I’ve spent a lot of time looking at the photographers working in Gaza.
Motaz Azaiza has just given me something else to look at.
Azaiza and HonestReporting have some history. We have previously raised serious questions about his social media activity and the way international media have presented him. He is also one of the best-known Palestinian photojournalists in the world, with millions of followers and a place on TIME’s 100 most influential people of 2024.
This time, the interesting part is what Azaiza himself is saying.
During a long Arabic-language interview with Ahmad Biqawi on the Taqarob podcast, the conversation turned to media campaigns and whether they happened spontaneously.
Azaiza’s answer:
“No. They were never spontaneous.”
He carried on:
“It started with… a group called SMART belonging to Hamas. Every journalist in Gaza was in it.”
At that point, my reaction was fairly simple.
What group?
Biqawi apparently thought the same thing. He asked Azaiza what SMART was.
Azaiza described a group containing Hamas media and said its administrator was connected to media operations at the Rafah Crossing.
I’ve been going through Palestinian sources since hearing the interview. SMART turns out to have a history.
In April 2017, Palestinian news agency Safa reported on a meeting at the Smart Media Center in Rafah attended by more than 25 journalists, representatives of local media organizations and rights figures. Its executive director, Wael Abu Omar, spoke about protecting the “internal front” and “unifying the media effort.” The report also said further meetings and electronic campaigns were planned.
That doesn’t answer the question raised by Azaiza’s interview. It makes me want to ask it more urgently.
For much of the Gaza war, international audiences have depended heavily on local photographers and journalists. Their photographs have appeared in newspapers, on television screens and across social media around the world.
As a picture editor, I want to know how that photographic ecosystem works.
Who tells photographers what is happening? How do they know where to go? What information is shared between them? And when Azaiza says “every journalist in Gaza” was in a group he describes as belonging to Hamas, what exactly was being posted there?
Azaiza hasn’t answered that yet.
But he has given the group a name.
SMART.
I think it’s time we had a closer look.
Liked this article? Follow HonestReporting on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to see even more posts and videos debunking news bias and smears, as well as other content explaining what’s really going on in Israel and the region. Get updates direct to your phone. Join our WhatsApp and Telegram channels!
© Divuach Ne’eman R”A, 2025
