Ned Price on the Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh
Let’s begin in the State Department briefing room where poor Ned Price is once again tasked with saying a bunch of contradictory and/or nonsensical things.
Just to recap: after the killing of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, Israel said she probably died amid dueling gunfire. This was quickly disproven by witness testimony and video of the event. The Israeli government said it would open a probe into her death, but the IDF said that would not carry out any sort of criminal investigation. Amid calls for an independent investigation, the Biden team said that it trusted Israel to conduct its own probe. Last week almost 60 House Democrats sent a letter to the State Department asking for one, but Biden’s position on this has not shifted.
This week the AP carried out a reconstruction of Abu Akleh’s death and it supplied further support for what we’ve already seen on video and heard from bystanders: “Who killed Shireen Abu Akleh? Almost two weeks after the death of the veteran Palestinian-American reporter for Al Jazeera, a reconstruction by The Associated Press lends support to assertions from both Palestinian authorities and Abu Akleh’s colleagues that the bullet that cut her down came from an Israeli gun.”
During the State Department press conference on Wednesday Al Quds’ Said Arikat asked Price about the reconstruction. One note here. Shortly after Abu Akleh was killed Price told reporters, “We are heartbroken by and strongly condemn the killing of American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in the West Bank. The investigation must be immediate and thorough and those responsible must be held accountable. Her death is an affront to media freedom everywhere.” Emphasis mine. Here’s some of that exchange:
QUESTION: Okay. Not only major American news organizations such as AP and CNN have basically laid out almost a clear – clear evidence that the Israelis were behind the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, but also major Europeans like France 24, DPI, many others, and so on. My question to you – I know you want transparent and thorough investigation and so on, and I’m sure you guys probably have the best investigative assets anywhere in the world. Will the United States pursue its own investigative to determine whether these reports by respectable news agencies and companies and so on are authentic or right on target?
MR PRICE: Said, we have made clear to both Israeli and Palestinian authorities that we expect the investigations to be transparent and impartial – a full, thorough accounting into the circumstances of the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh. We do expect full accountability for those responsible for her killing. Again, we are not going to prejudge that investigation. Both investigations are ongoing. We have conveyed to our partners that we do expect to be updated on the status of their investigations, but in the end, we want to see accountability.
QUESTION: Should there be a time limit on the investigation? Because, I mean, Israel’s record is abysmal in this regard. They can drag on and on and on. Should there be, like, a time limit – say, we expect that you guys will be done with what you are doing by such and such date?
MR PRICE: We’re not going to impose a specific deadline, but these investigations need to be conducted, need to be concluded as rapidly as is possible.
Arikat then asked Price about why the administration stopped using the word “immediate” when referring to the investigation. Price noted that the investigations are ongoing, which doesn’t really answer the question, but it’s clear that the Biden administration has dropped any sense of urgency from its rhetoric, even if Price won’t admit it. They’re fine with Israel setting its own timetable in addition to conducting its own probe. Price is essentially staying the United States are staying out of that, except that’s not true at all. The Palestinian foreign ministry has asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate the case and the United States government publicly denouncing the move. Earlier this week Price was asked why the ICC is bad in this case, but touted by Biden when it’s investigating Russian human rights abuses.
“We believe that the ICC should maintain its focus on its core mission, and that core mission is to serve as a court of last resort in punishing and deterring atrocity crimes,” Price explained to reporters.
There’s one obvious problem with Price’s argument here. The deliberate killing of a journalist is a war crime under international law. Abu Akleh was also a U.S. citizen, so her death could trigger our domestic war crimes statute. If anyone knows this it’s the State Department, but there obviously won’t be any kind of independent investigation that doesn’t involve Israel. At least not one endorsed by the United States.
The Terror List
President Biden is officially keeping Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on a terrorist blacklist, a move that will almost certainly make renegotiating a nuclear deal much harder. The distinction is completely symbolic and lifting it would have no consequence beyond the standard harangues of hawkish lawmakers.
During a hearing this week Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) made this very point to Biden’s Special Envoy for Iran Rob Malley. “I think people should realize that even if we got rid of the foreign terrorist organization label, the IRGC has been … under sanctions at least since 2007 for funding Hezbollah in Lebanon, so there still would be sanctions,” said Paul. “But we have to at least think this through. The only way you get anywhere is you have to give something they want and they give something we want.”
So the IRGC stays on, but Biden took the ultranationalist Israeli group Kahane Chai off. The group was founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane in 1971 and led by him until he was assassinated in 1990. Kahane also founded the Jewish Defense League (JDL), the organization that killed the Palestinian activist Alex Odeh on American soil in 1985. Two of the three men who are probably carried out the killing are now openly living in a West Bank settlement. “The murder of my friend & colleague Arab American Alex Odeh still haunts me 36 yrs later,” tweeted James Zogby earlier this year. “It’s an insult to his family, my community, and justice that his murderer is at large. I wonder if Alex weren’t Palestinian, would law enforcement have done a better job?”
Last winter Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) asked for an update from the FBI on the case. “This heinous case of domestic terrorism must be zealously investigated and, finally, resolved,” he wrote. In order to preserve the rule of law and deter future would-be attackers, the terrorists who murdered Alex Odeh must not escape accountability.”
Kahane Chai has been inactive for years, but it’s hard to think that the move won’t embolden Israel’s ultranationalist right, especially as Israel launches mass evictions in the West Bank ahead of Biden’s upcoming visit. For instance, the news was presumably welcomed by Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan, who is currently in Washington extolling the virtues of ethnic cleansing to U.S. lawmakers. “The issue of construction in Judea and Samaria is a domestic Israeli matter, and the US has no moral right to intervene,” Dagan told a pro-Israel website. “I protest my government, and here in Washington, I engage in public diplomacy.”
Odds & Ends
? It looks like Henry Cuellar (the anti-choice, NRA-backed Democrat currently connected to an FBI investigation) narrowly beat progressive challenger Jessica Cisneros. It was the third time Cisneros tried to oust him. In addition to having the support of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, Cuellar also got a boost from AIPAC, who spent almost $2 million on the race via their Super PAC UDP. “Congratulations pro-Israel Democrat Rep. Cuellar!,” tweeted the group. “Our message is the same and transparent in any race that UDP is engaged — the pro-Israel community will stand by its friends who support a strong U.S.-Israel relationship and confront those who are detractors of that relationship.”
? Israel apparently informed the Biden administration that it killed an Iranian officer. This is how the New York Times opens their story on the topic: “At the funeral in Tehran for a colonel in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, thousands of mourners packed the streets around the cemetery chanting “Death to Israel” and calling for revenge for his killing.”
?? Mohammed El-Kurd has an article in The Nation on what the western media is missing in the Shireen Abu Akleh story. “When it comes to Palestine, the sacred laws of journalism are bendable,” he writes. “Optional even. Passive voice is king. Omitting facts is standard. Fabrication is permissible. Journalists become stenographers, and reporters become state secretaries. The courageous industry that proudly boasts of speaking ‘truth to power’ is actually just a bullhorn for the powerful—if, that is, the villain is Israeli.”
✊ Olivia Katbi has a nice piece in Electronic Intifada on how unions are backing the BDS movement.
?? On the site Mitchell Plitnick writes about the growing pressure on Biden for an independent Abu Akleh investigation.
? Another month, another new poll showing support for Israel is dropping among Democrats and young people. This one comes from the Pew Research Center.
? At Georgetown’s commencement last week students displayed photos of Shireen Abu Akleh, wore keffiyehs, and raised the Palestinian flag while walking across the stage. Palestinian-American graduate Nooran Alhamdan refused to shake Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s hand after accepting her diploma. A coalition of students from Georgetown’s Masters of Arab Studies program put out a statement on the protest that calls for action. “Our silent expression of solidarity with Shireen Abu Akleh and the people of Palestine has been viewed by millions of people around the world,” it reads. “We release this statement to explicate our demands: we demand an independent investigation into the murder of Shireen Abu Akleh, and we demand that the United States halt its annual military funding of $3.8 billion for the criminal state of Israel. The Israeli military routinely violates human rights and international law. Israel continues to murder, maim, and imprison Palestinians. The military funding given to the state of Israel by the United States is unacceptable. We will continue to fight until sanctions are placed on Israel.”
? This country is unrelenting and leaves us so little time to grieve. Please take care of yourself.
Stay safe out there,
Michael
