“It’s not simple to change the reality about what’s happening in Palestine,” Shireen Abu Akleh said as she described her journey as a journalist in a video marking the 25th anniversary of Al Jazeera’s founding, “but at least I was able to let their voices be heard by the world.”
For as long as I can remember, Shireen’s voice could be heard from every corner of Palestine, speaking out against Israeli human rights violations. As a journalist who was first influenced by her veteran journalism, Shireen’s voice has been an icon for Palestine for the past 25 years, broadcasting nothing but the truth about Israel’s apartheid policies in Palestine.
Shireen was killed this morning by the Israeli occupation troops while reporting on raids in Jenin. A death that calls to my mind dozens of similar terrifying experiences, especially during the attacks on Gaza and the Great March of Return. Stories that we will never forget or forgive.
In 1971, Shireen Abu Akleh was born in Jerusalem and graduated from Jordan’s Yarmouk University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and media before returning to Palestine to work for the UN, Voice of Palestine Radio, Amman Channel, Miftah, and most recently Al Jazeera News reporting from the Palestinian occupied territory, as well as for Radio Monte Carlo in France.
Shireen lived her life focusing on the concept of “We Are Not Numbers”; documenting the human side of Palestinian life as we can notice in many of her stories. She explained that she did so because she recognized the importance of focusing on the humanitarian aspects of the news rather than the pure news for political purposes, which she believed did not have much of an impact on many people. The Arab world and the international community, Shireen has previously said, are usually blind to stories of citizen martyrdom, the invasion of a specific locations, the devastation of multiple Palestinian homes, seizure of lands, or the arrest of hundreds of people.
Shireen was known during her coverage of what was known as the Great Invasion or “Operation Defensive Shield”, in April 2002, when she accompanied the Palestinians in their suffering as a result of the Israeli occupation forces’ invasion of all West Bank cities, villages, and camps.
Hajja Freihat said in an interview with Al-Madina TV, “Shireen fought hard during Jenin camp’s massacre in 2002 from the first day to the last, and she was looking for martyrs among the rubble, and she was thirsty and had no water.”
“When I learned the news of her death this morning, I was shocked and lost my mind,” she said, “since she was looking with me for my children amid the ruins of the days of the massacre.”
As a prominent feminist who reported from Palestine, Shireen also served as a model to a large number of women who strive for excellence and distinction in their professional life. She had been successful in overcoming social obstacles and barriers that had formed as a consequence of her journalism and fieldwork, as well as the hazards of her profession, throughout her journalistic career. She used to be close to people by her frequent and spontaneous interactions, which brought her near to their everyday hardships and enabled her to chronicle authentic stories of life and hope. She earlier said that because she lived under Israeli occupation, she hoped that her voice helps herself, her people, and her cause.
Shireen enjoyed listening to classic music, particularly Umm Kulthum. She said that it is sad that the young generations in Palestine are unable to live properly and fully due to the occupation. With the occupation, everything that is normal and familiar outside Palestine is not normal within it. She loved to travel, but due to her job, she hadn’t traveled freely except for work since the second intifada. Shireen had always wished to travel more, not to escape, but to live like other people, even if just for a few days, so that she could “go out whenever and wherever I want without occupation perching on my chest.”
Shireen’s voice was purposely targeted by Israeli troops today. The western media continues to employ a passive voice and phrases, ignoring the real reporting of people who witnessed and experienced the horrifying deliberate targeting of Shireen and other media professionals. “My Palestinian colleagues and I gathered near the Israeli military,” said Mujahid Al-Saadi, a journalist on the scene shares, “In position, we prepared all of the required equipment for coverage as well as a bulletproof shield clearly showing PRESS. Shireen and a colleague were both waiting for us. After we showed the Israeli forces our location, the direct firing started, and a second later I saw Shireen dead on the ground with another journalist shot in his shoulder.”
It is my hope that this statement will arouse any sense of humanity in those who have lost their ability to feel so, and that it will serve as a lesson to those who are blatantly disregarding the facts when reporting on Palestine. At the very least I hope it serves as a reminder of how the world holds a double standard toward injustice and between people who are suffering. May Shireen’s voice continues to be heard and her soul rests in peace.
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“Even if the smoking Israeli bullet that killed Abu Akleh is found, & even if footage is found that shows the face of the shooter, he will be treated by Israelis as a hero who is above all suspicion. It’s tempting to write that if innocent Palestinians must be killed by Israeli soldiers, better for them to be well-known & holders of U.S. passports, like Abu Akleh. At least then the U.S. State Department will voice a little displeasure – but not too much – about the senseless killing of one of its citizens by the soldiers of one of its allies.
“At the time of writing, it was still unclear who killed Abu Akleh. This is Israel’s propaganda achievement – sowing doubts, which Israelis are quick to grab onto as fact & justification, though the world does not believe them & is usually correct. When the young Palestinian boy Mohammed al-Dura was killed in 2000, Israeli propaganda also tried to blur the identity of his killers; it never proved its claims, & no one bought them. Past experience shows that the soldiers who killed the young woman in a taxi are the same soldiers who might kill a journalist. It’s the same spirit; they are permitted to shoot as they please. Those who weren’t punished for Hanan’s killing continued with Shireen.
“But the crime begins long before the shooting. The crime starts with the raiding of every town, refugee camp, village & bedroom in the West Bank every night, when necessary but mainly when not necessary. The military correspondents will always say that this was done for the sake of ‘arresting suspects,’ without specifying which suspects & what they’re suspected of, & resistance to these incursions will always be seen as ‘a breach of order’ – the order in which the military can do as it pleases & the Palestinians cannot do anything, certainly not show any resistance.
“Abu Akleh died a hero, doing her job. She was a braver journalist than all Israeli journalists put together. She went to Jenin, & many other occupied places, where they have rarely if ever visited, & now they must bow their heads in respect & mourning. They also should have stopped spreading the propaganda spread by the military & government regarding the identity of her killers. Until proven otherwise, beyond any shadow of a doubt, the default conclusion must be: the Israeli military killed Shireen Abu Akleh.”
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https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-the-killing-of-shireen-abu-akleh-now-you-re-appalled-1.10793446
“So Now You’re Appalled?” By Gideon Levy Haaretz, May. 11, 2022
“The relative horror expressed over the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh is justified & necessary. It is also belated & self-righteous. Now you’re appalled? The blood of a famous journalist, no matter how brave & experienced she was – and she was – is no redder than the blood of an anonymous high school student who was traveling home in a taxi full of women in this same Jenin a month ago when she was killed by gunfire from Israeli soldiers.
“That is how Hanan Khadour was killed. Then, too, the military spokesman tried to cast doubt on the shooters’ identity: ‘The matter is being examined.’ A month has passed, & this ‘examination’ has yielded nothing, & never will – but the doubts were planted, & they sprouted in the Israeli fields of denial & suppression, where no one actually cares about the fate of a 19-year-old Palestinian girl, & the country’s dead conscience is silenced again. Is there a single crime committed by the military that the right & the establishment will ever accept responsibility for?
“Abu Akleh seems to be another story: an internationally known journalist. Just this past Sunday a more local journalist, Basel al-Adra, was attacked by Israeli soldiers in the South Hebron Hills, & no one cared. And a couple days ago, two Israelis who attacked journalists during the Gaza war last May were sentenced to 22 months in prison. What punishment will be meted out to soldiers who killed, if indeed they did, Abu Akleh? And what punishment was given to whoever decided on & carried out the despicable bombing of the Associated Press offices in Gaza during the fighting last year? Has anyone paid for this crime? And what about the 13 journalists who were killed during the Gaza war in 2014? And the medical personnel who were killed during demonstrations at the Gaza border fence, including 21-year-old Razan al-Najjar, who was shot dead by soldiers while wearing her white uniform? No one has been punished. Such things will always be covered by a cloud of blind justification…” cont’d