The news is the White House is working out the details of Joe Biden’s trip to Israel this month so that the visit goes smoothly. That’s quite an ask when you’re touring an occupying nation that just keeps killing Palestinian children.
But with that diplomatic goal, the U.S. has quietly walked away from its promise to Palestinians to reopen the Jerusalem consulate, because even that gesture would endanger Naftali Bennett’s tenuous rightwing governing coalition.
And the U.S. is also doing its best to sweep under the rug the shocking killing of Palestinian-American broadcast journalist Shireen Abu Akleh on May 11 in the occupied territories. Eyewitness accounts and journalistic investigations agree that an Israeli sniper killed Abu Akleh, who wore a Press flak jacket and helmet as she stood outside Jenin refugee camp.
The State Department and U.N. ambassador have issued a stream of statements of concern over Abu Akleh’s killing but maintained that Israel will provide “full accountability in the matter.” Or as Secretary of State Tony Blinken told one activist calling for justice for Shireen: “I see you and I hear you… We’re committed to finding the truth.”
The good news is that there is widespread contempt for the White House’s faith in Israel’s ability to provide the truth. Or as Shireen’s niece, Lina Abu Akleh, told MSNBC two nights ago in response to the State Department’s latest statement,
“How many Americans have to be killed for the Biden administration to act?”
The pressure keeps mounting. Palestinian journalists have continually stood up for independent investigation of the Abu Akleh killing. Last week 33 press freedom and human rights groups called for an independent international probe.
Many point out the double standard of the U.S. stance on Abu Akleh’s killing in contrast to strong American statements on the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi Arabia in 2018 and the killing of American journalist Brent Renaud by Russia in the Ukraine this spring.
126 artists brought up the Ukraine double standard in a statement demanding justice for Shireen Abu Akleh.
It has not gone unnoticed that while our governments have rushed to impose blanket boycotts and sanctions in response to Russia’s illegal invasion of the Ukraine and the cruelty of its attacks on a civilian population, the same governments continue to fund and shield Israel’s decades-long occupation and grave human rights violations against Palestinians.
The signatories include Pedro Almodovar, Tilda Swinton, Susan Sarandon, Roger Waters, Mike Leigh, Yanis Varoufakis, Peter Gabriel, and Naomi Klein.
Cornel West also brought up the Ukraine in an interview with Middle East Eye. He said that Israel has “impunity… on steroids” thanks to the U.S. media and government.
Israeli military forces have such an assumption of impunity… they can say anything and get away with it, do anything and get away with it, and have the complicity of the media and the United States….
Two days ago Said Arikat of Al Quds Daily questioned the State Department’s Ned Price about the safety of those who cover Israeli actions, and cited another Palestinian journalist who was shot at the same time as Abu Akleh — Ali Samoudi of Al Jazeera.
What would you say to my colleague, Ali Samoudi, who sent you a letter today explaining what happened? What would you say to assure him that he can continue to conduct his job as a journalist? I mean, he’s been doing this for a very long time.
Ned Price responded, “We certainly appreciate his perspective and the time he took to offer his recollection.”
Others are demanding real answers. The human rights lawyer Diana Buttu, a friend of Abu Akleh’s, wrote in the New York Times May 25 that Israel has again and again escaped accountability for attacks on civilians, including journalists:
A complaint filed at the International Criminal Court by the International Federation of Journalists and two Palestinian organizations two weeks before Shireen was killed accused Israel of systematically targeting Palestinian journalists working in the occupied territories. The Committee to Protect Journalists has confirmed the killing of 19 journalists in the occupied territories since 1992, 15 of whom were Palestinians. (Other organizations’ numbers are higher; the complaint to the I.C.C. says that at least 46 journalists have been killed since 2000, not including Shireen.)…
Buttu urged the international community to take action at last:
The United States and the rest of the international community must ensure that there is full accountability for her death. For too long, Israeli political and military leaders have fostered an environment in which Israeli soldiers apparently consider the lives of Palestinians disposable. The very least that I, others who loved her and those who care about justice and fundamental human decency can do is demand that those responsible be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
On MSNBC two nights ago, Mehdi Hasan called on the U.S. to launch its own investigation– as 57 members of Congress have also done.
“I think of the killing of Jamal Khashoggi and how the world including the U.S. including Joe Biden was outraged by what the Saudis did,” Hasan said. In the Abu Akleh killing, numerous journalistic investigations have found that an Israeli sniper shot her, and–
yet no condemnation by the U.S. government, no accountability whatsoever.
Hasan brought up the precedent of the enterprising Gaza journalist, Yaser Murtaja, shot by an Israeli sniper as he wore a press vest in Gaza during the Great March of Return in 2018. NBC’s Raf Sanchez recently followed up on Murtaja’s killing, asking the Israeli government for the results of its investigation. Sanchez reported to Ayman Mohyeldin:
They sent me a very short statement saying they had looked into the incident, they had determined that there was no criminal activity by any Israeli soldiers and they had closed the case; and that just gives you a sense of why Palestinians feel that they are unlikely to get the full story out of the Israeli military.
Hasan also interviewed Shireen’s niece, Lina Abu Akleh, who asked why the Congress is not passing a resolution condemning Shireen Abu Akleh’s murder, as it did in the Khashoggi case. “There is clearly a double standard that is too painful but it will not demoralize us as a family,” she said.
Lastly, let’s turn to those who oppose any independent investigation of the Abu Akleh killing.
They include Israelis. During the flag march in Jerusalem Sunday, Jewish settlers chanted “Death to Arabs,” as they do every year, but this year they added a new taunt: “Shireen is dead.” Also, “Shireen is a whore.”
These extremists are well represented in Israeli government. Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and Defense Minister Benny Gantz have rejected the press investigations showing that Israel killed Abu Akleh. Gantz says such reports foster terrorism:
Unilateral investigations and attempts to charge IDF soldiers with war crimes, while promoting false assessments such as the one published by CNN undermine the ability to achieve peace and stability in the region, while ultimately boosting terrorism.
And of course the rightwing Israel lobby is pressing the Biden administration to go along with that inaction. Within hours of Abu Akleh’s killing, the “Democratic Majority for Israel” tweeted:
No one yet knows who shot Shireen Abu Akleh. There is no evidence whatsoever that either Palestinians or Israelis targeted her…
But even then, eyewitnesses told the world who they saw fire on Abu Akleh, and there is now a growing mountain of forensic evidence that supports those eyewitnesses.
The ADL has also placed faith in the Israeli government.
We welcome Israeli investigation into both incidents [Abu Akleh’s killing and the Israeli police disruption of her funeral] and urge that it be fully transparent, leading to accountability & justice.
So now you know who the White House is listening to.
Let’s be fair. Biden has also caved in to Saudi Arabia. Khashoggi’s murder was denounced because he was part of the DC social scene— Tom Friedman cared more about that than hundreds of thousands of children dying of starvation in Yemen. But even Khashoggi’s killing isn’t getting in the way of US- Saudi relations.
Miko Peled says that Shireen’s killing could not have been some rogue soldier; it must have been authorized very high up in the Israeli government. Makes sense to me.
Killed for no reason? Well, no. She was “armed with a camera.”
Translation: “Yup, we heard him. It’s a nicely written letter. His choice of crayons for the sun and trees in that one doodle is a very creative choice. Next question!”