Yossi Schwartz, ISL the section of the RCIT in Israel/Occupied Palestine, 12.05.2022
The journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, 51, was shot in the head while covering an Israeli army operation in the West Bank city of Jenin on Wednesday. The Palestinians blamed Israel for her death, while Israeli officials said Palestinian gunmen may have fired the fatal shot. Palestinian Minister Hussein al-Sheikh tweeted on Thursday morning that: “Israel has requested a joint investigation and to be handed over the bullet that assassinated the journalist Shireen, we refused that, and we affirmed that our investigation would be completed independently. All of the indicators, the evidence and the witnesses confirm her assassination by Israeli special units, al-Sheikh emphasized.
The troops from the Zionist elite Duvdvan unit have said that they did not see Abu Akleh or fire at her, the Walla news site reported, adding that troops responded with precise gunfire, which was determined by the number of rounds fired and their location.” [1]
Yet if the story of the Zionist army was true why the Zionist army has not presented evidence from the soldiers’ artificial intelligence devices they use?
“Last year’s conflict between Israel and Hamas was described as the first “artificial intelligence war.” However, after the death in Jenin of Palestinian-American Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, questions have been raised about why the technology used didn’t prevent her death or at least document the circumstances of it. Last year the IDF said that “for the first time, artificial intelligence was a key component and power multiplier in fighting the enemy… We implemented new methods of operation and used technological developments that were a force multiplier for the entire IDF.” Ostensibly this hi-tech method of war is being increasingly used by Israel’s forces” [2]
Hours after the incident many pro-Israel voices were relying on a video of Palestinians shooting into an alley and saying that one soldier was injured and he is lying on the ground. No soldier was injured or killed and the only one who was hit was Abu Akleh. This according to Israel is as evidence that the Palestinian chaotic shooting was responsible for her death…
Others have geo-located the site of the chaotic shooting and the area where the journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was killed and say they are two different places. [3]
The following is the evidence by another reporter Shatha Hanaysha who was with Shireen Abu Akleh when she was murdered in cold blood.
“Moments later, Shireen Abu Akleh arrived with her crew. Here was the journalist whose reports I grew up imitating, from voice tone to hand gestures, and I dreamt of doing what she was always so good at doing. Here she was, going on the same missions as I was. “Good morning,” Abu Akleh said, as she, I, two more reporters, and two cameramen got ready. I felt a strange aura around her at that moment. I can’t find the right word to describe what I felt. She was floating. She was happy. We made ourselves visible to the soldiers who were stationed hundreds of meters away from us. We remained still for around 10 minutes to make sure they knew we were there as journalists… Out of nowhere, we heard the first gunshot.
I turned around and saw my colleague Ali al-Sammoudi on the floor. A bullet hit him in the back but his wound was not serious and he managed to move away from the fire. Al-Sammoudi is hit,” Shireen shouted, standing right behind me, as we both stood with our backs to a wall to take cover. Right then, another bullet pierced Shireen’s neck, and she fell to the ground right next to me. I called her name but she didn’t move. When I tried to extend my arm to reach her, another bullet was fired, and I had to stay hiding behind a tree. That tree saved my life, as it was the only thing obstructing the soldiers’ view of me, “Stay back, stay back!” my colleagues shouted, as bullets flew every time, I tried to check Shireen’s pulse. Out of nowhere a camp resident managed to get to us with a car from an alleyway out of range from the Israeli soldiers. He quickly pulled me and Shireen’s body in and drove us to the hospital.” [4]
“What happened was a deliberate attempt to kill us. Whoever shot at us aimed to kill?
And it was an Israeli sniper that shot at us. We were not caught up in crossfire with Palestinian fighters like the Israeli army claimed.
There was no fighting at the time. The location of the incident was in a relatively open area, away from the camp where Palestinian fighters can’t operate because they would be at a disadvantage there” [5]
“The type of gunfire is another indication. Palestinian fighters normally use semi-automatic rifles that spray bullets continuously. These bullets were different. They were sporadic and precise. They were only shot when one of us moved. One bullet at a time.” [6]
“Al-Samoudi and other journalists at the scene said there were no Palestinian fighters present when the journalists were shot, directly disputing an Israeli statement referencing the possibility that it was Palestinian fire “We were going to film the Israeli army operation and suddenly they shot us without asking us to leave or stop filming,” said al-Samoudi.” [7]
Zionist Diaspora Minister and former Israeli military spokesperson Nachman Shai said on Thursday morning in a radio interview regarding the killing of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh that, “With all due respect to us, let’s says that Israel’s credibility is not very high in such events” [8]
There is a good reason Israel does not have credibility when it comes to murdering journalists. 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.” [9]
On May 15, last year “an Israeli air raid flattened the 11-storey al-Jalaa building housing residential apartments and the offices of news organizations, including Al Jazeera and AP, in Gaza. These Journalists were also armed with cameras”. Israel denied that it bombed the offices of Al Jazeera and AP and claimed it bombed the offices of Palestinian terrorists.
The Zionist army killed Ahmed Abu Hussein and Yasser Mortaja, who were fatally shot by Israeli snipers while covering the Great March of Return protests in 2018. It shot Muath Amarneh and Nedal Eshtayeh, who were maimed by Israeli sniper fire in 2019 and 2015, respectively.
As a matter of fact, Israel attacked the American spy ship USS Liberty – which was bombed by an Israeli fighter jet and torpedo boats on June 8, 1967 in the eastern Red Sea. “Thirty-four American sailors were killed in the Israeli attack and many others were wounded. Israel was aware that it attacked an American ship. But Sir, It’s an American Ship.’ ‘Never Mind, Hit Her!’. When Israel Attacked USS Liberty ‘The Americans have findings that show our pilots were aware the ship was American,’ a newly published document by the State Archives says. Though the United States refused to intervene on behalf of its ally, it was nevertheless eavesdropping on Israeli military communications during the war. There, according to Bamford, lies the rub: Over the course of Israel’s remarkable territorial acquisition and military victory, it allegedly committed a war crime by slaughtering Egyptian prisoners of war in the city of El Arish in the northern Sinai. Bamford argued in his 2001 book, “Body of Secrets,” that the USS Liberty’s proximity to the Sinai, and its ability to intercept Israel’s motives and activities during the Six-Day War, might have prompted Israel’s attack on the vessel.” [10] [11]
Thus, if Israel can attack an American ship to prevent a report of a war crime what is the problem for Israel to kill in cold blood Palestinian reporters knowing that the US and EU will defend its war crimes?
Down with Israel’s assassination of journalists!
Down with Israel’s war crimes!
Down with the imperialists that commit and defend war crimes!
Down with the Zionist apartheid state!
For a Palestine red and free from the river to the sea!
Endnotes:
[1] https://www.timesofisrael.com/palestinians-refuse-joint-israeli-probe-into-reporters-death-wont-transfer-bullet/
[2] https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-706431
[3] Shireen Abu Akleh
[4] https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/shireen-abu-akleh-killing-al-jazeera-journalist-eyewitness-account
[5] Ibid
[6] Ibid
[7] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/5/11/shireen-abu-akleh-israeli-forces-kill-al-jazeera-journalist
[8] https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-minister-on-killing-of-al-jazeera-journalist-israel-s-credibility-not-very-high-1.10795057
[9] https://www.timesofisrael.com/veteran-al-jazeera-journalist-shot-dead-during-israeli-raid-in-jenin/
[10] https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/but-sir-its-an-american-ship-never-mind-hit-her-1.5492908
[11] https://theintercept.com/2017/06/06/fifty-years-later-nsa-keeps-details-of-israels-uss-liberty-attack-secret/