Lapid: Israeli soldiers off-limits on the murder of Shireen Abu Akleh

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
6 Dec 2022 21:22
3 Shares

Israeli PM says that no one is allowed to investigate Israeli soldiers on the murder of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh

The spot where journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was murdered by Israeli occupation soldiers in the West Bank.

"Israel" will not allow anyone to investigate its soldiers regarding the murder of Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh.

"Nobody" will investigate Israeli soldiers, "preach morality on warfare, and certainly not Al Jazeera," Israeli media said citing Lapid.

The announcement was made by the entity's outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid on Tuesday.

Al Jazeera stated earlier today that it has submitted a formal request to the International Criminal Court to investigate the murder of Abu Akleh.

Lawyers of the Qatari-based broadcaster collected evidence that no clashes took place in the area where she was present and killed except for shots fired by the Israeli soldiers directly targeting the correspondent.

The Israeli Minister of Security Banny Gantz added that the death of Abu Akleh happened amid a "clear-cut" combat event.

Earlier in May, Palestine's Attorney General Akram al-Khatib announced that an Israeli soldier shot and hit Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, clarifying that the bullet hit her directly in the head.

On May 11, Abu Akleh, a senior correspondent known throughout the Arab world, was murdered in cold blood while covering an Israeli occupation invasion into Jenin in the occupied West Bank.

According to Palestinians and Abu Akleh's colleagues who were with her at the time, she was murdered by Israeli fire.

The Palestinians refused to hand the bullet to "Israel" out of fear that the Israeli occupation would tamper with the bullet and hide the truth.

The Washington Post, after examining more than 60 videos, social media posts, and photos of the murder, conducted physical inspections of the area, and also commissioned two independent acoustic analyses of the gunshots, concluded in a report that Abu Akleh was killed by an Israeli soldier in the convoy that was near them.

In the same context, a month-long investigation by The New York Times found that the bullet that killed Abu Akleh was fired from the approximate location of the Israeli military convoy, most likely by a soldier from an elite unit.

The evidence reviewed by The Times showed that there were no Palestinian resistance fighters near her when she was shot, which contradicted Israeli claims that, if a soldier had mistakenly killed her, it was because he had been shooting at a Palestinian gunman.

The investigation also showed that 16 shots were fired from the location of the Israeli convoy, as opposed to Israeli claims that the soldier had fired five bullets in the journalists’ direction.

In pictures: Shireen Abu Akleh's funeral in Jenin

Abu Akleh, 51, was a well-known and respected on-air correspondent who rose to prominence during the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, against the Israeli occupation two decades ago.

She used her voice to stand in the face of the brutal realities of life under Israeli occupation, which is now in its sixth decade.

When Israeli police beat mourners and pallbearers during her funeral in occupied Al-Quds on May 14, they garnered considerable condemnation from throughout the world.