Palestinian journalist killed in Israeli raid, world slams action
JERUSALEM: Veteran Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, one of the satellite channel’s best-known reporters, was shot and killed on Wednesday while covering an Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank. The broadcaster and two reporters who were with her blamed Israeli forces.
Abu Akleh, 51, a Palestinian-american, was wearing a press vest that clearly marked her as a journalist while reporting in the city of Jenin, the Qatar-based outlet said.
The Israeli army initially suggested that Abu Akleh might have been killed by stray fire from Palestinians. But the Israeli military chief, Lt. Gen. Aviv Kohavi, later stepped back from that assertion, saying it was unclear who had fired the deadly bullet.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Al Jazeera described Abu Akleh’s death as blatant, cold-blooded murder by the Israeli military. Al Jazeera accused Israel of “deliberately targeting and killing our colleague.” Abu Akleh’s producer, Palestinian journalist Ali Samoodi, was hospitalised in stable condition ater being shot in the back.
Abu Akleh was a respected and familiar face in the Middle East, known for her coverage on Al Jazeera Arabic of the harsh realities of Israel’s open-ended military occupation of the Palestinians, now in its 55th year. Her death reverberated across the region.
Abu Akleh’s name trended across Twiter in Arabic on Wednesday, seting social media alight with support for the Palestinians. Her image was projected over the main square in the West Bank city of Ramallah as mourners flooded the Al Jazeera offices there and her family home in east Jerusalem.
STATE FUNERAL: Abu Akleh, who joined Al Jazeera in 1997 and whose coverage of the conflict was revered across Palestinian society, will receive a full state memorial at the Palestinian presidential compound in Ramallah on Thursday.
Her was body carried through the city on Wednesday evening, with thousands chanting “thank you, dear Shireen.”
CONDEMNATIONS: Arab governments condemned the killing. The UAE Journalists Association condemned the killing of Abu Akleh by the Israeli forces.
Muhammad Al Hammadi, the association’s president, called for protecting journalists and holding accountable all those who assaulted or killed them while performing their work.
The Emirates Journalists Association sent a telegram of condolences to the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, in which it offered its sincere condolences and sympathy to all journalist and media colleagues in Palestine, and to Abu Akleh family.
Qatar, the Arab League and Jordan all condemned the shooting, and in the Jordanian capital of Amman, a group of journalists and activists held a solidarity march outside Al Jazeera’s offices.
In New York, the US ambassador to UN, Linda Thomas-greenfield, called Abu Akleh’s death “really horrifying” and called for a transparent investigation. She said protecting American citizens and journalists was “our highest priority.”
The UN Human Rights office urged for an “independent, transparent investigation into her killing. Impunity must end.”
The White House also called for a thorough probe. On Twiter, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said her death was an affront to media freedom everywhere.
Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz said “our findings will be relayed, with transparency ... to our American friends and also to the Palestinian Authority and others in the world with whom we are in contact.”
The European Union also condemned the killing of Abu Akleh and demanded an independent investigation into the circumstances of her death.
“The European Union strongly condemns the killing of Palestinian-american journalist of Al Jazeera, Shireen Abu Akleh, in the occupied West Bank,” the EU statement said.
“It is essential that a thorough, independent investigation clarifies all the circumstances of these incidents as soon as possible and that those responsible are brought to justice,” it continued.
AUTOPSY: Preliminary results of an autopsy ordered by the Palestinian Authority showed that Abu Akleh died of a bullet wound to the head, the director of the Palestinian Forensic Medicine Institute said in the West Bank city of Nablus.
He declined to give further information when asked whether the findings showed that Abu Akleh had been hit by an Israeli round.
Treated for his wounds in a hospital in Jenin, Samoodi told reporters: “They (Israeli soldiers) didn’t ask us to leave and they didn’t ask us to stop (filming). They fired at us. One bullet hit me and another hit Shireen. They killed her in cold blood.”
Abu Akleh’s coverage of the harsh realities of Israel’s military occupation was inextricably linked with her own experiences as a Palestinian journalist on the front lines. Her death underscores the heavy price the conflict continues to exact on Palestinians, regardless of their role as journalists.
An Al Jazeera correspondent who was shot dead on Wednesday during an Israeli raid in the West Bank was a highly respected journalist in the Middle East whose unflinching coverage was known to millions of viewers.
News of Shireen Abu Akleh’s death reverberated across the region.
The 51-year-old journalist became a household name synonymous with Al Jazeera’s coverage of life under occupation during her more than two decades reporting in the Palestinian territories, including during the second intifada, or uprising, that killed thousands on both sides, most of them Palestinians.
Abu Akleh’s name trended across Twiter in Arabic on Wednesday, seting social media alight with support for the Palestinians.
Her image was projected over the main square in the West Bank city of Ramallah as mourners flooded the Al Jazeera offices there and her family home in east Jerusalem.
Aljazeeraandwitnesses,includingherproducer who was shot in the back on Wednesday, said she was killed by Israeli gunfire. Israel said it was
“I chose journalism so I could be close to the people. It might not be easy to change the reality, but at least I was able to communicate their voice to the world,” she had said last year
unclear who was responsible, calling it “premature and irresponsible to cast blame at this stage.”
Abu Akleh’s coverage of the harsh realities of Israel’s military occupation was inextricably linked with her own experiences as a Palestinian journalist on the front lines.
Her death underscores the heavy price the conflict continues to exact on Palestinians, regardless of their role as journalists.
Although she was also a US citizen who oten visited America in the summers, she lived and worked in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, where those who knew her said she felt most at home.
A Palestinian Christian whose family was originally from Bethlehem, she was born and raised in Jerusalem. She leaves behind a brother and her parents.
In an Al Jazeera video released last year, Abu Akleh recalled the scale of destruction and “the feeling that death was at times just around the corner” during her coverage of the second intifada, from 2000-2005.
“Despite the dangers, we were determined to do the job,” she said.
“I chose journalism so I could be close to the people,” she added. “It might not be easy to change the reality, but at least I was able to communicate their voice to the world.”
Abu Akleh joined Al Jazeera in 1997, just a year ater the groundbreaking Arabic news network launched. Among her many assignments were covering five wars in Gaza and Israel’s war with Lebanon in 2006.
She reported on forced home evictions, the killings of Palestinian youth, the hundreds of Palestinians held without charge in Israeli prisons and the continuous expansion of Jewish setlements.
Her longtime producer, Wessam Hammad, said Abu Akleh possessed an incredible ability to remain calm under pressure.
“Shireen worked all these years with a commitment to the values and ethics of our profession,” he said of Abu Akleh, who the network called “the face of Al Jazeera in Palestine.” He and Abu Akleh were oten caught in Israeli cross-fire during the many stories they covered together, he said.
On one assignment, their car filled with tear gas and they struggled to breathe. When they would think back on these moments, he said Abu Akleh would laugh and marvel at how they managed to survive.
Images of the moments ater Abu Akleh was shot in the head in the West Bank town of Jenin circulated online and were broadcast on Al Jazeera and other Arabic news channels.
Wearing a helmet and a vest clearly marked “PRESS,” Abu Akleh’s body was shown lying face down in a patch of sand. A Palestinian man jumped over a wall to reach her as gunshots rang out, dragging her motionless body to a car.
In video from the West Bank hospital where Abu Akleh was pronounced dead, a male colleague was seen weeping at her hospital bed as others choked back tears. A female correspondent for Al Jazeera in the Gaza Strip wept on air as she reported from a vigil for the journalist.
Later Wednesday, Abu Akleh’s body, draped in a Palestinian flag and covered by a wreath of flowers, was carried through downtown Ramallah on a red stretcher. Hundreds chanted, “With our spirit, with our blood, we will redeem you, Shireen.”