Slain journalist was known for fearless reporting
Shireen Abu Akleh was synonymous with coverage of life on the West Bank
An Al Jazeera correspondent shot dead 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 of 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 Twitter in Arabic this week, setting 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.
Al Jazeera and witnesses, including her producer who was shot in the back on Wednesday, said she was killed by Israeli gunfire. Israel said it was unclear who was responsible, calling it “premature and irresponsible to cast blame at this stage”.
Israel called for a joint investigation into the killing and asked Palestinian authorities to hand over the bullet that struck Abu Akleh for forensic examination.
An Israeli security source said Israel was prepared to examine the projectile in front of Palestinian and US officials, “out of transparency”.
However, senior Palestinian Authority official Hussein al-Sheikh, a close confident of President Mahmoud Abbas, ruled out a joint probe.
Abu Akleh’s coverage of the harsh realities of Israel’s military occupation was linked with her own experiences as a Palestinian journalist on the front lines.
A US citizen who often visited America, 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, she was born and raised in Jerusalem. She leaves behind a brother and her parents.
Abu Akleh last year 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 to 2005. “Despite the dangers, we were determined to do the job,” she said. “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.”
Abu Akleh joined Al Jazeera in 1997, just a year after 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 youths, the hundreds of Palestinians held without charge in Israeli prisons and the s expansion of Jewish settlements.
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”.
Late on Wednesday, Abu Akleh’s body, draped in a Palestinian flag and covered by a wreath of flowers, was carried through Ramallah on a red stretcher. Hundreds chanted: “With our spirit, with our blood, we will redeem you, Shireen”.
Yesterday, crowds lined the streets of Ramallah as she was given a full state memorial at the presidential compound.
I chose journalism so I could be close to the people … at least I was able to communicate their voice to the world
SHIREEN ABU AKLEH