Clarissa Ward
speaker
326 appearances
5 recordings
4 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard 4 Jun
Clarissa Ward’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 3 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 1.
Appearances
The reason that was articulated, security no longer really holds.
And so it's very frustrating for those of us who have been covering this story very closely, obviously since October 7th, but for decades beforehand as well, to not be on the ground reporting firsthand and crucially talking to Palestinians and platforming those voices.
Honestly, there isn't an actual justification or a reason given.
When we continue to lobby about this, and I should say the Foreign Press Association in Israel has been pushing hard, has petitioned the Supreme Court, and we keep being told effectively that it's under review.
And we have pitched to go in with international humanitarian organizations
like the UN or, you know, any number of other organizations who are willing to take us and basically to embed with them, which would mitigate a lot of the risks associated in terms of deconfliction, crossing from that yellow area into the red area, so to speak.
And we have also offered to do limited embeds, just one day, two days.
And still, there has been a clear reluctance to let journalists in, which has been very frustrating and which has really affected our ability to cover this story in the way that we are, those of us who are experienced conflict reporters, used to doing.
I think it's not so much about learning something we didn't know before, because we have all been watching this unfold on our phones, on our social media feeds, on the reports coming in for Palestinian outlets and Arab language outlets that are on the ground and have been so throughout the last couple of years.
But I also think there's no substitute for seeing those images and
of the absolute mass devastation of this entire area.
I mean, we're really talking about a moonscape here with your own eyes.
And as a reporter covering a story, Ian, that is so hotly contested, that is so politicized, that is so divisive, where information is constantly being weaponized, having your own two feet on the ground and your own two eyes looking
at whatever it is that's right in front of you allows you to speak with some level of authority and clarity that otherwise will continually be questioned because of the kind of red hot emotion on both sides of this conflict.
Well, I think it's impossible to say without being able to go in and be on the ground yourself.
And by the way, that line of argument is one that I have used repeatedly with Israeli authorities.
I've said, if your issue is that there has been propaganda, misinformation, misreporting, then allow some of us in to go and look with fresh eyes.
And to be honest, by not allowing journalists in, you're really lending credence to the idea that this whole thing has never been about security.
It has been about trying to hide away from the eyes of the world.
the devastation and horrors that have been taking place over the last two years in Gaza.
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