The murder of Shireen Abu Akleh one year on
JVL Introduction
It is a year since the murder of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and justice is as far away as ever.
After repeated denials Israel now admits responsibility but claims absurdly that she was “mistakenly shot by an Israeli soldier while under fire who … misidentified her as an armed Palestinian.”
We know she was murdered from multiple investigations into the killing – by the Associated Press, the Washington Post, Al Jazeera, CNN, the New York Times and, most telling of all, by Al Haq and Forensic Architecture.
Here Asa Winstanley goes through the lies and obfuscations involved as, once again, Israeli soldiers literally get away with murder.
We also include Visualizing Palestine’s Killing the Story graphic.
This article was originally published by Palestine is Still the Issue on Thu 11 May 2023. Read the original here.
Why did Israel kill Shireen Abu Akleh?
One year on, will there ever be accountability?
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The implication is that Shireen was set to be assassinated when the opportunity arose. My point being of course that ‘they’ – whoever – couldn’t have known in advance where or when the opportunity would arise. But, then again, obviously Shireen and one or more of her colleagues had gone to areas/neighbourhoods where such incidents had occurred previously (as surely it couldn’t have been the first time she and her colleagues did so). And one can only surmise that on previous occasions they must have ‘encountered’ Israeli soldiers when attending such incidents and obviously not been targeted by them and, as such, felt safe when they spotted the small convoy of armoured vehicles parked up some 200 meters down the road. But, as Asa says in his article, in effect, it must have been a highly skilled sharpshooter to manage to shoot Shireen where they did from 200 meters away.
And another aspect of the incident is that there were eight seconds between the initial burst of six shots and the second round of shots, and if the Israeli troops didn’t know to begin with that they were journalists – which I have little doubt they did – then surely the fact that there was no return of gunfire after their initial burst of fire would indicate to the soldiers that they were not armed Palestinian fighters and posed no threat. Try counting to eight!
And the fact that Shireen was hit in the second round of firing obviously means that she was still visible and hadn’t at that point concealed herself one way or another (after the first round of shots). And needless to say, even from 200 meters it would be more than evident that none of them – ie Shireen and her colleagues – were carrying guns/rifles or whatever.
She was cold-bloodily murdered, and I have no doubt whatsoever that the order to assassinate her came from high up. VERY high up!
Afterthought: And the fact that they were so quick off the mark to blame Palestinian gunmen for her death speaks reams…… As opposed to making a statement saying that they are going to carry out a full investigation. But then, as we know, they couldn’t give a toss about accountability anyway, and the reality is that they actually want Al Jazeera and Palestinians everywhere along with their supporters to know that they assassinated her.
I have no doubt whatsoever that the monsters that they are find it all highly amusing.
It is very illuminating that Asa Winstanley needs to reference a quote from Malcolm X (Nation of Islam), but fails to identify Shireen as a practicing Christian Catholic. Julian Assange is still imprisoned for the crime of Journalism, for Shireen Abu Akleh came the death penalty. Speaking truth to power can never be an option as Freedom of Speech and the Right to Protest is curtailed.