Dallas community pickets Dallas Morning News, holds vigil for murdered Al Jazeera journalists
Dallas, TX – Palestinian Youth Movement called an emergency picket, August 12, at the Dallas Morning News headquarters downtown followed by a vigil for journalists and media members targeted by the Israeli military.
The picket was supported by the DFW Anti War Committee, Code Pink, Freedom Road Socialist Organization and the Party for Socialism and Liberation. By the middle of the afternoon a significant crowd had already gathered on the sidewalk, chanting “Dallas media you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide.”
Dallas Morning News is owned by Hearst Communications, whose investment wing for venture and startup capital only just recently closed its Tel Aviv office in August 2025.
By the end of the afternoon more supporters began to gather across the street outside Main Street Garden. By 6 p.m. the crowd had relocated to the park to hold a vigil and evening prayers in memory of journalists and media staff murdered by the Israeli government, including Anas al Sharif and the staff of Al Jazeera slain by the IDF the week prior.
Dr. Nouran Sharaf, who had spoken with Anas al Sharif and returned from Gaza herself after working in Al Shifa hospital, stated, “Their cameras confronted Israel’s propaganda and lies. Their words became weapons. Their courage was so threatening to their oppressor that the only way to defeat them was to permanently silence them. But let us remember that they were more than just journalists. They embodied the people of Gaza with their strength and resilience. They will forever remain witnesses that history could not erase and voices that could not be controlled.”
She continued with a reading of Anas al Sharif’s final will, urging the world to never allow itself to be silenced or to stop speaking against the Zionist’s apartheid regime, stating, “Be bridges toward the liberation of the land and its people, until the sun of dignity and freedom rises over our stolen homeland.”
Sam Judy, local journalist and founder of the online Dallas Nomad stated, “What constitutes resistance? When the entire Al Jazeera crew is exterminated because of their inability to control the narrative, it becomes resistance just living and preserving the truth.”
Judy concluded, “You have to keep in mind that these folks did not report before this siege. These folks started during the siege. So imagine having a job like this as demanding as it is, that has as much responsibility laden with it, and you are in your early 20s, and you are in a genocide, dodging air strikes much of your day – these are some of the best human beings that have ever been created.”
A banner was laid out where community members wrote the names of slain journalists and media staff targeted by Israel. The list was read aloud, their names numbering nearly 400 in the last 25 years alone.
The evening ended with a solemn Salat al Gha’ib, n prayer for those in Gaza who have died so far with no one to pray for them.