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Our society doesn’t always stand out for its values, but damn well does for its production values. There may be nothing more powerful in the world than a film with high production values. So I’m deeply appreciative when a well-made movie actually says something that needed saying, when you can watch the closing credits feeling wiser, rather than dirtier, more aware of what’s worst in the world and yet inspired to change it, rather than outraged at the normalization of violence or stupidity. 

A good place to go for such rarities is Brave New Films, where the latest release is Gaza: Journalists Under Fire. The director Robert Greenwald has agreed to screen the film online for RootsAction and then hang around to discuss it with you and answer your questions.  

Sign up now to join us online on July 9!

I’ve seen an awful lot of movies, not to mention news reports and social media posts, about Palestine. It’s a topic that can easily lead to weeping and withdrawing. It’s also a simple story (the Israeli government is slaughtering people) that can easily be complicated in unhelpful ways. This new 41-minute film avoids those dangers by being a stand-out work of journalism not simply about Gaza but about journalism about Gaza, and specifically the killing of journalists.

At 178 at the time of publication — and now higher — the count of journalists and media workers killed by the Israeli military was already higher than the count of journalists killed on all sides of the U.S. Civil War, the two world wars, the Korean and Vietnam wars, and the war on Afghanistan combined— not to mention 93 journalists wounded, 84 journalists arrested and locked up, and 70 media facilities turned to rubble in Gaza — all while people in Western corporate media are deemed brave simply for announcing that they’ve noticed that large numbers of civilians are being murdered.

Sign up now to watch the film and talk with the director on July 9!

The record number of killings is not because Gaza is being flooded with the world’s journalists. On the contrary, they’ve been shut out by Israel, along with human rights organizations. It’s not because the local people are disproportionately journalists. Perhaps they are if you consider their use of social media, but these statistics refer to professional journalists. It’s not because Israel has killed so many people that this many journalists are simply a portion of that larger massacre. No, it’s because the Israeli military has been specifically targeting journalists for assassination, including tracking them with drones, often just following a particularly powerful report produced by one of them. Journalists are dying disproportionately, and this means that they can be a danger rather than a protection to those they are near. Their PRESS jackets and vests are treated as targets. Their families have been killed with them when they have been targeted. 

The significance of this unprecedented slaughter of journalists is that it helps to hide the war and facilitate lies about the war. This film helps us learn the truth. 

We hope you can join us on July 9 – register here!

– The RootsAction team