EDITORIAL: As expected, Israeli army’s investigation report on the May 11 killing of Aljazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in the West Bank town of Jenin, released the other day, is an unabashed attempt at cover-up.
“There is a high possibility,” it said, adding: “Ms Abu Akleh was accidentally hit by IDF [Israel Defence Forces] gunfire that was fired toward suspects identified as armed Palestinian gunmen”. Announcing the report, an official told journalists that soldiers were under heavy fire and hit the Al Jazeera correspondent because they had mistaken her for a Palestinian fighter, not knowing that she was a journalist. “It was a mistake; they thought they were firing at terrorists shooting at them”.
This is a pack of lies. A UN investigation last June had concluded that “there was no evidence of activity by armed Palestinians close by” when she was shot. As for the claim of not knowing she was a journalist, video evidence shows she was wearing a vest clearly marked as “Press” and a helmet when hit by an Israeli sniper. Multiple other investigations into the circumstances of the killing, carried by international media, including the CNN and the Associated Press, have pointed an accusing finger at Israel.
As a matter of fact, Israeli soldiers are in the habit of targeting journalists covering Israel’s atrocities in occupied Palestinian territories with impunity. Last year, they bombed a building in Gaza that housed offices of Al Jazeera and the US-based Associated Press news agency. Then there is the 2019 UN Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry report that found “reasonable grounds to believe that Israeli snipers shot journalists intentionally, despite seeing that they were clearly marked as such during the 2018 protests along the border of Gaza and Israel.
” Shireen’s murder has received a great deal of international attention not only because Al Jazeera would not let the world forget it, but because she was an American citizen though of Palestinian origin. Last June, in a joint letter to President Joe Biden as many as 24 Democratic Party senators called for the State Department and FBI to launch an “independent investigation under US auspices to determine the truth” about the killing. For all his claims of being a defender of human rights around the world, Biden has chosen to resist demands for an independent inquiry, sticking to his initial position that Israel can be trusted to carry out its own investigation.
He has also ignored the request of the slain journalist’s family for a meeting in Washington or Jerusalem during his July visit to that country and the occupied Palestinian territory. No surprise there, given his unqualified support to Israel state in its relentless oppression, expansionism and crimes against humanity, violation of international law and a slew of UN Security Council resolutions demanding an end to occupation.
That though has not stopped conscientious Americans from asking for accountability. A few days ago, Shireen Abu Akleh was honoured for her life’s work with an award, accepted by her niece, by the National Press Club in Washington. Speaking on occasion, the club President, Jen Judson, expressed the lament that no one was being held responsible for her killing, adding: “that tells the world if you shoot a journalist, it can go unpunished and if journalists don’t feel protected less will take that risk to shine the light in where it is critically needed.” Unfortunately, however, such crimes will remain unpunished as long as the target is a Palestinian journalist and the perpetrator Israel backed by its powerful friend.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
Comments
Comments are closed.