Another day, another dead cameraman in Gaza. This time it is Al Jazeera’s Ali al-Attar, killed by a strike that Israel claims was aimed at a Hamas target. The UK, in its familiar posture of moral hand-wringing, has called for an independent investigation.
How very noble. Let us pause to consider the tragic irony of a state that arms the perpetrator while demanding an inquiry into the victim’s death. This is not the first time a journalist has fallen in this conflict, and it will not be the last.
The British government, ever the arbiter of global justice from a safe distance, knows full well that any investigation will be toothless, lost in the labyrinth of diplomatic evasion. The real story is not the death of one man, though it is a tragedy. It is the systematic erasure of the truth itself.
In the Victorian era, we would have called this a ‘sad necessity of empire’. Today, we call it an ‘unfortunate incident’. The language changes; the indifference remains.
The UK’s call for an investigation is like a spectator in a Roman arena requesting a review of the lion’s technique. It is theatre, not justice. The journalist’s ghost will not be appeased by a press release.
It will haunt the corridors of power until the world admits that some lives are considered collateral and others are not.
