Editor's Note: Why We're Calling Israel's War On Gaza A Genocide
We must call it what it is.
Today, I'm making the decision as the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Almost, a bilingual, independent, social-first media outlet delivering world news stories for young people, to call Israel's war on Gaza a genocide in our coverage.
That's because it's the truth.
Since Oct. 7th, we have been covering Israel's relentless attack on Palestinians, not just in the Gaza Strip, but in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, and bearing witness as Israel killed more than 36,000 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children.
We have watched as Western media tried to justify Israel's actions, as major outlets, such as the New York Times and CNN, published unverified claims, let the Israeli military review their reporting prior to publication and established rules to stop their staff from using words such as “Palestine” in an attempt to justify the genocide and erase the Palestinian identity.
On Sunday, May 26, two days after the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to immediately halt its military assault on Rafah under the Genocide Convention, which Israel is a party to, Israel instead chose to drop 2,000-pound bombs on a displacement camp in Rafah, which it had previously designated as a “safe” evacuation zone, burning Palestinians alive.
Photos and videos circulating social media, most of which are too graphic to reshare, showed scattered and burnt bodies, as well as people holding up the bodies of children whose heads had been blown off.
And somehow, even after the latest massacre in Rafah, publications are still trying to argue that “it is legal to kill children” and “accidentally” photoshopping out Palestine pins worn by celebrities on their outfits.
Somehow supporting human rights for everyone, everywhere, has become controversial.
At Almost, we stand on the side of humanity.
We cannot stand idly by as an entire people are slaughtered and blatantly wiped off the face of the earth.
There's no going back. We must call it what it is.
Kassy Cho
Cherry Mohamed
