A coalition of individual journalists, news outlets, and press freedom organizations sent a letter Aug. 15 imploring U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to immediately halt all American weapons sales to the far-right Israeli government as the official death toll from its assault against the Gaza Strip surpassed 40,000, reported Common Dreams news agency yesterday. The toll includes more than 100 journalists.
“Israel’s military actions are not possible without U.S. weapons, U.S. military aid, and U.S. diplomatic support,” reads the new letter, which was organized by the Courage Foundation, Defending Rights & Dissent, and RootsAction. “By providing the weapons being used to deliberately kill journalists, you are complicit in one of the gravest affronts to press freedom today,” “ the letter continued.
Letter signers include Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Spencer Ackerman and Laura Poitras, WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson, Tareq Hajjaj of Mondoweiss, and Ryan Grim of Drop Site News, along with around 100 others.
