Israeli journalist Danny Kushmaro appears seated on an armchair above destructions caused by Israeli attacks in a village in southern Lebanon. (Credit: Screenshot from Israeli Channel 12 report)
The image is provocative: Helmet on, bulletproof vest strapped tight, dark sunglasses shielding his gaze as he surveys the ruins, Danny Kushmaro sits atop a chair balanced on the rubble of a destroyed home in southern Lebanon. "Israel's most beloved TV journalist" and presenter for Channel 12, the country's top news station, has become the latest subject of controversy after an image of his scene-setting pose — captured amid the wreckage — circulated widely, while "Israelis didn't blink," Haaretz reported.
This staged setup is part of a 26-minute report, aired over the weekend, which Kushmaro conducted with the Israeli army in southern Lebanon, particularly in the village of Aita al-Shaab (Bint Jbeil district). “This place looked like a pastoral village two or three weeks ago, and now it’s total destruction,” Kushmaro said at the start of his report, before directly participating in detonating houses.
'Shame'
Since the war in Gaza and Lebanon began, images of the Israeli army demolishing civilian homes and entire villages have proliferated on social media. However, the fact that the person depicting himself celebrating while committing such acts is “the most recognizable TV journalist in Israel,” according to Haaretz, has sparked outrage among peers. “A disgrace,” said Cyril Payen, senior reporter at France 24, in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “There are no more ethics, no more safeguards,” he added.
(Credit: Screenshot of Cyril Payen's post on his X account, @payenc)
Etan Nechin, Haaretz’s New York correspondent, was equally outraged, contrasting this image with Palestinian journalists targeted by the Israeli army on “tenuous charges” and Lebanese journalists “killed in their sleep.” The latter refers to the three journalists killed in an Israeli strike on their hotel in Hasbaya on the night of Oct. 25. In total, twelve journalists have been killed in Lebanon by the Israeli army since Oct. 8, 2023, alongside over a hundred colleagues in Gaza.
Ofer Cassif, a member of parliament from the Hadash party, a left-wing, non-Zionist Jewish-Arab faction, pointed out the irony of seeing a prominent Israeli journalist take part in demolishing a house in Lebanon “before returning to his studio to report on Hamas terrorists disguised as journalists.” On Oct. 23, Israel accused six journalists from the Qatari channel Al Jazeera of links to Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which are classified as terrorist organizations in Israel.
On Monday, Oct. 14, a media tour of southern Lebanon, organized by the Israeli army at the start of its ground offensive two weeks earlier, had already generated controversy. For over a year, Israeli authorities have barred foreign journalists from entering the Gaza Strip, except under strict supervision, yet they invited several Western media outlets, including the BBC, Reuters, and the New York Times, to accompany their soldiers to Lebanese villages. At the time, Hezbollah issued two strongly worded statements condemning what it called a “violation (…) of Lebanese sovereignty and laws” and demanded that Lebanese authorities sanction the media involved.
This article originally appeared in French in L'Orient Le-Jour and was translated by Tasnim Chaaban.