It will take an independent investigation to get to the truth behind killing of journalist

HER death has become emblematic of the enmity that has characterised this seemingly interminable conflict.

The shooting last week of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who worked for Al Jazeera, and the appalling scenes that followed as Israeli police officers charged at Palestinian mourners carrying her coffin during the funeral procession in Jerusalem’s Old City, was a stark reminder of the ugliness that underpins this battle of wills between two peoples.

Abu Akleh, who was 51, was a household name for many Palestinians and Arabs, having reported on the Israeli occupation and other regional issues for many years. She was shot dead last Wednesday while covering an Israeli military raid in Jenin.

Like many people I found it hard to watch the television footage last Friday showing Israeli police officers, in an apparent bid to stop mourners proceeding by foot rather than taking the coffin by car, burst through the courtyard gates and charge at the crowd, some beating pallbearers with batons and kicking them.

At one point, the group carrying Abu Akleh’s coffin backed against a wall and almost dropped the casket, recovering it just before one end hit the ground as stun grenades detonated. Amid the outpouring of grief and anger over her killing, the now all-too-familiar blame game that has become the hallmark of the IsraeliPalestinian conflict has begun.

While Palestinian authorities have described Abu Akleh’s killing as an assassination by Israeli forces, Israel’s government initially suggested Palestinian fire might have been to blame, but officials have also said they could not rule out it was Israeli gunfire that killed her. In a statement, agreed by consensus on Friday, the 15-member UN Security Council strongly condemned the killing and called for an “immediate, thorough, transparent, and fair and impartial investigation”.

Whether this happens remains to be seen, but for now the bullet that killed Abu Akleh has become the focus of two competing narratives about the circumstances of her death.

While Israel, has proposed a joint investigation with the Palestinians, and asked them to provide the bullet for examination, the Palestinians have rejected the request, insisting that Israel could not be trusted to investigate the killing. Such scepticism that Israel, based on its track record, would rigorously investigate itself, is shared by Israeli and Palestinian rights campaigners.

“The bullet can help only if the soldiers have surrendered their guns immediately,” said Michael Sfard, a legal adviser to Yesh Din, a rights group that investigates Israeli abuses in the West Bank, speaking to The New York Times. “Otherwise, they could manipulate their guns.”

The bullet that killed Abu Akleh has become the focus of two competing narratives about the circumstances of her death

While just who was responsible for Abu Akleh’s death has yet to be definitively determined, there is no escaping the long history of harsh treatment of Palestinian journalists by the Israeli authorities. According to a recent report by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), at least 144 Palestinian journalists have been at the receiving end of live rounds, rubber bullets, stun grenades or teargas fired by Israeli soldiers or police – or their baton blows – in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem during the past four years.

Whoever it was that fired the bullet that killed Shireen Abu Akleh, it will take an independent international investigation to get to the truth.