I put up a post on the killing of the Palestinian-American Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh and got a bit of pushback from someone who felt that the investigations aren’t complete and I shouldn’t be so hasty to assign blame. My answer was taken from what I know about snipers. They have telescopic sights on their rifles and have observed all kinds of civic actions and disturbances. Her cameraman was also hit, but not fatally.
- 1. She was hardly an unknown. Ms. Abu Akleh had been reporting for 25 years.
- 2. Her vest and helmet both clearly said “Press.”
- 3. She was standing and talking into a microphone, she was facing her cameraman.
Were the snipers confused or disoriented by the Israeli military attack on the Jenin refugee camp in the Occupied Palestinian West Bank that was taking place? Here’s a comment from someone on Twitter concerning press coverage: “I’m seeing way too much passive tense coming from Israeli journalists right now”
NY Times headline: “Shireen Abu Akleh, Trailblazing Palestinian Journalist, Dies at 51” In the subheading: “…who was killed in the West Bank…”
The commenter: “’Dies at 51’ makes it sound like she had cancer or something, not that she was deliberately executed by the Israeli military.”
“Israeli Army spokesman Ran Kohav said that the journalists were ‘armed with cameras.’” Interesting way to phrase yourself if you’re embarrassed about an operation that your government is carrying out.
Ali al-Samoudi, who was shot in the back by an Israeli sniper, explained what happened. “We went in to film the Israeli operation. Then they opened fire at us. They made no demand that we leave, or cease.
They opened fire at us. One bullet hit me and another hit Shireen, and they killed her in cold blood because they are killers. Look, they specialize in killing Palestinians.”
A journalist says, “They are alleging that Palestinians shot her.”
Al-Samoudi replies, “There were no resistance fighters around us.”
Very importantly, people who tried to help Abu Akleh were also shot at, which does not indicate any sort of accident.
The Intercept reports that Israel undertook a disinformation program to blame Abu Akleh’s death on Palestinian militants. Israel released a video clip of a Palestinian militant claiming credit for killing an Israel soldier, “But no IDF soldier was injured in Jenin “.
A local researcher for the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem determined that the militant was firing nowhere near where Abu Akleh was killed.
Eulogy for Shireen Abu Akleh. Another from the State Department. A visual tribute.
During her funeral, an attack by Israeli security forces caused mourners to drop hr coffin.
Al Jazeera report on her funeral. It was well-attended. She was buried in the Old City of East Jerusalem.
