Why did Israel revoke the press credentials of Al Jazeera correspondent Elias Karam? He has not been accused of inciting violence. He did not commit the ultimate sin of calling for anti-Israel sanctions. He has not even advocated a boycott of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Karam, an Israeli Druze who identifies as Palestinian, did not sound off about the proposed Nationality Law that if adopted would anchor in the law that he and others like him are second-class citizens. Karam is being punished for using his mic and his camera to protest Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands.
“As a Palestinian journalist who is in an occupied area or a conflict area, journalistic work is an integral part of the resistance and of political and educational action,” Karam said in a May 2016 interview with the Arabic-language TV network Dar al-Iman. “A journalist fulfills his role in the resistance through his pen, voice or camera, because he is part of this [Palestinian] nation and is resisting in his unique way.”