The Hamas-linked founder of Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, a Geneva-based advocacy group, recently declared on social media that Gaza-based journalists have a right to dually serve as terrorist operatives. Ramy Abdu, who reportedly has documented ties to senior Hamas leaders, acknowledged in a June 23 Arabic-language Facebook post that some journalists had engaged in acts of resistance prior to their journalistic work.
Challenges to Credibility
This development comes as the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) announced a wholesale review of its widely cited list of journalists killed in Gaza, which has included dozens of confirmed military operatives for Hamas and other jihadist groups. The CPJ and Euro-Med Monitor served as primary sources in Nicholas Kristof's notorious May report, which made the claim that Israeli soldiers raped two Palestinian journalists with a carrot and a dog in two separate incidents of what the New York Times called sexual violence.
The New York Times has declined to comment on Abdu's remarks, questions about Euro-Med Monitor's credibility, or its reliance on the CPJ's slain journalists list. Euro-Med Monitor also did not respond to a request for comment on Abdu's post. The controversy has sparked calls for a retraction and an apology from the New York Times, with critics arguing that the paper's reporting has been misleading and damaging to its reputation.
For example, Al Jazeera photojournalist Ahmed Samir Muhammad Washah was revealed to be a Hamas sniper, with videos showing him aggressively firing an automatic weapon in the air and posing with a sniper rifle. This raises questions about the legitimacy of the CPJ's list and the New York Times' reporting on the issue.