A UK government office has refused to accept a union letter
calling for action against Israel over the killing of journalists in Gaza.
A hand-delivered letter from the National Union of Journalists encouraging Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens to push for a stop to arms sales to Israel was rejected by staff at Cardiff's UK Government Office in Wales.
The letter was attempted to be delivered by David Nicholson, co-chair of the Welsh Executive Council of the NUJ, ahead of a vigil where the names of over 230 journalists killed by the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza since October 2023 would be read out loud.
Mr. Nicholson, Sian Gale of the Bectu media workers' union, Bethan Sayed, a former Plaid Cymru Assembly Member who is currently with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and Libby Nolan of Unison Cymru and Stop The War Cymru gave speeches prior to the vigil, which drew about 70 people.
The letter, signed by Mr Nicholson and his co-chair Dr Rachel Howells stated:
“We write as co-chairs on behalf of the Welsh Executive Council of the National Union of Journalists to express our dismay, sorrow and anger at the sustained murderous attacks of the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza, which have resulted in the deaths of more than 61,000 Palestinians including more than 233 journalists and media workers, although some estimates put the figure at 270.
Nobody seriously doubts that the IDF, at the behest of the Israeli government, has deliberately targeted journalists as part of a strategy intended to suppress the reporting of the atrocities being committed on a daily basis. Such conduct represents an outrageous attack on media freedom and must not be tolerated.
The targeting and killing of journalists and media workers is a war crime and the NUJ calls on your government to press the International Criminal Court to investigate this as soon as possible. The United Kingdom also needs to add its voice and pressure to the call from the International Federation of Journalists for Israel to allow international media organisations and journalists into Gaza.”
A Wales Office spokesperson said:
“The Wales Office is not the UK Government department responsible for building management and security at Ty William Morgan and we are happy to receive correspondence for the Secretary of State for Wales.”
It is understood that the building is managed by HMRC, which occupies nine of the 11 floors and has a policy of not accepting hand-delivered correspondence.
Ms Stevens has been sent the text of the letter by email.
How did the NUJ document evidence of journalists being targeted in Gaza?
They emphasized particular admissions from the Israeli
military, including the military's admission and acceptance of blame for
killing five Al-Jazeera journalists and media workers in an airstrike of the
media tent that was outside of al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza. Al-Jazeera called
this a targeted assassination in order to silence them from reporting coverage
of the conflict.
The NUJ drew upon the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) reports, where it was reported there had been almost 200 journalists and media workers killed since October 2023, mostly Palestinians. Making it the longest conflict and the most dangerous conflict for journalists in modern history.
The investigations included descriptions and thorough investigations of incidents, including the strike in Lebanon on October 13, 2023, which otherwise appeared as an attack on journalists as they were targeted.