Two weeks to go before the Israeli forces arrive assassinated beloved Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, the International Federation of Journalists, the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate and the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians had submitted a formal complaintInternational Criminal Court has accused Israel of systematically targeting Palestinian journalists.
“The targeting of journalists and media organisations in Palestine violates the right to life and freedom of expression,” saidAnthony Bellanger, general secretary of International Federation of Journalists.
In a moment when the Israeli government’s propaganda machine is working hard to keep mainstream news organizations mired in reporting on Israeli efforts to raise questions about who shot the bullet that killed Abu AklehWe must insist that we understand her murder within the larger context of Israeli violence against Palestinian journalists.
“It was revealing that the Israeli military spokesperson described Shireen and her colleague, Ali al-Samudi, who was shot in the back, as being ‘armed with cameras, if you will permit me to say that,’” writesJames Zogby The Nation. “That is what good journalists do—they arm themselves with cameras and laptops. They are present at the events and tell stories to help viewers and readers understand the human drama. It appears that Israel finds this profoundly—even existentially—threatening. Why would they do this? killed dozens of Palestinian journalists in the past two decades?”
It was perhaps no accident that Israel targeted Abu Akleh on May 11, four days before Palestinians commemorated the 74-year anniversary of the Nakba (the Arabic word for “catastrophe”). Palestinians remember the brutal founding of Israel in Palestine on May 15.
Abu Akleh documented Israeli war crimes in occupied Palestinian territory for 25 years. Al Jazeera. “Abu Akleh herself embodied Palestinian humanity by speaking truth to power,” Al Jazeera reported. She was covering an Israeli operation near the Jenin refugee camps entrance when she was assassinated. Although she was wearing a flak vest marked “PRESS,” an Israeli military sniper shot her below the ear — the only part of her head not covered by her protective helmet — clearly evidencing an intent to kill.
Al Jazeera journalist Shatha Hanaysha, also wearing a helmet and vest labeled as press, tried to reach Abu Akleh, but soldiers “did not stop firing even after she collapsed,” Hanaysha said. “I couldn’t even extend my arm to pull her because of the shots. The army was adamant on shooting to kill.”
Ali al-Samudi is another journalist Al JazeeraWhile covering the same event, Abu Akleh was also wearing a press vest. He was shot in his back. He survived and is currently being treated for his injuries.
Many mourners came out to honor Abu Akleh. To make it worse, Israeli occupation occurred as her casket was being taken through the streets. forces attacked them, “beating and kicking the mourners,” then “forcing pallbearers to nearly drop the coffin.”
“Now, the occupying power has spoken back by shooting her in the head and attacking her mourners — a response that can only be classified as acute and multitiered state savagery, in keeping with Israel’s modus operandi of refusing to let Palestinians live, die, or be buried in peace,” writes Belen Fernandez at Al Jazeera.
ICC Complaint Against Israeli Killings of Palestinian Journalists
Assassinations (extrajudicial executions), constitute war crimes according to the Geneva Conventions.
Fatou Bensouda, former chief prosecutor at the ICC, died on March 3, 2021. announced that the ICC was mounting an investigation into war crimes committed in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip since Israel’s 2014 Operation Protective Edge, during which Israeli forces killed 2,251 Palestinians.
Bensouda found this. reasonable basis to believe that Israeli forces committed war crimes — including willful killing, willfully causing serious injury, disproportionate use of force, and the transfer of Israelis into Palestinian territory. Bensouda also found that there was a reasonable basis for investigating possible war crimes by Palestinians. These included intentional attacks against civilians and the use of civilians to act as human shields. He also suggested torture and willful murder.
In October 2021, Israel designated six leading Palestinian human rights groups as “terrorist” organizations with absolutely no evidence. This was in retaliation to their support for the ICC investigation as well as the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS), movement.
170 civil society organizations from Palestine launched the BDS movement in 2005. It called for boycott, divestment and sanctions, described as “nonviolent punitive measures” that will last until Israel complies fully with international law by 1.) 2.) Israel must end its occupation and colonization all Arab lands and demolish its barrier wall (85 per cent of which is on Palestinian territory); Recognizing the fundamental rights of Arab Palestinian citizens living in Israel to full equality; Respecting, promoting and protecting Palestinian refugees’ rights to return home to their land as required by Resolution 194 of the United Nations General Assembly.
Calls for Independent Investigation of Abu Akleh’s Killing
The killing of Abu Akleh has led to calls for an independent, impartial investigation and galvanized opposition to Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territory.
May 13th, UN human rights experts condemned Abu Akleh’s killing, saying it “is part of a continuation of the high rate of attacks against media workers, particularly Palestinian journalists. More than 40 Palestinian journalists have reportedly been killed since 2000, with hundreds injured or targeted for violence.”
Four UN experts comprised four special rapporteurs: on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967; 2.) on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions; 3.) on violence against women, its causes and consequences; and 4. on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression. They said Abu Akleh’s killing may amount to a war crime and demanded “a prompt, independent, impartial, effective, thorough and transparent investigation.”
“Authorities have an obligation not to harm journalists and to protect them from harm under international humanitarian law and international human rights law,” the rapporteurs noted. They added that the targeting of journalists working in the occupied Palestinian territory and the Israeli government’s failure to properly investigate killings of media personnel violate the rights to life and to effective remedies. Decrying “the litany of extrajudicial executions,” they said the safety of journalists is crucial to guaranteeing the rights to freedom of expression and media freedom.
Noting that 2021 marked the highest number of Palestinian deaths since Israel’s 2014 Operation Protective Edge, the experts declared, “The unsustainable situation is inherent to the context of protracted military occupation, in which violence and repression are used to perpetuate a system of Palestinian subjugation.” They called for “the dismantlement of the occupation, including the Gaza blockade and the illegal settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.”
More than 6,000 people have signed the petition. statement initiated by the antiwar and anti-imperialist group CODEPINK, calling for a thorough and impartial investigation of Abu Akleh’s killing and the immediate suspension of United States military aid to Israel. The U.S. enables Israeli war crimes and its illegal occupation by providing it with $3.8 billion in unconditional military assistance annually, in spite of the classification of Israel as an apartheid state by leading human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the Israeli group B’Tselem.
The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC). said Abu Akleh’s killing amounts to the war crime of willful killing under the ICC’s Rome Statute. BNC called for accountability for the perpetrators, those who gave the orders “and the entire political leadership of apartheid Israel.”
“Though Israel killed Shireen Abu Akleh, her blood is also on the hands of the enablers, funders and defenders of apartheid, primarily the US, EU, UK, Canada and Australia,” BNC notedIn a statement. “We call for public BDS pressure to end the West’s colonial hypocrisy and shameless complicity in Israeli crimes and ongoing Nakba against Indigenous Palestinians.”
BNC condemned “the Western indifference to Palestinians, which enables Israel’s impunity, directly contributing to our ongoing Nakba. We reiterate our call for meaningful solidarity with Palestinians facing ethnic cleansing, massacres, colonial dispossession and apartheid.”
BNC also cited hypocrisy in West’s opposing responses to violations of human rights in Ukraine and Palestine. Citing Palestinians’ “empathy with the suffering of Ukranians,” BNC stated that, “the West’s blanket boycotts and sanctions against Russia while continuing its complicity in and unconditional support for Israel’s apartheid, military occupation and settler-colonialism against Palestinians is racist, enraging and hypocritical,” adding, “Ironically, these sanctions and boycotts demolish anti-BDS excuses by Israel and anti-Palestinian apologists.”
BNC recommends that people strategically channel their anger by working with progressive networks to pressure governments and parliaments to end military-security cooperation and trade with apartheid Israel, ban all goods and services in Israel’s illegal settlements, stop material support for pillaged and disputed Israeli fracked gas, and demand a UN investigation of Israeli apartheid.
It is also calling for people outraged at Israeli abuses to mobilize community pressure on churches, unions, student groups and city councils to end all relations with companies complicit in apartheid Israel’s system of oppression and divest from Israeli and international companies and banks complicit in Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity, to cancel academic, sports, cultural and tourism engagements in Israel, and join local BDS campaigns and solidarity groups.
People can also take coordinated action to end U.S. military aid to Israel. If the United States continues to fund Israel’s brutal and illegal occupation, journalists like Shireen Abu Akleh who document its war crimes will continue to be assassinated.
