Excerpt from the documentary “The Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh”. Image: Screenshot / Al Jazeera video on Democracy Now
A new documentary shows the brutality of a murder and the shamelessness of a cover-up. It describes the struggle for a bloody reality. Because a blow to the head of journalist Abu Akleh puts pressure on Israel and the United States.
The death of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh six months ago is hardly unusual. Because violence takes place every day in the Israeli-occupied and controlled Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In the last week they have been only nine Palestinians killed in clashes with the Israeli army.
At least 144 Palestinian journalists have been injured and two killed by Israeli security forces in the Occupied Territories since 2018 reports Reporters Without Borders. According to evidence, Abu Akleh would be the third victim.
Over 45 Palestinian journalists have been killed by Israeli forces since 2000 according to the Palestinian Ministry of Information. According to information from the United Nations Last year, 380 Palestinians, including 90 children, were killed by Israeli soldiers.
What makes the Abu Akleh case special is that this time the usual sweeping under the rug is not working as usual. This has its reasons. Because the person who was killed is a well-known television journalist with an American passport, and the incident was observed and recorded by several journalists.
The new and moving Documentary Film “The Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh” for Al Jazeera journalist Sharif Abdel Kouddous’ program “Fault Lines” is not only a film about the killing process itself, but also about the subsequent Israeli public relations cover-up.
The Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh | Fault lines
He documents, as a shot fired from under the protective helmet hit the prominent and popular Al Jazeera journalist – who has been writing for the station for a quarter of a century and is highly respected in the Arab world – on the head and killed her. Like her colleagues, Shireen Abu Akleh wore a blue protective vest marked “print” when she was in Jenin, in the West Bank, reporting from there.
Immediately following the fatal shot, Israel claimed a Palestinian gunman shot the journalist. After that a video by the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem denied this narrative and witnesses, including a number of local journalists, testified that Abu Akleh was killed by Israeli soldiers, the authorities changed their testimony.
Finally, Abu Akleh was alleged to have been caught in the crossfire when “a Palestinian gunman fired several shots at the Israeli soldier.” Investigations by various media such as the New York Times or Cnn they demonstrate, however, that there was no fighting on the ground and that the killing shots came from where the Israeli snipers were standing.
Due to the burden of proof and international pressure, the Israeli military changed the story again. It has now been vindicatedthat Abu Akleh may have been killed by an Israeli soldier, but that the shooting was an accidental incident during a firefight.
A UN investigation however, it concludes that there were “several individual shots, apparently aimed … by the leadership of the Israeli security forces” against the seven easily identifiable journalists. There were no local battles.
Al Jazeera documentary now provides video evidence that it was a targeted killing. The recordings released there for the first time, which were made before and during the shooting, not only document that there was no fighting on the spot, but also that at least one Israeli soldier deliberately shot the journalists multiple times.
