Israeli rights group welcomes news of U.S. investigation into the death of veteran Al Jazeera journalist Abu Akleh, who was killed during an Israeli military raid in the West Bank last May. Defense Minister Gantz said Israel will not cooperate with the investigation, calling it ‘a grave mistake’.
The United States has informed Israel that it has decided to investigate the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, the Palestinian-American Al Jazeera reporter who was shot to death during an IDF raid in the Jenin refugee camp in May this year.
Even though U.S. and Israeli leaders have traded contentious statements over Abu Akleh’s killing in the past, Israeli officials believe that the U.S. investigation is a symbolic statement, Israeli sources told Haaretz, and claim that an investigation is unlikely to go forward without approval from the U.S. State Department and Israeli consent.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz responded to the news of the investigation on Twitter, calling it “a grave mistake.” Gantz further claimed that “the IDF conducted an independent and professional investigation, the details of which were presented to the Americans.”
“I made it clear to the American representatives that we stand behind the IDF soldiers, that we will not cooperate with any external investigation, and we will not allow interference in Israel’s internal affairs,” he added.
“This is an overdue but necessary and important step in the pursuit of justice and accountability in the shooting death of American citizen and journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh. I will continue pressing for the full facts and truth in this case,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who has led the Democratic pressure campaign on the Biden administration to conduct an independent investigation.
In a statement on the news of the probe, the Abu Akleh family said they were “encouraged by news that the United States opened a criminal investigation… Our family has been asking for a U.S. investigation since the beginning, and it is what the United States should do when a U.S. citizen is killed abroad, especially when they were killed, like Shireen, by a foreign military.”
We hope that the United States will use all of the investigative tools at its disposal to get answers about Shireen’s killing and hold those who are responsible for this atrocity accountable… This is an important step toward accountability and gets our family closer to justice for Shireen,” the statement said.
Abu Akleh, one of Al Jazeera’s most well-known journalists in the Arab world, was killed while Israeli soldiers were conducting an operation to arrest wanted men in the Jenin refugee camp. Her death was widely covered in the international media and sparked widespread criticism of the IDF and Israeli policy in the West Bank.
In May, 57 U.S. lawmakers penned a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray and Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling for an investigation into the death of Abu Akleh, who was a U.S. citizen.
“As an American, Ms. Abu Akleh was entitled to the full protections afforded to U.S. citizens living abroad,” the letter read.
In September, the Israeli military released a summary of its own investigation into the killing of Abu Akleh, but key U.S. lawmakers were dissatisfied with the Israeli findings and demanded the Biden administration to take its own steps.
The Israeli army later admitted that it was “highly probable” Abu Akleh was killed by an Israeli soldier. It described it as “an unfortunate incident” while maintaining it could not rule out the possibility that Abu Akleh was killed by Palestinian gunfire.
Israeli human rights group Yesh Din said Monday that they welcomed the news of a U.S. investigation into the matter.
“Only an independent international investigation can lead to the discovery of the truth,” the rights group said.
“It is important to emphasize that this is an exceptional event as it involves an American citizen and a famous journalist. In most cases, (72 percent of the complaints submitted by Palestinians) the army does not carry out a criminal investigation. A thorough and serious investigation is necessary, not only when it comes to an American citizen.”