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The ‘Forward”s apprehension about sending a reporter to Gaza — a further response

In recent days we published “A Jewish reporter in Gaza responds to Jane Eisner,” in which Dan Cohen criticized an article by Forward editor Eisner called “Why the Forward Sent a Brave Reporter to Gaza,” about the Jewish newspaper’s decision to send its Middle East correspondent, Naomi Zeveloff, to Gaza for a three day reporting trip. Following Cohen’s piece, we published a response by Larry Cohler-Esses, an assistant managing editor for news at the paper. What follows is Dan Cohen’s response to Cohler-Esses’s points, which appear below numbered, in quotations.  –Ed.

1) “Naomi is Jewish and a female, which is often a different experience.”

It is telling that Cohler-Esses lists being a Jewish woman in Gaza as his primary concern, even before the potential threat of kidnapping (I’ll return to this later). At best, he raises the possibility of violence towards women. As many female colleagues have described to me and I have witnessed, catcalling and uncomfortable stares are not uncommon. This is something that I, as a male, do not encounter. Undoubtedly, the possibility of severe sexual violence exists too. But these threats are not limited to Gaza. Anyone who has observed male behavior in the streets of Jerusalem or New York City can attest to that. It is doubtful that a visit to the Haredi neighborhood of Mea Shearim in Jerusalem would elicit similar consternation.

Realistically, first-time visitors on a brief trip do not wander alone through the Gaza Strip. Journalists pay good money to local fixers not only to facilitate work, but also to avoid potentially dangerous situations, so Cohler-Esses’ “many months” of mulling and “complex planning” overblow the relative danger of sexual violence in a two-and-a-half day visit to Gaza.

At worst, Cohler Esses’ concern recalls the racist trope that Arab men are natural predators of Jewish women and it is the job of Jewish men to protect them. To see how prevalent this in Israeli society, one only need visit Jerusalem’s Zion Square on a Thursday evening to see young Israelis of the state-funded anti-miscegenation group Lehava proselytizing to fellow Jewish Israelis.

Perhaps if Cohler-Esses had elaborated more, we could understand where his seemingly misplaced concern comes from.

2) “Dan Cohen goes in as a pro-Palestinian individual free-lance journalist who is Jewish. Naomi goes in representing an explicitly Jewish, pro-Zionist news organization. That is something with very different implications from POV of potential security issues.”

Though Cohler-Esses has chosen to define me as pro-Palestinian, that is not a label I embrace. I do not subscribe to the unfortunate pro-Palestinian/pro-Israeli binary, as I am concerned with the welfare of all people. It would be more accurate to label me as anti-Zionist, as it is clear to me that the State of Israel’s official ideology has been and continues to be disastrous for Palestinians, Jews, and Israelis. While Palestinian bodies have and continue to bear the brunt of Zionism’s violence, Jewish diasporic cultures have been wiped out in order to create a new Hebrew society. I mourn the erasure of Jewish culture and the loss of Palestinian lives.

Eisner’s editorial never claimed that the Forward is an explicitly pro-Zionist organization, so Cohler-Esses is moving the goalposts. Zeveloff may not want to be identified as Zionist, and Eisner and Cohler-Esses are doing her a disservice by imposing their ideology on her. Of course, there is no Jewish or Zionist litmus test required for journalists to enter the Gaza Strip. Even if the Forward is explicitly Zionist, it seems highly unlikely that Naomi Zeveloff explicitly identified herself to interviewees as representing a Jewish, pro-Zionist news organization. Considering that Israel claims to be the Jewish State, and not the Zionist State, we can’t expect a potential attacker to differentiate between the two. If Cohler-Esses is truly concerned about the threat of Palestinian violence on Jewish journalists, he should address that nothing has been so effective in tarnishing the status of worldwide Jewry as the actions of the self-proclaimed Jewish State. Indeed, anti-Semitic attacks spike during Israeli wars, as we saw last summer when Israel killed more than 2,200 Palestinians in Gaza, most of whom were civilians.

Also, I am a part-time correspondent for Mondoweiss, not a freelance journalist.

3) “Hamas is currently in the midst of an intense conflict w/ militants who declare their loyalty to the Islamic State.”

While Israeli bombing campaigns and an eight-year siege have created massive psychological pressure and fertile grounds for breeding extremism, Palestinians have been remarkably resilient facing such conditions. I can recall a few times when Palestinians in Gaza made fun of the Islamic State (IS) to me in public, signaling a virtual complete lack of popular support for the extremist group. In reality, Salafists ideologically aligned with IS number just a few dozen, according to journalist Jehad Saftawi. This is contrary to popular media portrayal, which oftens paints Hamas and IS as battling for control of Gaza. While a small group certainly has the capability to make major waves, as we saw last week when a Salafist group and Israel had a de facto collaborative effort to punish Hamas, the idea that IS appears ready to wrest control of the Gaza Strip is wholly inaccurate.

4) “Some reporters have, in fact, been kidnapped in Gaza and have remained in captivity for months, sometimes in very scary circumstances.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidnapping_of_Alan_Johnston

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4623164,00.html

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/2-fox-news-reporters-kidnapped-in-gaza/

“This is a risk Dan Cohen can evaluate on his own as an individual. The calculations for a pro-Zionist publication w/ significant resources that might be of interest to a group that declares its fealty to IS and presumably, IS’s tactics of kidnap and ransom, are totally, profoundly different.”

While the possibility of kidnapping does exist, it is extremely unlikely. The 2007 kidnapping of BBC reporter Alan Johnston happened under very different circumstances than the current situation. The Army of Islam, a militant organization of Gaza’s Fatah-aligned Dugmush clan, kidnapped Johnston before the attempted US/Israel-backed coup by Fatah strongman Mohammed Dahlan (Johnston was eventually released unharmed). After a fierce gun battle between Hamas and Fatah, Hamas took complete control of the strip. Since then, the Islamist party has consolidated its control over Gaza and its security apparatus has all but eliminated the possibility of a kidnapping like Johnston’s. The other kidnapping which Cohler-Esses brought up is of Fox News reporter Steve Centanni and cameraman Olaf Wiig, which also happened prior to Hamas taking sole control of Gaza.

Now, Hamas’ security apparatus is so tight that it instituted a rule that foreigners must reside in the seaport area where police can keep a watchful eye. My feeling is that Hamas is being overzealous, and this sentiment was shared by a few Palestinian journalists who rolled their eyes when I informed them of the new rule.

During my November, 2014 visit, I was obliged to meet with a Hamas security official in order to obtain permission to stay in Gaza. During the meeting, the security head told me that I would be “treated like a Jew in Israel.” For Hamas, the kidnapping of a foreign reporter, especially a Jew, would be disastrous for its international image, hence their insistence on the seaport residence rule.

For Palestinian journalists, there are different dynamics involved. The kidnappers of Middle East Eye correspondent Mohammed Omer in February claimed to be linked with IS, however, a senior police official in Gaza confirmed to me that after investigation, the kidnappers’ claim was proven to be false. The fact that Omer was beaten up and dropped of at al-Shifa hospital, rather than tortured and/or killed as IS has repeatedly done in Syria and Iraq, adds credence to the findings of the police investigation.

It is revealing to me that Cohler-Esses doesn’t mention the danger of Israeli violence on Gaza which is at least as likely as a kidnapping. While this doesn’t deter me from my work, I keep it in the back of my mind. As I listed a few example of in my response to Jane Eisner, Israeli state and vigilante violence remain the most serious job hazards of working in Israel, Gaza or the West Bank.

5) “Meanwhile, it’s a shame the conversation has been diverted to this from Naomi’s actual story, which is what counts.”

It should be said that any diversion began with Jane Eisner’s editorial which sounded as if the Forward had pioneered the concept of a Jewish journalist in Gaza. While Zeveloff’s story raised important points about the continual trauma of surviving Israeli bombing campaigns on Gaza, Eisner’s boast of avoiding assessing blame for the disaster in Gaza renders Zeveloff’s piece hollow. Zionism requires mass-ghettoization and severe bombing campaigns, so to describe their symptoms and boast about ignoring their source is anything but “empathetic,” to use Eisner’s description of the Forward’s brand of journalism. Would coverage of any other topic go to such lengths to avoid defining what perpetuates the violence, while explicitly supporting its driving ideology? In the context of the Forward’s pro-Zionist stance, the supposed concern for the well-being of Palestinians in Gaza is an exercise in handwringing and a disservice to the 1.8 million Palestinians who languish in Israel’s rubble-strewn ghetto for Palestine’s indigenous people.

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Dan Cohen, you are the voice of reason, truth, and so much good. This entire piece is excellent and rings entirely true. As someone who has followed your travels and your reporting, I can only say that I hold you in the very highest of esteem.

I so appreciate your response to Larry Cohler-Esses and the “Forward” in its entirety, but this stands out:

…”While Zeveloff’s story raised important points about the continual trauma of surviving Israeli bombing campaigns on Gaza, Eisner’s boast of avoiding assessing blame for the disaster in Gaza renders Zeveloff’s piece hollow. Zionism requires mass-ghettoization and severe bombing campaigns, so to describe their symptoms and boast about ignoring their source is anything but “empathetic,” to use Eisner’s description of the Forward’s brand of journalism. Would coverage of any other topic go to such lengths to avoid defining what perpetuates the violence, while explicitly supporting its driving ideology? In the context of the Forward’s pro-Zionist stance, the supposed concern for the well-being of Palestinians in Gaza is an exercise in handwringing and a disservice to the 1.8 million Palestinians who languish in Israel’s rubble-strewn ghetto for Palestine’s indigenous people. ”

Thank you.

you rock dan — excellent again.

Dan’s dose of sanity was like being hit with a bucket of cold water. I need to go lie down now.

Palestinian man from Jalazone refugee camp beaten even after being apprehended. The IDF are a hateful bunch of thugs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbJRL4QrQuE

very powerful… a well written piece.