UK parliament holds panel on Anadolu’s Gaza documentary

LONDON

A panel on Anadolu’s documentary The Evidence, which showcases Israel’s war crimes in Gaza, was held in Britain’s parliament on Thursday.

The event on the 52-minute documentary, which covers Israel’s attacks on Gaza since last October in full detail, took place in the Jubilee Room at the Palace of Westminster.

The documentary consists of photographs and images taken by AA reporters from the first moment the attacks began and interviews with experts in the field.

Speaking at the event, Osman Koray Ertas, Türkiye’s Ambassador to the UK, said the Israeli response to the Oct. 7 attack has triggered “the worst human-made disasters” of modern times in the Gaza Strip.

“Those responsible must be held accountable to uphold justice for the Palestinians and to restore faith in international law and the rules-based order,” he noted.

Touching on Ankara’s efforts, Ertas said Türkiye has emerged as a leading provider of international humanitarian support for Gazans, dispatching more than 45,000 tons of aid and transferring over 900 patients and wounded people for treatment.

The ambassador defined The Evidence as a “powerful work,” praising Anadolu’s works across the world.

Serdar Karagoz, the president and CEO of Anadolu, touched on the Israeli attacks in Gaza, saying “every crime leaves behind evidence.”

“Our journalists on the ground have been working to document evidence which suggests that many war crimes have been committed in Gaza,” noted Karagoz, mentioning that Anadolu has compiled thousands of hours of journalism into a documentary which “we rightfully named The Evidence.”

In the documentary; the incidents in Gaza are discussed with the President of the International Court of Justice, Juge Joan E. Donoghue, UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, Aya Majzoub, deputy regional director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International, former Executive Director of Human Rights Watch Kenneth Roth and many experts.

“We as Anadolu Agency will continue to fulfill our duty to speak the truth. Even when that truth may be inconvenient for some,” Karagoz added.

“I am not a politician. I am not a judge or a legal expert. I am a journalist,” he stated, saying he didn’t come to London with a political agenda. “I am pro-truth. I am pro-facts.”

“I came here today to fulfill my responsibilities to my honorable profession, journalism,” he said.

Majzoub, one of the attendees of the panel, thanked Anadolu for its “painstaking work” documenting the ongoing atrocities in Gaza and south Lebanon.

“it’s incredibly heartening to see Anadolu Agency put so many resources behind investigating war crimes and atrocities being committed during the horrors of this war,” she noted.

Recalling Anadolu’s images taken by its photojournalist Mustafa Al-Kharouf showing that Israel used white phosphorus in Gaza, Majzoub said those photographs were “key” in building Amnesty’s case that the Israeli army was using white phosphorus in densely populated areas in Gaza.

Montaser Al-Sawaf, an Anadolu freelance cameraman who was also one of the journalists covering Israeli attacks on Gaza, was killed in Israeli airstrikes in December.

In October, Amnesty International announced that its Crisis Evidence Lab had verified that Israeli military units striking Gaza were equipped with white phosphorus artillery rounds.

The videos and photos documented by the nongovernmental organization showed that Israel used white phosphorus in Gaza, which it has been striking since Oct. 7.

Among Amnesty’s evidence is an image featuring M825 and M825A1 artillery shells with D528 labels used for white phosphorus-based ammunition, which were taken by Al-Kharouf on Oct. 9.

Later, Anadolu’s photos were also used as evidence proving that Israel used banned white phosphorus munitions in the densely populated Gaza Strip.

Labour Party MP Khalid Mahmood and Lord Qurban Hussain, a Liberal Democrat member of British House of Lords, were among the attendees at the event.

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