The Problems With Israel’s Version of the Killing of Reporter Shireen Abu Akleh

Shireen Abu Akleh, Youtube
Shireen Abu Akleh, a Catholic Palestinian-American journalist for Al Jazeera was killed in the West Bank and the news outlet has accused Israel of “assassinating her in cold blood” after Israel twice tried to blame Palestinians for the murder, according to TIME magazine. Abu Akleh was killed just days after the International Federation of Journalists, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate and the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians filed a formal complaint at The Hague for “systematic targeting of Palestinian journalists.” After her funeral, unnamed Israeli officials told reporters that IDF soldiers in a military vehicle had been about 150 yards from where the journalists were working, and fired repeatedly about the time Abu Akleh was killed.

When word got out on Wednesday that esteemed Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was killed in the West Bank city of Jenin, where Israeli forces has been making military arrest raids, Israel convened its National PR staff to form a plan of action. It decided to circulate a video of a Palestinian gunmen shooting indiscriminately from inside the Jenin refugee camp and blame them for the Al Jazeera reporter’s death. But its strategy fell flat when another video revealed that Abu Akleh died nowhere near there.

Abu Akleh was a 51-year-old Catholic Palestinian who switched to journalism after studying to be an architect and became one of the Arab world’s most famous TV journalists. Most nights for 25 years, her face lit up millions of TV screens as she shared the stories of Palestinian people living under Israeli military occupation. Arab girls and women looked up to her. And foreign journalists who reported from the Palestinian territories held her in high regard. Now Al Jazeera has accused Israel of “assassinating her in cold blood” and Arab journalists from Washington to Tunisia to Syria are staging sit-ins. Qatar lit up a building with her image. Cartoons are circulating of Abu Akleh holding a bleeding microphone with an M-16 rifle pointed at it, the type of rifle used by Israeli soldiers. A few Arab parents have named their newborn daughters ‘Shireen.’ Abu Akleh has become a Palestinian symbol.

To Israel, her death risks damage to essential relationships in the Arab world, while Abu Akleh’s U.S. citizenship brings relations with Washington into the equation, raising both the stakes and the level of scrutiny. The State Department declared ” the investigation must be immediate and thorough and those responsible must be held accountable.”

Deny and deflect is Israel’s usual strategy for dealing with high-profile civilian deaths. The deflection has come in three forms: One is claiming Palestinians killed the civilian (famous examples are British cameraman James Miller, 10-year-old Abir Aramin, the three daughters and niece of Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish inside their home in Gaza while he begged on live television for Israel to stop firing). Often Israel claims that the victim was near a site from which Palestinian gunmen were attacking Israelis and, hence, got killed by accident by Israeli gunfire (four Gaza children on the beach, 40 people taking refuge at a U.N. school in Gaza, the British U.N. worker Iain Hook in Jenin). Israel has also claimed that the civilian was involved in an attack on Israeli soldiers or was a member of a Palestinian militant organization (photojournalist Yaser Murtaja in Gaza). In other cases, Israel said that the facts around a killing are unclear, but definitely not Israel’s fault (Palestinian family killed by shell on beach in Gaza). In the case of the 2003 death of American pro-Palestinian activist, Rachel Corrie, who was run over by a military bulldozer, the Israeli army claimed “a slab of concrete” was likely what killed her. When Israeli missiles brought down an 11-story media building last year in Gaza, where Palestinian media networks and the Associated Press were located, Israel justified it by saying it was being used by Hamas.

Back in 2006, Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, initially apologized for the killings of seven members of the Ghalia family in Gaza by Israeli artillery. “But the military swiftly realised it was confronting another PR disaster to rival that of the killing of Mohammed al-Dura,” wrote Guardian journalist, Chris McGreal, referencing the wrenching footage of the Gaza boy killed cowering beside his father during a 2000 firefight. “The army quickly convened a committee to investigate the deaths on the beach and almost as swiftly absolved itself of responsibility.”

Within a half hour of Abu Akleh’s killing, the Israeli state PR machine went to work on a deflection strategy. Israeli journalist Barak Ravid revealed in a Hebrew report on Walla! website that “there was an urgent consultation of the National Hasbara (PR) Headquarters together with representatives of the Prime Minister’s Office, the Foreign Ministry and the Israeli Defense Forces. They decided that the main goal was to try and fend off the narrative that was emerging in the international media, according to which Abu Akleh was killed by Israeli fire.” (The English version of Ravid’s report on the Axios website did not include this information.) So Israel used a short video that was filmed that morning by Palestinian militants in a residential area, in which the men were heard saying that they had shot a soldier. Bennett posted the video and claimed that, since no Israeli soldier was injured in Jenin that day, the footage was evidence that the militants had mistaken Abu Akleh, in her helmet and body armor, for a combatant.

But then Al Jazeera posted footage showing Abu Akleh face down on the ground in a less built-up area and her colleagues trying helplessly to reach her as bullets continued to fly. The word PRESS was visible in large letters on her protective gear. “We saw the soldiers in the area and there were no Palestinians there,” said producer Ali Samudi, who was also shot. The soldiers were about 150 meters away….I did not see who was shooting, but I see [sic] from where the bullets coming. They coming from the area where the soldiers. There were no fighters in the area.” Two hours later a local researcher for the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem filmed a video geolocating the clip of the Palestinian gunmen in the Jenin refugee camp, hundreds of yards and several turns away from the spot where Abu Akleh was killed.

Read full article here…

Visit our Classified ads.

Check out our Classified ads at the bottom of this page.

Recent stories & commentary

Classified Ads

The appearance of ads on this site does not signify endorsement by the publisher. We cannot vouch for accuracy of statements or integrity of advertisers. We will investigate complaints, however, and remove any message we find to be misleading or that promotes anything fraudulent or unethical.
For ad rates, click here.

Health


Health with space-age technology and Quantum physics. For people and all animals. No medication! Available world wide! Contact us at [email protected]. For principals and testimonials please visit our website. www.Healthytherapy.com



JWLABS – Building fine Rife frequency instruments in the USA since 1987.
We offer customer support and an exceptional warranty. Learn why all households and clinics should employ this device. Call us at 888-891-1122 to discuss the many benefits.   www.rifemachine.com



G. Edward Griffin’s blood pressure dropped to healthy levels and stayed there after using Cardio Miracle, a nitric-oxide booster containing a blend of ingredients that supports the body’s natural defense against heart disease, atherosclerosis, cancer, diabetes, Alzheimers, and more. If you are over 40, you really should check this out.



Learn Natural Medicine practice at home! There is NO Freedom without Health Freedom. There is NO Health Freedom without Informed, Voluntary Consent. There is no informed consent without education and understanding. American College of Natural Medicine, Thai Yoga Center provides you and your family with spiritually based natural health education. ThaiYogaCenter.Com or https://naic-edu.org

The Heavenly Handbook of Health. “WOW! U want FeedBack? So far I am floored. If I’ve learned anything about you since we met; this book has the potential to be a blockbuster.” Read 18pg Teaser @ HeavenlyHandbookofHealth.com Simple, incredible, affordable health – any age!


Income


Ultimate Wealth Building Guide reveals 5 steps to create your own banking system to achieve lifetime financial security, certainty, and peace of mind in 60 days. Discover how to build and grow lasting wealth safely and predictably, regardless of market and economic cycles. www.mywealthwarehouse.com



Free Report: Three Major Shifts That Signal Risks to Your Investments Are Headed Higher. Including the one action every investor should take right now to protect their portfolio against significantly rising risks. http://BuyAndStoreGold.com/pl-geg/


Make money on money you are already spending. Join the world’s largest shopping network. Eleven-year-old company in 46 countries. Info and free membership. www.freedombuildersinternational.com



Are you ready for financial freedom?
Visit:  www.MoneyThatsReal.com


Money & Banking


Lawful 100% income tax avoidance: a right recognized by IRS and Supreme Court. Request free report: [email protected] or find NoThanksIRS on FB/Twitter.


Need to Know


Being informed is not enough. Knowledge, by itself, is not power, but it holds the potential for power if used as a guide for action. Truth can be overpowered by tyranny only if we fail to enter the battle. The future belongs, not to ideas, but to people who act on those ideas. If you truly want to make a difference in the world, Freedom Force International awaits you.



Anxiety Publishing – providing more satisfying novels to the conscious community, stories based in a real world, not the illusion of the establishment. Promote your precious novel with your fellow authors and help build a collection of future classics. anxietypub.com


For Sale


Offline is a documentary on the inevitability of the Earth being slammed by a mega solar flare – not the common type that interrupts communications and creates a light show in the Northern skies – but the big brothers thousands of times more powerful. These monsters deliver enough energy to blow apart the master transformers that supply the planet’s energy grids. When that happens, the lights go out for longer than anyone wants to think about. These X-Class solar storms hit the Earth every 150 years, on average. The last one arrived 156 years ago. We are overdue (More)

 


Subscribe
Notify of
guest
2 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Tom Ball
Tom Ball
1 year ago

Assassinations have been part of their stock in trade since the days of Menachem Begin. So has lying about it.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Menachem_Begin_in_September_1940.jpg

Last edited 1 year ago by Tom Ball
wilma
wilma
1 year ago

It is amazing that so many are able to side step the truth calling to them, in favor of preferring to believe that el governmente (govern = control, mente = mind) is their friend and protector; knowing full well that politicians are liars, many who are lawyers that have had morals educated out of them, who appoint and oversee the bureaucrats running the govt. Why would it be something so devastating to people that they would not want to believe that typical liars would want to take advantage or manipulate things by lying some more? Clearly emotion over rules logic… Read more »