RAMALLAH (Dispatches) --
|Palestinian officials, human rights advocates, and the family of Shireen Abu Akleh have reacted with anger and condemnation to a report announced by the U.S. State Department that failed to conclusively find that the journalist was killed by deliberate Israeli gunfire.
On Monday, the U.S. State Department said a report by allegedly independent investigators had found that Abu Akleh was likely killed by “unintentional” gunfire from Israeli positions, but could not reach a definitive conclusion about the origin of the bullet that struck her.
Abu Akleh, a veteran Palestinian journalist, was killed on May 11 while covering an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, despite wearing a helmet and flak jacket clearly marked “PRESS”.
Prior investigations by The Associated Press news agency, broadcaster CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post newspapers, as well as monitoring conducted by the Office of the UN human rights chief have lent support to witness accounts that Abu Akleh was killed by Zionist forces.
On Saturday, Palestinian officials said they had handed the bullet over to U.S. officials but conflicting reports over who would conduct the tests on the bullet emerged the following day – with an Israeli military spokesman saying the Zionists would test the bullet in the presence of U.S. officials. Palestinian officials maintain that the occupying regime of Israel cannot be trusted to conduct a fair and transparent investigation into the killing.
In a lengthy statement, Abu Akleh’s family said they were disappointed by how the investigation was conducted, as well as with its conclusions but pledged to keep fighting for justice.
“We are incredulous,” the family said in a statement published on social media.
“To say that this investigation, with its total lack of transparency, undefined goals, and support for Israel’s overall position is a disappointment would be an understatement,” her family said.
The Palestinian Authority denounced the findings and called on the U.S. to hold the Zionist regime accountable for Abu Akleh’s killing.
“We call on the U.S. administration to maintain its credibility and to hold Israel fully responsible for the murder of the martyr Abu Akleh, because the Palestinian and international facts confirm the responsibility of the Israeli army without any doubt,” Palestinian Authority spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said.
Wasel Abu Yousef, a member of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said the U.S. is protecting the occupying regime of Israel.
“The truth is clear but the U.S. administration continues to stall in announcing it,” Abu Youssef told the Reuters news agency. “We say Israel killed Shireen Abu Akleh and it has to be held responsible for the crime it has committed.”
The occupying regime of Israel’s prime minister Yair Lapid said that an internal Israeli military investigation had found that there was no intention to harm Abu Akleh.
B’tselem, an Israeli human rights group, called the investigation a “U.S.-backed Israeli whitewash”.
“All investigations published so far conclude that Israel is responsible for the killing of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh,” the group said in a tweet on Monday.
Mai El-Sadany, a human rights lawyer based in Washington, DC, denounced the findings, calling them “shameful”.
“Words matter,” El-Sadany said in a tweet. “Shameful U.S. State Department statement today on the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh which facilitates erasure & impunity with vagueness & distractions – in the face of independent reporting which has already made clear findings, including presence of no militants near Abu Akleh.”
Palestinian politician Hanan Ashrawi also slammed the report as “disgraceful”.
“Many independent international investigations have concluded that Shireen was killed by an Israeli sniper. Once again, Israeli evasive tactics & lies + American collusion & cover-up combine to maintain Israel’s impunity,” she wrote on Twitter.
Amnesty International secretary general Agnes Callamard said the killing of Abu Akleh must be investigated as an act of “excessive use of force”.
Callamard also said that while intention matters, “its possible absence does not absolve Israel of its responsibilities”.
“And #Israel must be held accountable. Justice must be delivered,” she tweeted. “Journalists must be protected when doing their work. Not a target.”