A Reflection on “Objective” Journalism From the Global Sumud Flotilla

At some point, I concluded that one sadistic aspect of the Israeli state is that it seems to want to universalize the witnesses’ paradox by making everyone suffer the constitutive helplessness of the witness’s position. It won’t succeed, and the reason for that is also because of the Palestinian people. Palestinians have shown that you can refuse “pseudo-witnessing”—and the condemnation to a lonely death with no witnesses—by acting, living, and reporting on the world responsibly and with dignity. Journalists in Gaza have lived and died to show that one can reliably witness and report out the reality in Gaza. We, on the other hand, have the responsibility to listen and follow their credible lead.