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Rabat – Journalists around the MENA region are mourning the loss of a beloved and well-respected colleague after Israeli forces killed Al Jazeera veteran reporter Shireen Abu Akleh.
Abu Akleh’s life ended suddenly on May 11 as the experienced Palestinian-American journalist was targeted by Israeli snipers, who shot her in the head. Abu Akleh was reporting on an Israeli raid on the Jenin refugee camp, when she and her colleague Ali al-Samoudi suddenly came under fire.
A tragic passing
Despite both journalists wearing press vests and helmets, and being among unarmed protestors, Israeli forces appear to deliberately target the Al Jazeera Arabic reporter. Shots were fired, hitting al-Samoudi in the back as he ran away, before fatally striking Shireen Abu Akleh in the head, her last words being cries of concern for her shot colleague.
According to statements by al-Samoudi, Israeli forces continued to fire at Abu Akleh even after she collapsed. “I couldn’t even extend my arm to pull her because of the shots being fired. The army was adamant on shooting to kill,” he said.
The UN’s Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland echoed the assertion that Abu Akleh was deliberately targeted, tweeting that “Media workers should never be targeted.”
Skewed narrative
The coverage of Shireen Abu Akleh’s death instantly displayed the immensely skewed narrative on Israel-Palestine that she had spent her life trying to rectify. While many international outlets mourned her death, Israeli-aligned news outlets from the US to Israel tried to paint her death as the result of Palestinian actions.
The Washington post quoted Israeli sources saying she was “killed in an exchange of gunfire,” while Israeli propaganda outlet The Algemeiner quoted Defense Minister Benny Gantz as saying that “no gunfire was directed at the journalist.” Instead, Gantz blamed “indiscriminate shooting by Palestinian terrorists, which is likely to have hit the journalist.”
Fellow victim of the shooting Ali al-Samoudi firmly denied these claims. “There were no fighters where we were, none at all,” he said, adding that Al Jazeera reporters “don’t put ourselves in the line of fire. Whatever the Israeli army says for us to do, we do. They shot at us directly and deliberately.”
Silencing the media
While the sudden death of this iconic reporter came as a shock, it was not a surprise to many of her colleagues in media outlets across the region. Fears for the death of Abu Akleh and her colleagues have repeatedly emerged, especially after Israeli forces bombed the building that housed her team’s office in May, 2021.
While the UN called for an investigation, both for the bombing of her employer’s office in 2021 and her tragic killing this week, the targeting of journalists by Israeli forces is anything but a strange event.
While Israel is already firmly in control of the media narrative through its networks of lobbyists pressuring foreign media and governments, its think tanks and advocates, it continues to try to silence the few who dare to oppose the Israeli side of the story.
Read also: From Gaza to Rabat, the Tactics of Israel’s ‘Art of War’
Israeli forces have a history of targeting local journalists despite the vast number of international conventions and laws aimed at protecting the press.
Abu Akleh’s 30-year old colleague Yaser Murtaja was similarly shot by a sniper from over 100 meters away as he was filming the “great return” protests in 2018 when journalists were routinely targeted by Israeli soldiers. One year later, Palestinian freelance journalist Muath Amarneh lost an eye, after having been shot in the face with “nonlethal” ammunition.
According to the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS), 86 Palestian journalists have been killed since 1967, while intimidation by Israeli forces is so routine that in 2017 alone, the PJS showed 909 violations against Palestinian journalists.
An accomplished life
The sudden passing of Shireen Abu Akleh sent a shockwave throughout Middle-Eastern journalism, as the legendary journalist was seen by many as one of the most prominent journalistic voices in the region.
She was a dedicated professional who used her compassion, dedication and skills to report on the regular stream of atrocities in Israel and Palestine. Whenever fighting would again flare up, Abu Akleh would be there to report on it. As such, she became a familiar local voice for anyone who followed these events closely.
Shireen Abu Akleh’s legacy very much consists of making the Israel-Palestine conflict into a story of people, faces and experiences. Removing the abstract nature of international coverage, her on-the-ground reporting often showed both the humanity and inhumanity of the situation she covered.
Abu Akleh’s coverage became synonymous with accurate reporting amid the fog of war of the second intifada and later Israeli efforts to control the media narrative regarding its violent incursions into Gaza and the West Bank.
She became an iconic voice for locals, due to her close connection to her fellow Palestinians, and her ubiquitous presence whenever violence or tragedy would strike the region.
Inspiring new generations
After having attended numerous funerals of victims of Israeli violence throughout her life, the people Abu Akleh served are now set to honor her legacy.
Thousands of Palestinians attended a ceremony in her honor in Ramallah, where her body was draped in the Palestian flag and both Christian and Muslim religious figures delivered speeches in a powerful symbol of the cross-religious Palestinian identity that she celebrated throughout her remarkable life.
Amid a mass of people, President of the State of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas delivered a speech during the ceremony that held Israel “fully responsible” for Abu Akleh’s tragic death. Abbas stated that his government will take the case to the International Criminal Court in order to attempt to seek justice for the death of this media icon.
While an Israeli bullet was able to silence Abu Akleh’s voice, her legacy as a dedicated and kind-hearted professional will continue to inspire the region’s journalists for decades to come.
