ISL statement, RCIT section in Israel/Occupied Palestine, 11.05.2022
On Wednesday morning the journalist Shireen Abu Akleh who worked in Al Jazeera was shot dead in the Jenin refugee camp. Al Jazeera condemned the Zionist army for her death. In a statement Al Jazeera said:
“In a blatant murder, violating international laws and norms, the Israeli occupation forces assassinated in cold blood Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Palestine, Shireen Abu Akleh, targeting her with live fire early this morning, Wednesday, May 11, 2022, while conducting her journalistic duty, clearly wearing a press jacket that identifies her a journalist, covering the Israeli occupation forces storming of Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank. Al Jazeera Media Network condemns this heinous crime, which intends to only prevent the media from conducting their duty. Al Jazeera holds the Israeli government and the occupation forces responsible for the killing of Shireen. It also calls on the international community to condemn and hold the Israeli occupation forces accountable for their intentional targeting and killing of Shireen.The Israeli authorities are also responsible for the targeting of Al Jazeera producer Ali al-Samudi, who was also shot in the back while covering the same event, and he is currently undergoing treatment” [1]
“A Palestinian health official dismissed the possibility that Abu Aqleh was killed by errant Palestinian gunfire. “The assessment is that she was killed by Israeli gunfire, and witnesses at the scene attest to this as well,” the official said in a phone call. Samoudi, which was working as her producer, told The Associated Press they were among a group of seven reporters who went to cover the raid early Wednesday. He said they were all wearing protective gear that clearly marked them as reporters, and they passed by Israeli troops so the soldiers would see them and know that they were there. He said the first shot missed them, then a second struck him, and a third killed Abu Aqleh. He said there were no militants or other civilians in the area — only the reporters and the army” [2]
As could be expected the Zionist army and government deny that they killed the reporter and that if they killed her, it was by mistake and in any case, she was armed with a camera.
“During the operation in Jenin refugee camp, suspects fired an enormous amount of gunfire at troops and hurled explosive devices. [Israeli] forces fired back. Hits were identified,” the Israeli army said in a statement. The army said it was “looking into the possibility that journalists were injured, potentially by Palestinian gunfire. But even if soldiers shot at — or, God forbid, hurt — someone who was not involved, this happened in battle, during a firefight, where this Palestinian is with the shooters. So, this thing can happen,” Israeli military spokesperson Ran Kochav told Army Radio. Kochav described Abu Aqleh as “filming and working for a media outlet amidst armed Palestinians. They’re armed with cameras, if you’ll permit me to say so.” [3]
Israel Minister of Justice claimed that accusing the Zionist army of the killing is a blood libel:
“The Palestinians, as usual, hurried to launch a blood libel against the IDF, exactly 20 years from the previous blood libel following IDF activity in Operation Defensive Shield in the Jenin refugee camp, an event I am well aware of,” Sa’ar said. “According to our defense establishment, there are indications that the journalist was hit by Palestinian gunfire and not the IDF” [4]
Twenty years ago, in April 2002 the Zionist army, comprising of more than 150 tanks, armored personnel carriers and artillery, backed by F-16 fighter jets, attacked Jenin refugee camp, home to 15,000 Palestinian refugees, living on one square kilometer. Like Russia in the Ukraine, since April 3, Israeli forces shelled the refugee camp, with various heavy weaponry, including missiles, artillery, and other heavy ammunition.
“Dozens of residents have been killed and injured. Many bodies were left under the rubble of demolished shelters and in the streets and alleyways of the camp.
According to information gathered by LAW from various official medical sources and eye-witnesses in Jenin and the refugee camp, the number of casualties and wounded, including women, children and the aged was increasing at a frightening rate. Each hour tens of casualties and wounded civilians are reported. Ambulances and medical personnel were not allowed access to the refugee camp and were prevented from evacuating the dead and the wounded”
Israel prevented journalists to enter the camp On April 6, the army decided to rout the terrorists by razing homes in the camp with armored bulldozers. Palestinians say people who did not get out in time were buried under the rubble.
Israel says that calling the killing in Jenin refugee camp a massacre is an Anti-Semite blood libel “Although Erekat and several other Palestinian officials did later use the term “massacre,” the first person to whom it was publicly attributed is Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres in an article in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz on April 9, 2002, under the headline “Peres calls IDF operation in Jenin a ‘massacre’ ”. Peres is quoted saying “When the world sees the pictures of what we have done there, it will do us immense damage” [5]
“The Palestinian Presidency today condemned what it described as “the crime of execution” by the Israeli occupation forces of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. “The Presidency holds the Israeli government fully responsible for this heinous crime,” it said, stressing that “it is part of the daily policy pursued by the occupation against our people, their land and their holy sites.”The Presidency stressed that the crime of executing journalist Abu Akleh and wounding journalist Ali Samoudi “is part of the occupation’s policy of targeting journalists to obscure the truth and commit crimes silently.” [6]
“On May 15 last year an Israeli air raid flattened buildings, housing residential apartments and the offices of news organizations, including Al Jazeera and AP, in Gaza. These Journalists were also armed with cameras.
In 2014, Palestinian rights group Al Haq said “indiscriminate attacks on media buildings have been a significant feature” of Israel’s military offensive in the Palestinian territory that year, which the United Nations said killed more than 1,500 Palestinian civilians, including more than 500 children” [7]
Thus, shooting journalists is not a mistake but regular policy of the Zionist state.
As Abu Aqleh was an American citizen, Biden was forced to ask Israel for an explanation for her killing. Needless to say, even if Biden will be convinced that she was murdered in cold blood it will not change the support the USA gives the Zionist state. After all Israel is an American ally unlike Russia.
Following the killing of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, it is possible but not likely that Ra’am party will be forced to vote for a non-confidence motion or at least abstain. At the same time, it is unlikely because according to the polls in a case of a new elections Rra’am will not receive enough votes to be in the Zionist parliament because it has failed to bring any benefits to the Palestinians by being a member of the far-right government of Bennett. As for the Joint List supporting first the right-wing government of Bennett and then voting with Netanyahu as they announced they will do, just shows that they are no less opportunistic than Ra’am.
Down with the Zionist apartheid state!
For Palestine red and free from the river to the sea!
Endnotes:
[1] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/5/11/al-jazeera-condemns-israels-killing-of-shireen-abu-akleh
[2] https://www.timesofisrael.com/veteran-al-jazeera-journalist-shot-dead-during-israeli-raid-in-jenin/
[3] https://www.timesofisrael.com/veteran-al-jazeera-journalist-shot-dead-during-israeli-raid-in-jenin/
[4] https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/politics-and-diplomacy/article-706395
[5] https://electronicintifada.net/content/economist-jenins-massacre-myth/4032
[6] https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/129140
[7] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/15/silence-the-story-israeli-strike-on-media-offices-gaza-condemned