A mural in Gaza for Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed in May (AP Photo/Adel Hana)
It is that of the Palestinian Sami al Ajrami on Repubblica, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to get it across
by Valerio Clari
No international journalist has had access to the Gaza Strip since October 7, the day of Hamas’s attack on Israel. Only Palestinian journalists reported on the Israeli bombings and the humanitarian emergency, risking their lives practically every day: So far, 31 journalists have been killed, the last of them Mohammed Abu Hatab, who died in an accident on Thursday night along with eleven family members There was an Israeli bomb attack. In Italy, the only testimonies from the Gaza Strip come from Sami al Ajrami, a Gaza-born Palestinian journalist whose reports are published daily by Repubblica. Ajrami also writes several news articles for the ANSA news agency and collaborates with other international media, including the Berliner Zeitung.
The lives of journalists in Gaza have become extremely complicated since the start of the war, particularly due to the lack of security, but not only. Palestinian journalists find themselves in the difficult circumstances of the rest of the population: they have to search for water, food and fuel every day. Together with their families, they must try to find a place they believe is safe to escape the bombings.
Contacted by the Post, Ajrami says: “There are currently around 250 journalists working in the Gaza Strip, under very difficult conditions and with inadequate resources.” Almost as many have had to stop, either because there was a lack of electricity and internet or because their editorial offices and broadcasters were bombed. “
– Also read: As journalists in Gaza
Ajrami is a freelance journalist with extensive experience and began reporting from Gaza in 2004. He is fifty years old and was born in the Jabalia refugee camp, a few kilometers north of Gaza: the camp was bombed on Tuesday Wednesday by the Israeli army. Ajrami told Repubblica that he still has part of his family (who survived the bombings) there.
Ajrami, the eldest son of a large family, taught himself Hebrew at the age of 12 in order to understand the soldiers patrolling the streets of Gaza and the news broadcasts on television, most of which were in Hebrew. At 22, he moved to Tel Aviv to work in a construction company, contributing to the family budget while improving his Hebrew and English skills. In 1999, at the age of 27, these language skills enabled him to join the diplomatic staff of the Palestinian Authority, which governs part of the West Bank.
Journalistic work in Hebrew and English began in Gaza in 2004 in a local news agency. In 2007, after Hamas seized power in the Gaza Strip, Israeli journalists were banned from entering the Gaza Strip, opening the possibility of Ajrami’s collaboration with two Israeli newspapers, the Channel 2 television station and the Maariv newspaper. Ajrami said that he obtained permission from Hamas to work with Israeli newspapers relatively easily and that he imposed certain conditions on the new employers: “In my articles I never called the Israeli army ‘defense forces’ nor did I define them.” Palestinians are “terrorists”. This work was halted when Hamas withdrew the permit and decided to ban any cooperation between Palestinian journalists and Israeli media.
Ajrami described his work at the time to the American website Daily Beast as follows: “I understood that my mission is a very important one because the Israeli community cannot hear other voices from Gaza.” And the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, who have never been in Israel, do not understand what kind of country it is and therefore what means are really effective in achieving the goals of their cause.”
Since then, Ajrami has continued his work as a Gaza correspondent for the local agency and for various international media outlets. The conditions under which he is currently working are not comparable to those of recent years, he said, although he has also been directly affected by war in the past: one of his daughters was injured by shrapnel from an Israeli rocket in 2012.
– Also read: What is there in the Gaza Strip other than Gaza?
In addition to the difficulties that affect the entire population and are associated with daily survival, Ajrami also experiences specific difficulties in his work as a journalist.
Ajrami writes from Deir Al Balah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, not far from Khan Yunis, and says: “At home and in the office, not even the slow connection works anymore.” It was the only option available, Israel blocked 3G technology Gaza. Like most journalists, I go to hospitals to find electricity and internet connections and to be able to send materials. We spend most of the day there, they are also the only places where you can charge your phone, which I turn off or leave in sleep mode for the rest of the day.”
As in any war zone, traveling is complex and is made even more difficult by the lack of fuel: “I usually walk, from my home to the hospital it’s a distance I can cover in 30 minutes.” When I have to keep walking happened to reach the Rafah border crossing [nel sud della Striscia, al confine con l’Egitto]“Taxis still exist, but they cost five times more than in normal times.”
Under these conditions, almost all journalists cannot physically write articles and often do not even have the time to dictate them, as war correspondents did until the advent of the Internet.
In Repubblica, his articles appear with the words “Text collected by” and the name of the journalist from the editorial team who contacted Ajrami by phone. In these cases, a fixed time of day is agreed upon during which the correspondent knows that he or she must be in a place with a telephone connection and a charged phone (in this case in the hospital): This is condensed into the short time available for the dissemination of information, Stories and direct testimonials are available, which are then processed in the editorial team. In other cases, where it is not possible to speak directly, the articles are the result of a series of text, audio and video messages in which the correspondent speaks and narrates, and which are sent when a connection is finally found. Ajrami says that currently “90 percent” of his work is done over the phone.
The funeral of Muhammad Sobh and Saeed al Taweel, two of the 31 Palestinian journalists killed (Photo by Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images)
– Also read: As journalists in Gaza
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