Pro-Palestinian protesters march to bring attention to death of journalists
Pro-Palestinian protesters sought to bring attention to the deaths of journalists in Gaza during a Friday demonstration and march in Milwaukee.
The event was organized by the Wisconsin Coalition for Justice in Palestine, which is composed of 28 organizations.
The group of about 200 staged a rally at Cathedral Square before marching two blocks to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel offices at the 330 Kilbourn complex, carrying stretchers with helmets and vests marked with Press to symbolize the journalist deaths. The group urged the news organization to support a cease fire in Gaza, chanting "Journal Sentinel, end the lies, start reporting the genocide."
"The intent is to draw attention not only to the murders of journalists but to the failure of the Western media to report accurately and ethically on what is happening in Palestine," Heba Mohammad of Milwaukee 4 Palestine said.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 42 journalists and media workers have been killed since the Oct. 7 beginning of the Israel-Hamas war.
CPJ said that as of Nov. 17, the confirmed casualty count of journalists included 37 Palestinians killed in Gaza, which has sustained weeks of Israeli air strikes.
Four Israeli journalists were killed during the initial Hamas terrorist attack on Israel and one Lebanese videographer was killed while covering shelling along the Lebanon-Israel border, CPJ said.
Nine journalists were reported injured and three were missing while 13 others were arrested, according to CPJ.
"At the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, we stand in solidarity and support all journalists who pursue the truth, whether across the globe or in our own hometown," said Executive Editor Greg Borowski. "We are proud of the work our team has done to cover the war from a local perspective. Our newsroom will continue our good faith efforts as we report, listen and seek to understand all perspectives and the whole of our community."
Sherif Mansour, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator said in a statement that the group “emphasizes that journalists are civilians doing important work during times of crisis and must not be targeted by warring parties.”
In Gaza, health officials say that more than 1.6 million people have been displaced and more than 12,000 people have been killed. Israel has said some 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas attack with around 240 people taken hostage.
On Friday, Erica Steib of the Milwaukee branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation said that "these journalists gave their lives so that tens of thousands of Palestinians will not perish in silence."
"We know what we see and we believe Palestinians," Mohammad said. Western media has "a clear bias toward the Israeli perspective," she said.
"There has not been any questioning done of the reports coming out of Israel. And there's been an unequal questioning of what's coming out of Palestine and what is happening there, even in the face of video evidence, first-person accounts. And so we're here to draw attention to that and to the ongoing genocide."
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin Coalition for Justice in Palestine protests Journal Sentinel
