Israel must face war crime probe
The killing of Shireen Abu Akleh was particularly heavy to process and comment on. Like many, I learned about Palestine through her eyes and fact-based reporting since the days of the Second Intifada. Her loss has shaken the Palestinian community and the whole world and prompted sober reflection and action.
Looking at the record, this is part of a recurrent targeting of journalists and media workers by Israel in the Occupied Territories. More than 40 Palestinian journalists have been killed and hundreds injured there since 2000. This and the associated failure to investigate and prosecute those responsible are serious violations of the right to life and freedom of expression. Journalists’ safety is essential in guaranteeing the right to receive impartial information as well as freedom of opinion.
These freedoms are even more vital in the context of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, where voices of civil society, Palestinian and Israeli alike, have been increasingly targeted by repressive measures. Targeting journalists blatantly violates international law, the right to life, first and foremost, as well as Israel’s obligation as an Occupying Power: Humanitarian law establishes that journalists must not only be respected — i.e., they are not to be targeted — but also actively protected. Measures have to be taken to ensure their safety while on duty. There is no evidence of these safeguards in occupied Palestine. Under international law, journalists in the line of duty are civilians and the intentional targeting of civilians amounts to a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
The excessive use of force during purported law enforcement operations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, resulting in killing, maiming and wounding of journalists is one part of the widespread and systematic violence against Palestinians taking place in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. This is largely documented by Palestinian, Israeli and international nongovernmental organizations, as well as independent UN experts (like my predecessors) and commissions of inquiry. Many of the investigated incidents have been denounced as possible war crimes.
Looking at the last year, since the new Israeli government coalition came into power in June 2021, Israeli forces have killed 76 Palestinians, including at least 13 children. In the last two months alone, 29 Palestinian fatalities were reported. This is somewhat unavoidable: The longest occupation in modern history, which has no legal raison d’être, requires stifling control and indescribable violence and repression to keep the occupied population subjugated and, without rights, their inalienable and fundamental right to selfdetermination first and foremost.
What is needed is an independent, transparent, rigorous investigation of the killing of Abu Akleh. Israel should certainly ensure its utmost cooperation and accept not leading it. Israel’s military investigative system is well known to fall short of international standards of due process.
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