Shireen Abu Akleh was killed.
She was not “killed”. She was killed.
They shot him in the face. Neither in the arm nor in a leg. In his face. That’s not a “kill” shot. That’s a killer shot.
Abu Akleh was shot in the face, on purpose, while doing what he has been doing since 1997 for Al Jazeera: telling the truth.
She was assassinated for telling, once again, the truth about how Israel has rounded up, beaten, “assaulted”, evicted, imprisoned, traumatized, tortured, killed and terrorized Palestinian after Palestinian, day after day, week after week, month after month. . year after year, decade after decade.
Abu Akleh did his job well. He did it with grace, patience, and resilience despite the humiliations, the horrors, and the dangers. It was his duty, obligation and responsibility to bear witness.
Every day, Palestinians are at risk of being killed because they are Palestinians.
No matter where they live, in Gaza, Jerusalem or the West Bank, every day Palestinians are at risk of being killed for being Palestinians.
No matter what they do for a living, if they can even find work, every day Palestinians are at risk of being killed because they are Palestinians.
It doesn’t matter if they are young or old, male or female, Muslim or Christian: every day, Palestinians risk being killed for being Palestinian.
As it happens, Abu Akleh, a 51-year-old Palestinian woman, was in Jenin yesterday morning when she was killed.
She was there to do her job: report on how more Israeli soldiers were “attacking” (a euphemism for terrorizing) more Palestinians.
He was wearing a helmet and a bulletproof vest with the inscription “Press”.
He was standing in a roundabout with other Palestinian journalists when he was shot in the face. An Al Jazeera producer, who survived, was shot in the back.
Abu Akleh’s body was lying on the side of a road, next to a wall. Her colleagues yelled for her help as they pulled her away from a sniper’s crosshairs. Later an ambulance arrived. She died in the hospital. Only.
Another day, another Palestinian killed.
But unlike so many other Palestinians killed, including four boys who were dismembered by an Israeli missile while playing soccer on a beach, Abu Akleh was well known. She was on television. She was popular. She was admired and respected because she spoke the truth about the cruelty that Palestinians suffer and endure every day.
So his murder, unlike the murders of so many other Palestinians, made headlines in Europe and North America.
I doubt his murder would have made the news in Europe and North America except for one inconvenient fact: Abu Akleh was also an American.
I doubt his killer knew he was an American when he was purposely shot in the face. Now they know. Dammit. That meant that powerful people and institutions that normally don’t give a damn when Palestinians are being killed had to say something since Abu Akleh was an American.
I don’t recall American ambassadors to Israel or the United Nations, the State Department or the White House acknowledging, much less condemning, any of the killings, since 2000, of 46 Palestinian journalists or saying anything about the 144 Palestinian journalists who have , since 2018, they have received rubber or steel bullets, tear gas or stun grenades.
You do?
Of course, no. They were not Americans. That meant they were nobody. Inconsistent. Forgettable. Worse, they were Palestinians. They were nothing. Probably Hamas tools. Anyway, like every other Palestinian who lives, works and goes to school every day in imprisoned Palestine, those fictional Palestinian journalists asked for it and got it, good.
Nothing to see here. Move on.
This time, some US politicians and diplomats said they were “very sad” that Abu Akleh had been shot in the face. They said there should be a “thorough investigation” into who, precisely, shot Abu Akleh in the face.
Straw. Straw. Straw.
They had to say it. They didn’t mean it. But they had to say it. Otherwise, they might not seem to give a damn that a celebrated American journalist was shot in the face by, according to multiple witnesses, an Israeli sniper.
Come on, you and I both know they don’t really give a fuck. Abu Akleh may have had an American passport, but she was not a real American or even a real journalist like the late Daniel Pearl. She worked for the Wall Street Journal. He mattered. The manner of his murder mattered.
Abu Akleh was Palestinian. He worked for Al Jazeera. You and I know that most American politicians and media agree with Donald Rumsfeld, who once called Al Jazeera’s reporting “ruthless, inaccurate and inexcusable.”
American politicians and diplomats pretending to care about Abu Akleh’s assassination could have told America’s dearest friend and client state in the Middle East long ago to stop shooting and killing journalists and blowing up the buildings where they work.
They haven’t and they won’t.
Instead, they do what they always do when Israel kills Palestinians, American or not. Not a thing.
Israel is obliged to play along to alleviate the phantom pressure.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett played his role in the pantomime. On cue, he muddied the bloody waters by bringing up the tired and absurd line that the “most moral army in the world” does not murder Palestinians on purpose.
Abu Akleh’s “unfortunate death,” he suggested on Twitter, was a case of Palestinian-on-Palestinian violence.
“According to the data we currently have, there is a considerable possibility that the armed Palestinians, who fired wildly, are the ones who led to the unfortunate death of the journalist,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry said. tweeted in her name.
Most American politicians, Republican and Democrat, and much of the established media will believe Bennett. He is the prime minister of Israel. Israeli prime ministers never lie. They, unlike Hamas, tell the truth. Forever. They are friends of America. Trustworthy. The United States never doubts the word of its Israeli friends.
The United States need not see, let alone question, Bennett’s so-called “data.” If the Israeli prime minister says he has it, then there is a “considerable possibility” that this is what happened. That’s good enough for America and the quack class.
Doubt planted. Mission accomplished. Quick, back to the Ukraine.
Sure, American speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote: “The murder of the American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh is a (sic) horrible tragedy”.
News flash, Speaker Pelosi, shooting a Palestinian-American journalist in the face on purpose is not a “tragedy.” it’s a crime. We know, we know, Israeli soldiers never commit crimes.
Quick, back to the baby formula shortage.
Oh wait. Bennett’s “data,” once iron-clad, has gone haywire, if it ever existed. On Wednesday night, an Israeli general said, well, maybe Abu Akleh was not a victim of Palestinian violence against Palestinians. Perhaps an armed Israeli soldier, not an “armed” Palestinian, is there some other type? He – he shot him in the face. Maybe.
Does not matter. The “story”, like the cement, is already cast.
It goes like this: We will never know who shot Abu Akleh in the face. Israel wants an “investigation” to find out who shot Abu Akleh. She does it. Honest. The Palestinians will not cooperate. fans.
Still, if an Israeli sniper shoots a journalist in the face, that is the terrible cost of war. That sniper was also doing his duty, protecting Israel from terrorists. She knew the risks. She got in the way. Bad luck.
The truth is that it will work because it has worked every time Israel has killed a Palestinian.
I suspect that Shireen Abu Akleh knew this better than anyone.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.
Reference-www.aljazeera.com