The death of any journalist is personal to me.
Five of my friends were murdered in a newsroom attack in 2018. To cope with it, I worked for the Fallen Journalists Memorial Foundation in Washington, retelling the stories of American reporters killed while pursuing the truth.
When a colleague urged me to write about the recent death of Anas Al-Sharif, a correspondent covering the war in Gaza for Al Jazeera Arabic, he hoped I would be outraged.
I hesitated. Frankly, I don’t know how I feel.
I don’t know if this was the murder of a journalist reporting on a brutal war, if the Israelis were right to identify him as a militant, or if that matters. I’m not in Gaza, and my perceptions are based on reports I trust, not my own work.
Even if it were murder, how do I single out the life of a 25-year-old Palestinian journalist from his 60,000 countrymen killed in the war on Hamas?
Does he deserve my outrage more than the 1,200 people murdered and 250 others abducted in Hamas’ surprise attack into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, or the half-million Palestinians starving to death as Israel continues its pursuit of justice and revenge?
Maybe this war is too horrific for me to understand.
Then five more journalists were killed Monday when Israel bombed a hospital.
So, I asked someone who was there for help. U.S. Rep. Johnny Olszewski Jr. was in Israel on Aug. 10 when Al-Sharif was killed in Gaza.
“It was one of the issues that we directly pressed the prime minister on in a firm but respectful way, both about attacks on journalists as well as settler violence,” he said.
The freshman Democrat from Baltimore County was part of a delegation of 41 House members on the trip, paid for by an arm of AIPAC, a powerful pro-Israel lobby in Washington.
“The primary reason that I thought it was important to go was actually to have the opportunity to talk to people who can end this conflict and address the suffering,” he said.
Of Maryland’s four freshmen in Congress, Olszewski was the only one on the trip led by U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer. Two other House Democrats, Sarah Elfreth and April McClain Delaney, bowed out, citing family commitments.
The delegation met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa, U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee and others.
Most Maryland members of Congress sound the same on this war: ceasefire, hostages freed and humanitarian aid. Israel has a right to defend itself.
All but U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen take campaign money from AIPAC, and he’s a vocal critic of Netanyahu.
None of them singled out dead journalists. Should they?
A journalist runs toward the explosions, looking for meaning. The people starving to death in Gaza are not there in pursuit of truth. They’re just trying to stay alive.
I’ve always thought America and Israel share cultural values, and not just the Judeo-Christian underpinnings of Western Civilization. Both are liberal democracies, where tolerance and equality are virtues.
At least I thought we did. Things here seem to be changing. Then, more journalists died.
The Committee for the Protection of Journalists listed 197 journalists killed in the Gaza war, almost all of them Palestinians. Israel bars Western journalists from Gaza.
Olszewski asked Netanyahu about Al-Sharif.
“As with all of the issues we raised, at least for this Democrat, this member of Congress, [Netanyahu’s] answers were and remain unsatisfactory, as it relates to Al-Sharif‘s killing,” Olszewski said.
On Monday, Husam Al-Masri, Mohammed Salama, Mariam Abu Dagga, Ahmed Abu Aziz and Moaz Abu Taha joined the list of dead reporters, photographers and cameramen. They worked for AP, Reuters, Al Jazeera and the Middle East Eye, and were among 22 people killed in Israeli double-tap strikes on the Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza.
Al-Masri was killed in the first explosions; the others died covering the aftermath.
Netanyahu said he regretted the “tragic mishap” in a rare statement of contrition, praising the work of journalists and medical staff during the war with Hamas. The Israeli army promised an investigation.
I asked Olszewski to help me think about these deaths among so many.
“The families and the members of the press deserve accountability and justice for what happened,” he said.
Israel will answer for what it’s done during this war, right or wrong. Actions, no matter the justification, have consequences. No one may punish Israel more than itself one day.
America, because we fund the nation’s war machine, will have to decide what it means to be a close friend of Israel now.
“Multiple things can and often are true at the same time: that what happened on Oct. 7 was horrific and should never be allowed to happen again,” Olszewski said. “Hamas is a terrorist organization that’s committed incredible atrocities, and they should never be allowed to return to power.”
“But, also, what’s happening in Gaza is tragic. There’s far too little humanitarian aid being distributed. The war needs to end. I believe that, and I think it needs to end now.”
After peace, answers may come.
In the end, I decided that a journalist’s death changes my thinking. The job of journalism is to unite us around shared truths.
The death of Al-Sharif, Dagga and the others was an assault on that core belief intended to shape what the world knows about this war.
As we talked, Olszewski and I realized we have another shared truth, one closer to home.
He and Rebecca Smith played tennis and bowled together, growing up in Baltimore County. She was one of my colleagues murdered in Annapolis in 2018.
So, we sat for a minute, silent on opposite ends of a phone call, thinking about what a small place Maryland remains, about life, about loss.
“Yeah,” he said. “Thank you.”
And about the unexpected consequences of a journalist’s death.
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