Palestinian journalist Youmna El-Sayed shared her experiences in Gaza during a talk at the Bo-Kaap Cultural Hub on Sunday.
Anti-apartheid activist, Dr Allan Boesak, and Murals of Gaza creator Mohammad Obeidullah Gierdien joined Ms El-Sayed, a journalist on the Al Jazeera network.
“Every single time you watch a video from Gaza I know your heart aches and your eyes cry, but your pain ends when that video ends. Once you scroll up, you watch something else, that’s where your misery ends, and you carry on with your life, but every single person in that video whether its an injured child or a child crying because his parents were killed, or a parent crying because their children are in the rubble, they continue with that pain for days and days and days,” said Ms El-Sayed.
Due to her being a journalist, Ms El-Sayed says her family was forced to flee their house after being threatened by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF).
According to an Al Jazeera report, at least 158 media workers have been killed since the war erupted.
On October 7 last year, more than 1 200 Israelis were killed in an attack by Hamas and 250 hostages were taken to Gaza.
In response, Israel has launched a months-long assault on the Gaza strip, which has resulted in a reported close to 40 000 Palestinians killed, most of the infrastructure destroyed and about 1.9 million people displaced, according to the United Nations.
“The Israeli government succeeded in suppressing international journalists, it stopped them from entering Gaza so that they won’t expose their atrocities against the Palestinians,” said Ms El-Sayed.
“But they did not think that the Palestinian journalists would continue to do their job under such immense struggles, very little water, very little food, being displaced from one area to another, we worked on small platforms, at hospitals, we plastic sheets for cover and used our cellphones to make proper reports for the world to see,” she said.
During Ms El-Sayed’s visit to Cape Town, which was the last stop on Salaamedia’s Southern African media and journalism tour, Dr Boesak pledged South Africa’s support for the Palestinians.
“It is beyond us because we know Palestinian freedom is also our freedom. It is beyond us to remain silent about that. We cannot see children die and there is not even a doctor to prevent them from dying. Palestine, we shall fight for you as long as we are alive,” Dr Boesak said.
Mr Gierdien said the Palestinian flag painted across flats in the Bo-Kaap is not only the biggest mural in the world in honour of Palestine, but that the Bo-Kaap is also the area with the highest number of Palestinian art murals.
“Bo-Kaap is not only the home of the biggest Palestine mural in the world, it has the highest concentration of Palestinian art too, we are still counting. Through these murals we are able to express ourselves, these walls speak, we become exhausted but the walls don’t, and it’s here to stay,” said Mr Gierdien.
The South African Zionist Federation (SAZF) calls for journalists to be allowed to do their jobs in Gaza but said they must report without fear or favour and without belonging to groups that call for the destruction of Israel, says spokesperson, Rolene Marks.
“The death of any war journalist is a tragedy but to claim Israel targets journalists is a lie. Israel prioritises minimising civilian casualties. Israel will also end the war, if terror group, Hamas, which started the war surrenders and releases the hostages. Moreover not every journalist who has been killed has actually been a journalist depicting the truth, but many have been soldiers embedded within terror groups using media involvement as a cover,” Ms Marks said.
