On behalf of all journalists in Gaza, We Are Not Numbers co-founder Ahmed Alnaouq accepted an Outstanding Impact Award from Amnesty International UK at a London ceremony on May 9.
Amnesty issued awards in 10 categories and considered work by all media outlets based in the United Kingdom. The Outstanding Impact award typically is granted to an individual work of journalism focused on a human rights issue. However, the organization said that this year it was dedicating the award “to all the journalists who have lost their lives and continue to risk their lives to document the atrocities being committed in Gaza.”
In his acceptance speech, Ahmed encouraged UK reporters to improve their coverage of Gaza:
Thank you very much Amnesty International, for granting this award to the most deserving journalists in the world. Over 120 Palestinian journalists were killed since the seventh of October. Many of the faces you have seen here, the journalists who were killed, they were my colleagues, they were my friends. Many of them I knew very well. Many of them worked for me. Four of them were writers for We Are Not Numbers. They were young writers, they were passionate journalists, and they wanted to do something for this world. Unfortunately, they did not have the time because they were killed.
It is very, very difficult to speak now because my brother, my younger brother, was also a freelance journalist and he was killed. And you’re looking at me now, and if I were in Gaza during this genocide, I would also have been killed because my home was targeted. I lost 21 members of my family in this war. And before it, I lost many others.
The journalists in Gaza still continue to struggle until this moment. Many of them were killed. Many of them lost family members. Many, many, many of them were injured. And many of them we will lose in the future if this war does not stop right now.
As I thank you, Amnesty International, I think it’s an opportunity for me now to speak to you. Because I have never met with so many Western journalists in one place. So please hear me out and please listen to me.
You have a huge responsibility. You have a huge responsibility to talk about what’s actually happening in Gaza. Your reporting was not adequate. It was not enough. It did not suffice. The horror, the trauma, the suffering with the Palestinian people. Over 35,000 Palestinians were killed in this genocide.
Unfortunately the Israelis did not let you enter Gaza and to report from Gaza, and that’s why the Palestinian journalists were doing the job. They were your ears, they were your eyes. And not only the Palestinian journalists as well, because in Gaza, there’s maybe a million citizen journalists who are doing the job of, of you. So please do more work, because reporting can kill.
I always blame the Western media for the murder of my family, because the Western media provided Israel with the cover, with the atmosphere, to do the bombing of the Palestinians, to do the indiscriminate killing of the Palestinians, the killing of the journalists, the doctors, the women, the men, the children, the elderly, the targeting of hospitals, the targeting of schools.
There’s a genocide happening there, and you need to do more work. You need to do more, because if this war doesn’t stop, unfortunately, you will be complicit.
So please, listen to the Palestinian voices. Amplify their voices. They depend on you to stop this genocide, and you have the power to stop it. You control the public opinion. You have the power. You have the means. You have the platforms.
So, please, do more work, I’m begging you. I’m begging you to do justice for the Palestinians. We are sick and tired of this trauma, of the suffering that has lasted for 75 years and still ongoing.
And still the Israelis are now invading Rafah, we don’t know how many of our colleagues will be killed.
So please, be more courageous. Be more brave. Go to Gaza. Challenge the restrictions on freedom. Go there and see for yourselves and report. Because the Palestinians are looking up for you. They’re waiting for you. They want you to tell their stories. Thank you.
