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Shireen Abu Akleh
Wikipedia (en)
Shireen Abu Akleh (Arabic: شيرين أبو عاقلة; April 3, 1971 – May 11, 2022) was a Palestinian-American journalist who worked as a reporter for the Arabic-language channel Al Jazeera for 25 years, and was one of the most prominent names across the Middle East for her decades of reporting in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.
Over the course of her career, she reported on numerous major events in Palestinian history, while also analyzing Israeli politics; her television reporting and distinct sign-offs were well-known, and as a leading journalist in the Arab world, she inspired many other Palestinians and Arabs, particularly women, to pursue careers in journalism.On May 11, 2022, while wearing a blue vest with "PRESS" written on it, she was shot and killed while covering a raid by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank. Al Jazeera, an Agence France-Presse photojournalist, and the Palestinian Ministry of Health reported that the IDF killed her. Initially, Israel suggested a Palestinian might have killed her, but on May 13 the IDF said that a probe found that it was possible she had been killed either by IDF fire, or by Palestinian fire. Separate investigations conducted successively by the Associated Press, Bellingcat, CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post all independently concluded that fire from an IDF unit was the most likely cause of Akleh's death, CNN suggesting the death was the result of an IDF targeted killing. On June 24, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said it had concluded Abu Akleh was killed by a bullet fired by the IDF. The Palestinian Authority (PA) investigation had reached the same conclusion, claiming she was shot deliberately while trying to flee. The US State Department subsequently announced on July 4 that tests by independent ballistics experts under U.S. oversight were unable to determine the gun it was fired from but that US officials have concluded based on a review of previous investigations that gunfire from Israeli positions most likely killed Abu Akleh and that there was "no reason to believe" her shooting was intentional. Axios subsequently reported that on 6 July Secretary of State Antony Blinken told new Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid that the Biden administration requests that Israel holds someone accountable for the killing. On 5 September, the IDF admitted a "high possibility" that the journalist was "accidentally hit" by army fire, but that it would not begin a criminal investigation.The manner of her death and the subsequent violent disruption at her funeral, when the Israeli Police officers armed with batons attacked pallbearers who were carrying her coffin, drew widespread international condemnation of Israel. Her funeral was attended by tens of thousands of Palestinians and was believed to be the largest Palestinian funeral in Jerusalem in over twenty years.
