The Committee to Protect Journalists says it “defends the right of journalists to report the news safely and without fear of reprisal.” But based on how the international organization has covered up the murders of several Israeli journalists slaughtered by Hamas during the terror organization’s barbaric Oct. 7 massacre, a more suitable name for the international organization is Committee to Protect Murderers of Journalists.
While the CPJ’s detailed database on journalists killed in conflict categorizes all journalists killed in conflict into three types of deaths — “murdered,” “in crossfire/combat,” or “on dangerous assignment” — it does not list a single one of the Israeli journalists murdered in Hamas’ bloody rampage as “murdered.” Rather, the CPJ falsely lists every single one of Israeli murder victims as killed “on dangerous assignment” by a “political group,” including those sheltering in their safe rooms at home or dancing the night away at the Supernova rave party near Reim in southern Israel.
Take for instance CPJ’s entry for Yaniv Zohar, a photographer for Israel Hayom who was murdered alongside his family inside his Nahal Oz home. According to the intrepid CPJ researchers, Zohar was killed by a “political group” while on “dangerous assignment.” CPJ adds:
Yaniv Zohar, an Israeli photographer working for the Israeli Hebrew-language daily newspaper Israel Hayom, was killed during a Hamas attack on Kibbutz Nahal Oz in southern Israel. Israel Hayom and Israel National News reported that his wife and two daughters also died in the attack. Israel Hayom editor-in-chief Omer Lachmanovitch told CPJ that Zohar was working on that day.
That Zohar was supposedly “was working on that day” is apparently a green light for CPJ to whitewash his murder as death at the hands of a “political group” while he was carrying out a “dangerous assignment.”
But, according to the Associated Press, which previously employed Zohar, the Israeli photographer was killed at home, alongside his family, and not while on a “dangerous assignment.” AP reports (“Former AP videojournalist Yaniv Zohar killed in Hamas attack at home with his family“):
Yaniv Zohar, a former Associated Press videojournalist and beloved colleague who covered conflicts and major news in his native country for three decades, was killed in his home during Hamas’ bloody cross-border rampage on Oct. 7 along with his wife and two daughters. He was 54. …
Zohar and his family were on the frontline of the massacre in their border kibbutz. He was killed along with his wife, Yasmin, 49, and his two daughters, Tehelet, 20, and Keshet, 18. Zohar’s 13-year-old son Ariel, who had gone for an early-morning jog, escaped alive.
Yasmin’s father, Haim Livne, was also killed in the attack. [Emphasis added.]
Furthermore, about the photographer’s alleged work that day, Haaretz reported that Zohar’s
manager, Ami Shuman, told Haaretz about the communication between them that Shabbat: “At 6:30 in the morning I wrote him ‘Get ready,’ when the sirens started. ‘There are sirens, take cover, and when it ends — go out and photograph.’ The family was in the safe room, we spoke the whole morning, and he told me that there’s shooting outside. I saw a message that he sent to a different friend, ‘There are terrorists in the house, call [the elite undercover unit] Duvdevan, I’m signing off.’ They found them with his wife and daughters. A man of gold, it’s a tragedy.” [Translation from the Hebrew by CAMERA.]
Upon the onset of Hamas’ surprise attack, Roee went outside his house which is on the first row of homes in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, directly across from the border with Gaza. He filmed a cell of terrorists on paragliders which penetrated his kibbutz. After that he also filmed the rocket barrage and interceptions in the area.Roee returned immediately home, to his wife and three children. Seconds after he filmed the cell of terrorists they began their mass murder in Kfar Aza.The terrorists also came to Roee’s house, and shot Smadar [Roee’s wife] to death. Michael and Amalia, who, as previously noted, hid in closets, spent 14 hours in the safe room with their mother’s body. Roee, who was outside the house, was holding Avigail in his arms and he was also murdered by gunfire. …
More than 50 Kfar Aza residents were murdered in the massacre, and another 20 were kidnapped or are missing.
Yet, as of this writing, nearly a full four weeks after Ynet reported in details about Hamas’ murder of Idan in his own yard, CJP inexplicably continues to claim that Idan was killed in an “unknown” location by “unknown fire” while on “dangerous assignment.”
Indeed, CJP’s post about Idan was entered — or at least updated — Oct. 20, after Ynet reported that the details of Idan’s murder. CJP’s deceptive post states:
On October 20, Israeli journalist Roee Idan was declared dead after his body was recovered, according to The Times of Israel and the International Federation of Journalists”. Idan, a photographer for the Israeli newspaper Ynet, was initially reported missing when his wife and daughter were killed in a Hamas attack on October 7 on Kibbutz Kfar Aza. CPJ confirmed that he was working on the day of the attack.
CPJ’s database of journalists killed in the Israel-Gaza war is based on preliminary reporting from the region and will be updated as more information becomes available. You can find a current list of journalist casualties in the war here.
Idan followed his journalistic instinct to record the attacks in his own community, and then immediately returned home to protect himself and his family. “CPJ confirmed that he was working on the day of the attack,” writes CPJ, as if that piece of information negates the fact that he was murdered in his own yard while holding his daughter, information that the organizations conceals from readers. His wife, who stayed home throughout the attack, along with 48 other Kfar Aza residents, met the same exact fate as her journalist husband who briefly ran outside to document events. Just like them, Roee Idan was murdered by Hamas terrorists because he was an Israeli. Not because he was working as a journalist. Similarly, Idan’s three-year-old daughter Avigail was kidnapped (not, as far as is known, murdered, per CPJ) by Hamas terrorists because she is Israeli, and not because her father was “working on the day of the attack.”
Shai Regev, “on dangerous assignment” at a dance party (Photo courtesy, via Times of Israel)
CPJ likewise covered up the murder of two female journalists whose young lives were brutally cut short as they were enjoying themselves at the overnight Supernovaova rave party where Hamas terrorists gunned down more than 250 partying youth and carried out rapes and other atrocities. About Shai Regev, whom CPJ falsely claimed was “killed” by a “political group” while she was “on dangerous assignment,” CPJ added:
Shai Regev, an Israeli editor for TMI, the gossip and entertainment news section of the Hebrew-language daily newspaper Maariv, was killed during a Hamas attack on Israel. The confirmation of Regev’s death came after she was reported missing for six days, with the announcement made to her family, as reported by Maariv and The Times of Israel.
Regev was murdered alongside her life partner Nir Porti, so it’s reasonable to conclude that the couple was there to enjoy themselves and that the journalist was not covering the party for Maariv‘s gossip column. But even if she was, since when is covering a dance party a “dangerous assignment”?
A second female Israeli journalist, Ayelet Armin, also met her bloody end at the hands of a designated terror organization while she was enjoying herself at what should have been a carefree dance party. About her too, CPJ lied that she was killed by a “political group” while she was “on dangerous assignment.” CPJ added:
A 22-year-old news Israeli editor with the Israel Broadcasting Corporation Kan, Ayelet Arnin was killed during a Hamas attack in the south of Israel. Her killing was reported to her parents by a friend, according to The Times of Israel and Yahoo.
But as the hyperlinked Times of Israel story which CPJ itself makes clear: “Ayelet Arnin, 22, a news editor with the Kan public broadcaster, was murdered by Hamas terrorists at the Supernova music festival near Gaza on October 7″ (“Ayelet Arnin, 22: Kan news editor killed at music festival“).
Hey, @CPJMENA, we must ask: Are you the Committee to Protect Journalists or the Committee to Protect the Murderers of Journalists? B/c *you covered up the murder of at least 3 Israeli journalists.* Yaniv Zohar @IsraelHayomEng, was murdered at home, as noted below ⬇️⬇️⬇️: (1/6) https://t.co/4iN8FEB7IG
— Tamar Sternthal (@TamarSternthal) November 13, 2023