering Gaza Protest [W:13]

JacksinPA

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https://www.npr.org/sections/parall...list-fatally-shot-while-covering-gaza-protest

Palestinian photojournalist Yaser Murtaja covered plenty of funeral processions during the 2014 war in Gaza.

Now his colleagues are covering his death.
======================================
A 30-year-old Palestinian photojournalist wearing PRESS ID was targeted by Israeli soldiers at the Gaza border & was shot to death. He was operating a drone camera at the time. The Israeli troops use live ammunition & are apparently trying to suppress photojournalist coverage of the border fence protests. IOW, they deliberately murdered him.
 
absolutely NO different than US citizens here in AmeriKKKa getting murdered by law enforcement ................. same **** ............
 
Good. People die everyday. What was that about journalism being above politics?

What proof is there that an Israeli bullet ended his life? Yes, guilty until proved innocent? Is that the case you are making?
 
People trying to bum rush the Israeli border. It's called the fog of war. Play stupid games win stupid prizes. Why would the guy be flying a drone over the Israeli troops?


The Israeli military said it does not intentionally target journalists and is looking into the matter. Hours before Murtaja was shot, Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said soldiers employ lethal fire only as a last resort.

"No one gets shot by standing and looking. They are shot after commanders specifically approve it against a specific person or threat," Conricus said.

Late Saturday, Israel's Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman seemed to suggest Murtaja had flown a drone above soldiers when he was shot. He also said Hamas men had dressed up as journalists. He did not provide evidence to back the claims.

"You don't know who is a photographer and who is not," Lieberman said.

https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2018/04/07/600579223/palestinian-journalist-fatally-shot-while-covering-gaza-protest
 
They'd be wise to put cams on the snipers so they can say "here's the shot, here's what was going on right then."

I was dubious about the guy supposedly shot in the leg because you couldn't actually see or hear any evidence that he was shot (he didn't even yell out on "impact"). This looks worse.

It's always possible that a bona fide journalist would put on that press vest and still do something meriting a shooting, but that's more of a stretch.





I can't go into details about my views on the situation because I'll get yelled at, but basically, Israel has an unfortunate habit of going over the top at times - even given all factors in the last 80ish years that are in play.
 
Israel has no margin for error and there's no reason to assume the Palestinians would not use a fake credential. Flying a drone was a terrible mistake.
 
https://www.npr.org/sections/parall...list-fatally-shot-while-covering-gaza-protest

Palestinian photojournalist Yaser Murtaja covered plenty of funeral processions during the 2014 war in Gaza.

Now his colleagues are covering his death.
======================================
A 30-year-old Palestinian photojournalist wearing PRESS ID was targeted by Israeli soldiers at the Gaza border & was shot to death. He was operating a drone camera at the time. The Israeli troops use live ammunition & are apparently trying to suppress photojournalist coverage of the border fence protests. IOW, they deliberately murdered him.

You mean the anti-Israel riot....
 
"... Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said Saturday night, “I don’t know who is or isn’t a photographer. Anyone who operates drones above IDF soldiers needs to understand he’s putting himself in danger.”

... Liberman added: “We’ve seen dozens of cases where Hamas terrorists used ambulances, dressed up as Red Crescent personnel and disguised themselves as journalists. We won’t take an chances.” ..."


https://www.timesofisrael.com/hundreds-at-funeral-for-journalist-killed-covering-mass-gaza-protests/


What a fool of a journalist.
 
"... Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said Saturday night, “I don’t know who is or isn’t a photographer. Anyone who operates drones above IDF soldiers needs to understand he’s putting himself in danger.”

... Liberman added: “We’ve seen dozens of cases where Hamas terrorists used ambulances, dressed up as Red Crescent personnel and disguised themselves as journalists. We won’t take an chances.” ..."


https://www.timesofisrael.com/hundreds-at-funeral-for-journalist-killed-covering-mass-gaza-protests/


What a fool of a journalist.

Bingo.
 
Whatever happened to mostly non-lethal rubber bullets? The Israeli troops have guns.
 
Whatever happened to mostly non-lethal rubber bullets? The Israeli troops have guns.

Whatever happened to a sovereign state being able to protect itself?

Rubber bullets? really? While your enemy is shooting off countless scud missiles and rockets into your sovereign territory, burning massive piles of tires to produce smoke to undetected militants crossing the border and you want the Israelis to fire rubber bullets?
 
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https://www.npr.org/sections/parall...list-fatally-shot-while-covering-gaza-protest

Palestinian photojournalist Yaser Murtaja covered plenty of funeral processions during the 2014 war in Gaza.

Now his colleagues are covering his death.
======================================
A 30-year-old Palestinian photojournalist wearing PRESS ID was targeted by Israeli soldiers at the Gaza border & was shot to death. He was operating a drone camera at the time. The Israeli troops use live ammunition & are apparently trying to suppress photojournalist coverage of the border fence protests. IOW, they deliberately murdered him.

JacksinPA:

That is correct. Intentional and premeditated homicide of a journalist with established press credentials, who was clearly wearing "PRESS" identification on his chest and back and who was nonetheless shot by IDF snipers who summarily executed him. The journalist was operating an unarmed drone in Gazan airspace in order to better document the actions of the Gazan protesters and the IDF and Israeli Security personnel watching over the protest from across the frontier. Apparently the Israeli state views videoing the actions of its soldiers from foreign soil as a hostile act and decided to select the journalist for a bit of fatal shooting in order to teach him a lesson he would never forget. Now the Israeli military views video equipment and drones as weapons designed to kill Israeli hasbara and acts accordingly. So, possession of cell phones, flags, tyres, stones, video equipment, drone controllers, or being seen to be encouraging or coordinating a protest in your own land brings a summary decision of execution by a foreign state shooting across a frontier. Gazans are killed for possessing weapons. Gazans are killed for possessing what might be weapons. Gazans are killed for vandalism and arson against a system of fences. Gazans are killed for being associated with organisations which Israeli authorities label as terrorist groups, regardless of the actions of those Gazans at the time of their shooting. Gazans are killed for organising and directing protesters. Gazans are killed for recording the events taking place around them during a protest. Gazans are killed for reporting news from a Gazan perspective. And Gazans are killed for being trapped in Gaza when Israel launches military raids into the besieged, open-air prison which Gaza has become.

It seems to some Israelis, and also to some non-Israeli commenters here, that the only things Gazans can do legitimately in their own land is to leave their patrimony behind them and emigrate, to exist in miserable externally-imposed privation and squalor with few rights and freedoms in their own homeland of Gaza or just to die quietly as victims of a viscious, shared history which leaves no room for them to exist in dignity as a people. In desperation Gaza has transformed into a grotesques prison run by the worst criminals trapped within it. Israel has transmogrophied from a noble young country with strong principles and ideals into a jaded, cynical and brutal de facto colonial power willing to kill all who oppose its expansionist project or reject its superior ethos and culture. Gazans are being trodden upon by their own sadistic leaders and by the cruel Israeli state around them too. Hamas and the IDF/Israeli Security apparatus are now both symmetrically brutal and arbitrary in their use of lethal force against "the other" as neither is now willing to differentiate between innocents and combatants. All Israelis are foreign conquers and all Palestinians are terrorists. None on either side are innocent in this brutally dualistic and lethally Manichean world view shared by both peoples. When you choose to no longer differentiate between, innocents, journalists, protesters and terrorists and act with lethal effect against all, then all hope is lost and all humanity is surrendered, leaving only the bestial might of the apex-predator to prevail as the ethos in the law of the barren jungle that is Gaza. How tragic is the lot of a simple Palestinian Gazan caught in the tiger's teeth of Hamas and the lion's fangs of Isreal and thus being torn asunder by two rapid beasts.

Despairingly.
Evilroddy.
 
Last edited:
Does that matter, or does how he was killed is?

I'd say the why matters most. His connection to Hamas goes a long way towards answering that.
 
JacksinPA:

That is correct. Intentional and premeditated homicide of a journalist with established press credentials who was clearly wearing "PRESS" identification on his chest and back was shot by IDF snipers who summarily executed him. The journalist was operating an unarmed drone in Gazan airspace in order to better document the actions of the Gazan protesters and the IDF and Israeli Security personnel watching over the protest from the frontier. Apparently the Israeli state views videoing the actions of its soldiers from foreign soil as a hostile act and decided to select the journalist for a bit of fatal shooting in order to teach him a lesson he would never forget. Now the Israeli military views video equipment and drones as weapons designed to kill Israeli hasbara and acts accordingly. So, possession of cell phones, flags, tyres, stones, video equipment, drone controllers, or being seen to be encouraging or coordinating a protest in your own land brings a summary decision of execution by a foreign state shooting across a frontier. Gazans are killed for possessing weapons. Gazans are killed for possessing what might be weapons. Gazans are killed for vandalism and arson against a system of fences. Gazans are killed for being associated with organisations which Israeli authorities label as terrorist groups, regardless of the actions of those Gazans at the time of their shooting. Gazans are killed for organising and directing protesters. Gazans are killed for recording the events taking place around them during a protest. Gazans are killed for reporting news from a Gazan perspective. And Gazans are killed for being trapped in Gaza when Israel launches military raids into the besieged, open-air prison which Gaza has become.

It seems to some Israelis, and also to some non-Israeli commenters here, that the only things Gazans can do legitimately in their own land is to leave their patrimony behind them and emigrate, to exist in miserable externally-imposed privation and squalor with few rights and freedoms in their own homeland of Gaza or just to die quietly as victims of a viscious, shared history which leaves no room for them to exist in dignity as people. In desperation Gaza has transformed into a grotesques prison run by the worst criminals trapped within it. Israel has transmogrophied from a noble young country with strong principles and ideals into a jaded, cynical and brutal de facto colonial power willing to kill all who oppose its expansionist project or reject its superior ethos and culture. Gazans are being trodden upon by their own sadistic leaders and by the cruel Israeli state around them too. Hamas and the IDF/Israeli Security apparatus are now both symmetrically brutal and arbitrary in their use of lethal force against "the other" as neither is now willing to differentiate between innocents and combatants. All Israelis are foreign conquers and all Palestinians are terrorists. None on either side are innocent in this brutally dualistic and lethally Manichean world view shared by both peoples. When you choose to no longer differentiate between, innocents, journalists, protesters and terrorists and act with lethal effect against all, then all hope is lost and all humanity is surrendered, leaving only the bestial might of the apex-predator to prevail as the ethos in the law of the barren jungle that is Gaza. How tragic is the lot of a simple Palestinian Gazan caught in the tiger's teeth of Hamas and the lion's fangs of Isreal and thus being torn asunder by two rapid beasts.

Despairingly.
Evilroddy.

Or, he was a senior Hamas military commander operating a drone 100 metres from the fence and directing Hamas operatives to various targets.

You know, reality.

Hamas military commanders cannot be “journalists”. It doesn’t work that way.


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JacksinPA:

That is correct. Intentional and premeditated homicide of a journalist with established press credentials who was clearly wearing "PRESS" identification on his chest and back was shot by IDF snipers who summarily executed him. The journalist was operating an unarmed drone in Gazan airspace in order to better document the actions of the Gazan protesters and the IDF and Israeli Security personnel watching over the protest from the frontier. Apparently the Israeli state views videoing the actions of its soldiers from foreign soil as a hostile act and decided to select the journalist for a bit of fatal shooting in order to teach him a lesson he would never forget. Now the Israeli military views video equipment and drones as weapons designed to kill Israeli hasbara and acts accordingly. So, possession of cell phones, flags, tyres, stones, video equipment, drone controllers, or being seen to be encouraging or coordinating a protest in your own land brings a summary decision of execution by a foreign state shooting across a frontier. Gazans are killed for possessing weapons. Gazans are killed for possessing what might be weapons. Gazans are killed for vandalism and arson against a system of fences. Gazans are killed for being associated with organisations which Israeli authorities label as terrorist groups, regardless of the actions of those Gazans at the time of their shooting. Gazans are killed for organising and directing protesters. Gazans are killed for recording the events taking place around them during a protest. Gazans are killed for reporting news from a Gazan perspective. And Gazans are killed for being trapped in Gaza when Israel launches military raids into the besieged, open-air prison which Gaza has become.

It seems to some Israelis, and also to some non-Israeli commenters here, that the only things Gazans can do legitimately in their own land is to leave their patrimony behind them and emigrate, to exist in miserable externally-imposed privation and squalor with few rights and freedoms in their own homeland of Gaza or just to die quietly as victims of a viscious, shared history which leaves no room for them to exist in dignity as people. In desperation Gaza has transformed into a grotesques prison run by the worst criminals trapped within it. Israel has transmogrophied from a noble young country with strong principles and ideals into a jaded, cynical and brutal de facto colonial power willing to kill all who oppose its expansionist project or reject its superior ethos and culture. Gazans are being trodden upon by their own sadistic leaders and by the cruel Israeli state around them too. Hamas and the IDF/Israeli Security apparatus are now both symmetrically brutal and arbitrary in their use of lethal force against "the other" as neither is now willing to differentiate between innocents and combatants. All Israelis are foreign conquers and all Palestinians are terrorists. None on either side are innocent in this brutally dualistic and lethally Manichean world view shared by both peoples. When you choose to no longer differentiate between, innocents, journalists, protesters and terrorists and act with lethal effect against all, then all hope is lost and all humanity is surrendered, leaving only the bestial might of the apex-predator to prevail as the ethos in the law of the barren jungle that is Gaza. How tragic is the lot of a simple Palestinian Gazan caught in the tiger's teeth of Hamas and the lion's fangs of Isreal and thus being torn asunder by two rapid beasts.

Despairingly.
Evilroddy.

And here you are again laughably equating Israel with Hamas. I know why.
 
I'd say the why matters most. His connection to Hamas goes a long way towards answering that.

Not just connections. He was a military leader in their military apparatus. On other words, a combatant masquerading as a journalist.

Incidentally, what does “international law” say about military folks engaged the do not wear uniforms? And what is the obligation of combatants to not, say, pretend to be civilians and hide among them? Since we care about international law and everything. X you know the answer but I’m wondering if the anti-Israeli folks will acknowledge it.

We know Hamas hides munitions in schools and uses ambulances to transports troops and equipment. We also know they use “press” trappings to hide their military activities, including in this case trying to hide a forward commander in plain sight to direct operations.

If they actually cared about “international law” or not endangering civilians, they would have an issue with this. But they don’t care, nor do they care about Hamas endangering civilians by hiding among them, so they don’t.


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How was he killed?

By being a combatant pretending to be a civilian operating a military intelligence gathering drone over a border under attack by other Hamas folks using other Palestinians as human shields.


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By being a combatant pretending to be a civilian operating a military intelligence gathering drone over a border under attack by other Hamas folks using other Palestinians as human shields.


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Was he armed? Was he a danger?
 
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