Shireen Abu Akleh and the Biden Administration
On Wednesday Israeli forces killed Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist and veteran correspondent at Al Jazeera. Another Palestinian journalist, Ali Samoudi, was shot in the back. He’s currently in stable condition.
Palestinian journalist, and Mondoweiss contributor Shatha Hanaysha was next to Abu Akleh when she died. Here’s how she described the terrible scene to Middle East Eye:
We made ourselves visible to the soldiers who were stationed hundreds of metres away from us. We remained still for around 10 minutes to make sure they knew we were there as journalists.
When no warning shots were fired at us, we moved uphill towards the camp.
Out of nowhere, we heard the first gunshot.
I turned around and saw my colleague Ali al-Sammoudi on the floor. A bullet hit him in the back but his wound was not serious and he managed to move away from the fire.
A scene of chaos followed.
My colleague Mujahed jumped over a small fence nearby to stay away from the bullets.
“Come over here,” he told me and Shireen, but we were on the other side of the street and couldn’t risk crossing.
“Al-Sammoudi is hit,” Shireen shouted, standing right behind me, as we both stood with our backs to a wall to take cover.
Right then, another bullet pierced Shireen’s neck, and she fell to the ground right next to me.
I called her name but she didn’t move. When I tried to extend my arm to reach her, another bullet was fired, and I had to stay hiding behind a tree.
That tree saved my life, as it was the only thing obstructing the soldiers’ view of me.
According to Hanaysha, the attack was no accident. “What happened was a deliberate attempt to kill us,” she said. Whoever shot at us aimed to kill. And it was an Israeli sniper that shot at us. We were not caught up in crossfire with Palestinian fighters like the Israeli army claimed.”
A couple weeks ago President Biden addressed the importance of journalism during his remarks at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. “We honor journalists killed, missing, imprisoned, detained, and tortured; covering war, exposing corruption, and holding leaders accountable,” he told the crowd.
This is a great sentiment, but of course it can’t possibly be taken seriously. The United States government’s devotion to such ideals is contingent upon what countries are involved. When the American filmmaker Brent Renaud was killed outside of Kyiv in March, the Biden team was quick to condemn Russia. “We are horrified that journalists and filmmakers—noncombatants—have been killed and injured in Ukraine by Kremlin forces,” tweeted State Department spokesman Ned Price. “We extend condolences to all those affected by this horrific violence. This is yet another gruesome example of the Kremlin’s indiscriminate actions.”
This was Price’s tweet after Abu Akleh was killed: “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.”
You’ll note that Renaud’s death pointed to something “gruesome” about the Russian government whereas Israel is not even mentioned in the second tweet. During yesterday’s State Department briefing Price said that “the Israelis have the wherewithal and the capabilities to conduct a thorough, comprehensive investigation,” but of course that almost never happens. The fact Abu Akleh was a U.S. citizen is unlikely to impact the aftermath, she’s certainly not the first American killed by Israel.
The AP’s Matt Lee asked Price about what an investigation would like and who would carry it out. Very basic questions considering the U.S. is asking for one. Here’s that exchange:
LEE: Yes. On this situation, when you call for “an immediate and thorough investigation,” who exactly do you want to do the investigating?
PRICE: We – it is important to us that those who are responsible for her death be held responsible, that full accountability be ensured in this case.
LEE: Okay, but my question is not that. My question is who do you think can conduct a credible investigation into her death that would be accepted by all parties, including the United States?
PRICE: Well, in this case, I’m not going to prejudge where any investigation may go. We’ve seen, of course, that the Israeli Defense Forces have already announced that there is an investigation underway. We welcome that announcement. It is important to us, it is important to the world that that investigation be thorough, that it be comprehensive, that it be transparent, and importantly, that investigations end with full accountability and those responsible for her death being held responsible for their actions.
LEE: Okay. But I mean, do you want the Palestinians to be involved in the investigation?
PRICE: The IDF has announced an investigation.
QUESTION: Okay, that’s the IDF.
PRICE: Correct.
LEE: “I” standing for Israel.
PRICE: That is correct.
Price is dancing around something very obvious here. The United States wants Israel to investigate itself. They’re not interested in launching their own investigation. It doesn’t matter that Israel gets more than $3.8 billion in American taxpayer money every year and that they use some of it to kill people.
After the young U.S. activist Rachel Corrie was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer in 2003 Prime Minister Ariel Sharon promised the Bush administration that they’d launch a “thorough, credible, and transparent investigation.” What they produced was a classified IDF report that concluded Corrie’s death was just a “tragic accident.” They distributed the report to U.S. congress members. Former Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA) introduced a resolution calling for an independent U.S. investigation into Corrie’s death. It attracted a number of cosponsors, but was killed by House leadership and never made it out of committee. That’s how “thorough, credible, and transparent” goes in these situations.
What about a third party probe into the killing of a journalist? Well, the UN is currently investigating potential Israeli war crimes and human rights abuses from Israel’s attack on Gaza last year and the Biden administration publicly opposes the effort.
Let’s go back to Ned Price’s press conference for a second. He was also asked whether the United States government ever got a satisfactory response for Israel bombing the Associated Press’s Gaza office in 2021. Keep in mind this happened a year ago now.
QUESTION: Ned, sorry, just really briefly since you brought it up, the bombing of the AP and the Al Jazeera office in Gaza, did you guys ever get an explanation from the Israelis that was satisfactory?
PRICE: We were in contact with the Israelis. They shared with us some of the information regarding that strike.
QUESTION: And did you think that it was a legit target?
PRICE: Clearly, the fact that there were the offices of at least two independent media organizations made it highly concerning, highly troubling to us. But beyond that —
QUESTION: Well, is it still troubling, or were your concerns resolved after what they told you?
PRICE: It is —
QUESTION: I mean, it’s been almost – literally, that happened on May 15th of last year. It’s now, what, May 11th. Or is it the 12th?
PRICE: It is – that assessment has not changed. It is —
QUESTION: So you’re still troubled by it? In other words, the explanation that the Israelis gave to you is not – it did not allay your —
MR PRICE: We voiced our concern by the fact that journalists were put at risk, that their offices came under assault.
In short, the Biden administration won’t say whether Israel was justified when it launched an airstrike into a high-rise building that housed an Associated Press office. Keep in mind that Ned Price has also consistently stated that the Biden team is still looking over Israeli “evidence” that allegedly connects six Palestinian human rights groups to terrorist organizations. They want you to believe they’ve been analyzing this information for seven months.
So let’s recap. The Biden administration wants to hold leaders accountable when journalists are killed. They are shocked by Shireen Abu Akleh’s death and they condemn her killing. They want an investigation, but they’re not going to launch their own and they will presumably be skeptical of any outside human rights group that examines the situation. They have confidence in Israel to investigate itself, but it will take them months, possibly years, to develop a position on its findings.
A special relationship indeed.
Michigan
The Democratic primary battle in Michigan’s 11th’s district has developed into a microcosm of the party’s growing tension over Israel. On one side you have the staunchly pro-Israel Haley Stevens, who is financially backed by AIPAC and DMFI. On the other you have Andy Levin, hopelessly devoted to the possibility of a two-state solution and backed by liberal Zionist group J Street.
AIPAC has ruffled some liberal feathers lately, not because they spend millions of dollars promoting the U.S. relationship with an apartheid state, but because they’re currently backing a number of Republicans who refused to certify Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump. Levin has criticized the group over this and now there’s a report from Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod pointing out that he’s also taken campaign contributions from PACs and special interest groups that fund January 6th Republicans. To put this in context, the Levin contributions total $55,000. AIPAC has spent over $300,000 on the Stevens campaign so far. After the Rod story Levin announced that he was donating the $55,000 to abortion rights groups.
Recently former ADL National Director Abe Foxman endorsed Stevens while criticizing Levin. Foxman claimed that Levin uses his “Jewishness” as a “cover” to criticize Israel. We’ve come to expect this kind of disgusting stuff from Foxman, but it’s notable how removed from reality all these battles seem. Poll after poll shows us that Democratic voters are becoming increasingly critical of Israel and skeptical of all the military aid that the United States sends its way. On this issue (and many more) Democratic lawmakers are to the right of their base. Levin has criticized Israeli human rights abuses, but he refers to himself as a “lifelong Zionist” and regularly echoes the standard inefficacious talking points of the “peace process.” Levin has not cosponsored H.R.2590, Rep. Betty McCollum’s bill promoting the human rights of Palestinian children. A survey from 2021 found that over 70% of Democratic voters back the legislation.
Odds & Ends
?️ ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt was interviewed by Isaac Chotiner at The New Yorker, where he was mainly asked about his recent “anti-Zionism is antisemitism” speech. The man produces some truly breathtaking responses when confronted with critical questions.
Here’s some highlights:
You said it was O.K. to hold an anti-Zionist idea if you are a pundit or professor. So if I’m a history professor in New York, and I think that everyone in the area covering Israel and the West Bank and Gaza should be part of one democratic state, that’s O.K. to think, in theory, and not be anti-Semitic, but, in practice, people who want that are?
Let me clarify. I can understand that if you’re a pundit or a professor and you’re in the ivory tower, you might think that this is O.K—you can hold those views. But the reality is that in my job at A.D.L. I’m looking at this upsurge of anti-Semitism and trying to understand why it is happening and what’s driving it. Indeed, I find that I don’t have time for that theory. I’m living with the consequences of the practice and the people who propound this idea, Isaac, and contribute to environments in which anti-Semitism is on the rise. That’s what I’m saying.
I understand the answer you’re giving. But in the speech you compared anti-Zionism to white supremacy very clearly, so—
Correct, I did. Let’s say a white person said to me, “My plant got closed. These immigrants came in and took my job, and so, therefore, I don’t know, immigrants shouldn’t have any rights, immigrants don’t just deserve the same rights as we do.” I would feel the same way if someone said, “You know what, these Jews came and took my home, they don’t have any rights.” It’s a similar phenomenon.
It seems like you’re drawing a lot of distinctions in this conversation and defining things not as broadly as you did in the speech. You are saying certain forms of anti-Zionism are anti-Semitic, or you’re feeling that anti-Zionism, broadly speaking, can lead to anti-Semitism, which seems a little different than comparing anti-Zionism directly with white supremacy. There’s no professor espousing white supremacy in the ivory tower that you are O.K. with. That’s what I’m trying to draw out.
O.K., I understand. So let me make sure that I’m crystal clear with you. If you are a person in the West Bank, a Palestinian, an Indigenous Palestinian person, I understand why you don’t like the Israeli state, but if your goal is to destroy it, I think that’s a problem.
My big takeaway here is that Greenblatt understands why a Palestinian wouldn’t like Israel.
? The mainstream media has predictably been pretty bad on the Shireen Abu Akleh killing but MSNBC’s Ayman Mohyeldin had a good segment on it. “Time and time again we have seen the Israeli military operate with impunity in the occupied territories and it goes unchecked,” he told viewers. “No officers are held accountable. No justice is served. We hear yet again, as we did today, American officials condemn and call for investigations into Israeli abuses, but as history has shown there is rarely, if ever, justice for the killing of Palestinians.”
? Rep. Andre Carson on Twitter: “I join countless others in mourning the death of Al Jazeera journalist, #ShireenAbuAkleh, who was killed by Israeli military while on assignment. The U.S. must hold the Israeli government accountable for this and all other acts of unjust violence it commits.”
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI): “When will the world and those who stand by Apartheid Israel that continues to murder, torture and commit war crimes finally say: “Enough”? Shireen Abu Akleh was murdered by a government that receives unconditional funding by our country with zero accountability.”
“@POTUS: An American journalist clearly marked with press credentials was murdered. Doing and saying nothing just enables more killings. Whether you’re Palestinian, American, or not, being killed with U.S. funding must stop.”
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN): “She was killed by the Israeli military, after making her presence as a journalist clearly known. We provide Israel with $3.8 billion in military aid annually with no restrictions. What will it take for accountability for these human rights violations?”
“This is happening as Israel razed the homes of 40 Palestinians yesterday, leaving them homeless. And as they plan to evict 1,000 from the West Bank—the largest mass expulsion since 1967. Again I ask: what will it take for real accountability?”
? Emmaia Gelman has a piece on the site about the ADL drifting even further to the right.
? At the site James North writes about how the U.S. media allowed Israel to manipulate the mainstream narrative on Shireen Abu Akleh’s killing.
? Incoming White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is facing attacks from pro-Israel voices for writing an op-ed criticizing AIPAC in 2019.
? No surprise that Democratic Majority of Israel had a vile tweet about the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh. This is a group with a board member who openly called for Gaza to be burned.
?? The historian and professor Rashid Khalidi was on Democracy Now! putting Israel’s targeting of journalists into context:
So, attacks on journalists in order to squelch the story, at the root, are a part of the colonial information control. The British Empire did this everywhere — in Ireland, in India, in Egypt, in Palestine. And the Israelis have been doing it systematically and very effectively, shooting at journalists, intimidating journalists on the ground in Palestine, and then bullying editors and producers here in New York and in the United States and around the world to impose their line, which is generally mendacious — they make stuff up — and also to prevent the truth, which is that this is a brutal occupation that’s only sustained by brute force against the will of an entire people. That fact and the fact that it’s supported by us, the United States — these are American weapons being used, this is American money that’s supporting this — is something that is essential for the Israelis to blur, to occlude, to hide.
?️ A number of United States human rights groups are calling for an independent investigation into Shireen Abu Akleh’s death.
✊ My colleague Yumna Patel has an excellent new video report examining apartheid in Israel. You can watch it on our website.
Stay safe out there,
Michael
