On 10 August 2025, Israel’s precision strike on a Gaza media tent just outside the main gate of Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital killed Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif along with his colleagues. Anas and his crew were among the last few journalists remaining in Gaza to document and report the ongoing Israeli genocide. As the Israeli army prepared to invade Gaza City, the Zionist regime considered them too great a risk as witnesses to the atrocities about to unfold, and decided it was better to wipe out the entire Al Jazeera press team there. Until their final moments, Anas and his team broadcasted the horrors taking place in Gaza, live to the world.
After these assassinations, Israel shamelessly claimed that the killing of Anas was not just another unfortunate incident of “collateral damage” in Gaza. It was deliberate. They purposely targeted the journalist group. One must surely wonder: how on earth could Israel possibly escape the wrath of the global community this time around with such a vicious, pre-meditated cold-blooded murder? After all, aren’t members of the press among the most respected groups in the so-called “free” West? If the deliberate murder of journalists in broad daylight is not enough to trigger outrage and accountability, then what is?
And yet, for the zillionth time, Israel managed to do just that. Flexing its platinum-access victim card, it turns out that Israel has every right in the world to “defend” itself from a group of journalists like Anas and his crew. Anas was quickly branded a “Hamas terrorist,” giving licence to the Zionist regime to take him out. Israel has done this umpteen times in its current onslaught of Gaza. In the early stages when it blatantly attacked al-Shifa Hospital, it also claimed that the hospital was the “command centre for Hamas”.
One might assume such manufactured consent was meant only for Western media consumption. Apparently not. Unfortunately, the same narrative is now being pushed in parts of the Global South, including Malaysia. In the aftermath of the tragedy, Malaysians were shocked and angered to see a local newspaper ran a savage headline echoing Israel’s line by portraying the slain journalist as a militant disguised as press.
The problem runs deeper than the insult to Anas’ memory. The very premise of labelling Hamas as a terrorist or militant group is problematic. Unlike in the West, Malaysia maintains a firm and principled stance that Hamas is a resistance and liberation movement. This was made clear most recently when Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan voiced Malaysia’s unease over the New York Declaration’s preconditions for Palestinian statehood, including the demand for Hamas to disarm and be excluded from future governance.
Next, after more than 270 journalists and media workers have been assassinated by Israel in Gaza, one might expect their colleagues worldwide to show solidarity, or at least sympathy. Instead, by parroting Israeli propaganda, branding journalists like Anas as “militants” and using dehumanising terms like “eliminated”, such media outlets act less like independent press and more like PR firms for the Israeli war machine. They should understand that by doing so, they are effectively greenlighting and legitimising further attacks on journalists.
This latest episode is a stark reminder that the Zionist media narrative has been infiltrating minds for years, often creeping in as unconscious “slips” in local reporting. For example, the term “alleged genocide,” is still used in parts of the Malaysian media to describe Israel’s atrocities in Gaza. At first glance, it may appear to reflect public anger. In reality, it grants the genocidal regime the benefit of the doubt — as though the slaughter of more than 63,000 Palestinians and the execution of plans to expel the rest from Gaza is still a matter of opinion.
Following the public backlash, the newspaper has issued a formal apology. But Malaysians cannot simply accept such claims of innocence. It would be difficult to swallow that no sources were available other than those parroting the Israeli media. One is left to wonder whether news on Gaza’s ongoing tragedy is being drawn not from independent outlets, but from the very media of the regime perpetrating today’s gravest crimes of genocide.
As the nation prepares to celebrate its Independence Day on 31 August, it is worth remembering that independence is not just something political, but also intellectual. After 68 years of sovereignty, colonialism, including the colonisation of the mind, should be a relic of the past. Malaysians have the right to expect nothing less from their own press.
Malaysian editors must draw a firm line: there can be no compromise, no hedging, and no parroting of Zionist talking points in the nation’s media. Every time such framing slips through, it chips away at Malaysia’s sovereignty of thought and feeds a propaganda machine built to justify genocide. At the very least, we owe it to the martyrs of Gaza such as Anas al-Sharif to ensure their story is told without distortion, dilution, or deference to the oppressor.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.