Shireen Abu Akleh

Shireen Abu Akleh was a Palestinian-American journalist who spent 20 years working for Al-Jazeera, covering Israel’s occupation of Palestine. She was renowned as an legendary journalist in the Arabic-speaking world, her sign-off iconic. She was shot dead by an Israeli soldier on 11 May 2022, as she was covering IDF raids on a refugee camp in the West Bank city of Jenin.

The Israeli government tried to spread the lie that she had been shot by Palestinians themselves, providing as “proof” video footage of Palestinians firing guns elsewhere in Jenin that day. While this narrative had some take-up in the Western media, even Israeli NGOs like B’tselem disproved the claim, uploading their own video showing how many hundreds of metres the bullet would’ve had to travel between narrow gaps and around corners. Not to mention that Shireen’s own colleagues, who were right there with her at the moment of her death, could easily testify that it was the Israeli soldiers who shot her – and the Israeli soldiers who kept shooting so none of her colleagues could even try to help her before she died. The Israeli government offered that a “joint investigation” be conducted by them and the Palestinian Authority, who naturally rejected the offer due to Israel’s complete lack of trustworthiness. The PA is calling for an independent investigation.

One day after their lie about Shireen Abu Akleh’s killer being Palestinian, the Israeli state decided to incense Palestinians even more by sending in heavily militarised police officers to violently swarm her funeral procession, beating the mourners. They used stun grenades and tear gas, and beat the pallbearers so heavily with batons that they almost dropped Shireen’s casket. On top of this, Israel had the audacity to claim their attack on the funeral march was “in accordance with the wishes of the family”.

As of November 2022, the US has finally announced that it’ll conduct an independent probe into Shireen Abu Akleh’s killing. Israel, in turn, announced that it will not be cooperating.

See Also / References

• Al Jazeera: Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh killed in Israeli raid  (11 May 2022)
• Jacobin: Israel Assassinated Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh  (12 May 2022)
• Twitter (via Nitter): tweet by Khadija about the Israeli attack on the funeral march  (13 May 2022)
• Twitter: tweet by Hend Amry about Israel’s story about why they attacked the funeral march  (15 May 2022)
• Jacobin: Israel Killed Al Jazeera Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. It Must Be Held Accountable  (15 May 2022)
• +972 Magazine: Shireen Abu Akleh raised my generation. Now, we’re breaking through the dam  (15 May 2022)
• Mondoweiss: Israel won’t cooperate with U.S. probe into Shireen Abu Akleh’s killing  (15 Nov 2022)