Israel will not pursue a criminal investigation into the killing of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, whose death earlier this month sparked global outrage.
The development was reported Thursday by both Haaretz and the Jerusalem Post.
Abu Akleh, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Palestine, was fatally shot in the head on May 11 while covering an Israeli raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. She was wearing a helmet and press jacket. Witnesses say she was shot by an Israeli soldier.
“In view of the nature of the operational activity, which included intense fighting and extensive exchanges of fire, it was decided that there was no need to open a military police investigation at this stage,” according to a statement from the military provided to the Jerusalem Post.
Israel-based human rights organization B’Tselem suggested the announcement from the military police criminal investigation division should come as no surprise.
“As B’Tselem has stated again and again: no one should wait for Israel’s ‘investigations’ nor expect that they will deliver justice for Palestinians,” the group tweeted. “It is time for the world to finally wake up to this reality and take action. Anything else simply enables Israel’s impunity.”
In a statement to Al Jazeera, Abu Akleh’s family said, “We were expecting this from the Israeli side.”
“We urge the United States in particular — since she is a U.S. citizen — and the international community to open a just and transparent investigation and to put an end to the killings,” the family said.
The Intercept reported this week that a pair of congressional Democrats, Reps. André Carson of Indiana and Lou Correa of California, are gathering signatures for a letter demanding an FBI investigation into Abu Akleh’s killing and a determination from the State Department as to whether U.S. laws were violated.
Days after Abu Akleh’s death, global outrage erupted after footage showed Israeli fores attacking the pallbearers of her coffin during the funeral procession.
The footage of that violence was “shocking,” said United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, who called for “accountability for the terrible killing not just of Shireen Abu Akleh but for all the killings and serious injuries in the occupied Palestinian territory.”
A group of leading artists similarly called Thursday for “full accountability for the perpetrators” of Abu Akelh’s death “and everyone involved in authorizing it.”
In an open letter, figures including Spanish film director Pedro Almodóvar, Indian author Arundhati Roy, Canadian author Naomi Klein, and U.S. actor Mark Ruffalo write: “We call on our governments to end their hypocrisy and to act with consistency in the application of international law and human rights. We call on them to take meaningful measures to ensure accountability for the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh and all other Palestinian civilians.”
“There must be no double standards,” they add, “when it comes to the basic human right to freedom from persecution and oppression and the right to life and to dignity.”
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.