When Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was killed in the West Bank in 2022, I was living in Tunisia on a journalism placement.
It was wall-to-wall news. According to my friends, Abu Akleh was icon in the MENA region — on par with Peter Mansbridge or Wolf Blitzer. I quickly got some contacts for Palestinian journalists who knew her and set out to tell the story of her killing.
But when it came time to file with my newsroom, the edits were slow and drawn out. Finally, I was told my story “does not meet [their] standards for publication.”
It didn’t make sense to me.
Today, after more than a year of the Israeli government’s violence against Palestinians — which Amnesty International and a UN Special Committee concluded is genocidal — reports are emerging that a ceasefire deal has been reached.
But for so many, Israel’s violence means they won’t get to see this news. At least 46,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza during Israel’s campaign of carnage. More than 200 journalists, almost all Palestinian, have also been killed.
In light of that, I want to publish the story of one journalist who all evidence supports was killed by the IDF.
A story I was told didn’t meet standards for publication — but that I believe, with every fibre of my being, deserves to be told.
The day a bullet silenced Shireen Abu Akleh: 24 hours in the West Bank
In a split second on May 11, 2022, a bullet carved a deadly path below Shireen Abu Akleh's helmet and above her Kevlar vest, where the word PRESS was written in bold white letters. It tore into her neck.
Just like that, the gunshot heard around the world silenced the voice of a generation.
Abu Akleh, 51, was a prominent Palestinian-American reporter for Al Jazeera. She was shot dead as she covered an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank, sparking global condemnation.
While some in the western world first heard Abu Akleh's name the day she was killed, for those in parts of the Middle East and North Africa, it's hard to overstate the veteran reporter's influence.
She was a trailblazer for Arab women in journalism and, over her decades in the industry, became a household name in millions of Arab homes -- even earning the nickname "the daughter of Palestine," according to an Al Jazeera tribute.
But for Al Jazeera cameraman Majdi Banura, who filmed Abu Akleh's reports for 25 years, she was more than a famous journalist. Abu Akleh was "a friend, sister and colleague."
On May 11, Banura filmed one final frame featuring Abu Akleh: the moment she was gunned down in Jenin.
"The day of Shireen's death was one of the most difficult days of my life," he said in a June 3, 2022 message over WhatsApp, speaking in Arabic.
The day Shireen Abu Akleh was killed
It was 7:30 a.m. on May 11 when Musa Alshaer's wife woke him up.
"She said, 'Musa, wake up.' What's wrong? 'They killed Shireen.' It was a shock," said Alshaer, a cameraman and member of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate.
He jumped on WhatsApp and turned on the news. Both confirmed what his wife had said: Abu Akleh was dead.
"When you hear (from) the people who were with her, she came from the hotel and she said, 'We will go back. We hope there's nothing, and we'll go back to take our breakfast in the hotel.' But she didn't," Alshaer said.
"We lost our colleague in a moment."
Moments before Abu Akleh was killed, she was walking just outside the Jenin refugee camp.
Banura was standing with a group of people who were laughing and chatting, according to footage obtained and posted by both CNN and Al Jazeera. Abu Akleh can be seen walking with other journalists in the background.
Suddenly, shots rang out. Banura's group ran in one direction, Abu Akleh's group in another. The gunshots continued. There was silence, and then there was yelling.
"Shireen," a man can be heard crying in the video. "Ambulance!"
Banura slowly walked closer to where Abu Akleh had run, then panned his camera around the corner. Her motionless body entered the frame.
Her death "had a great impact on me," Banura told me.
The two had covered wars and incursions in the past, he said. They had been in situations where they faced "great risks."
"But this day was very different," Banura explained.
"We were shot directly. We were clearly dressed as press and there was no kind of resistance. However, we were targeted."
It was the worst day he'd ever experienced, he added, professionally or personally.
"May God have mercy on her," he said.
Israel likely killed Shireen Abu Akleh: AP, CNN
Investigations by both The Associated Press and CNN indicate the shot that killed Abu Akleh likely came from the Israeli forces.
Multiple videos and photos taken on the morning of May 11 show an Israeli convoy parked just up a narrow road from Abu Akleh, with a clear line of sight, the AP reported. They show the reporters and other bystanders in real time taking cover from bullets fired from the direction of the convoy.
The only confirmed presence of Palestinian militants was on the other side of the convoy, some 300 metres away, mostly separated from Abu Akleh by buildings and walls, the AP found.
And CNN says of its investigation: "Videos obtained by CNN, corroborated by testimony from eight eyewitnesses, an audio forensic analyst and an explosive weapons expert, suggest that Abu Akleh was shot dead in a targeted attack by Israeli forces."
It was "clear" that Abu Akleh was a journalist, Alshaer said.
"She has the helmet, she has the jacket with the 'press,' and the microphone in her hand," he explained.
"Shireen was targeted as a messenger. She was doing her job. She was only a journalist. Her weapon was only the microphone and the camera behind (her)."
I reached out to the Israeli government on June 8 for its response to the allegations that its armed forces deliberately targeted Abu Akleh.
"The IDF is conducting an ongoing investigation into the matter in order to reveal the truth. Any claim that the IDF intentionally harms journalists or uninvolved civilians, is a blatant lie," read the statement sent to me, which was attributed to Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz.
"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."
But Alshaer was steadfast in his assertion when he spoke to me on May 23, 2022.
"They want to scare the journalists in order not to be in the field, not to broadcast their crimes against the Palestinians."
In the last decade, more than 3,572 Palestinians and 198 Israelis have been killed in the conflict, including 806 Palestinian children and 14 Israeli children, according to the United Nations' Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Israel controls 85 per cent of Palestinian water sources in the West Bank and Gaza, according to the UN -- and Palestinian per capita access to water consumption in those regions is below international recommendations.
Checkpoints also provide massive hurdles to free movement in the West Bank and Gaza. In late 2020, the UN OCHA reported nearly 600 Israeli roadblocks and checkpoints in the West Bank alone.
Who was Shireen Abu Akleh?
In the Middle East, Abu Akleh "lived with the people," in their homes, said Alshaer.
"She never met them, but they know her from the screen," he said.
Alshaer knew Abu Akleh for 20 years, working alongside her as they reported on various clashes, incursions and conflicts. Journalists in the West Bank would move in groups, he said, to protect themselves.
Nonetheless, Abu Akleh didn't shy away from asking tough questions. She was "cynical" and "honest" at press conferences -- and "very objective," he said.
But he noted Abu Akleh was known for one trait above all: her humanity.
"(Shireen was) a friend to all who knew her," Banura said.
The Al Jazeera journalist was a Christian, but Alshaer and others discovered she had quietly been sending food to poor Muslim families during Ramadan.
She also made a point of helping students, Alshaer added.
"The first time you met her, you knew that you're meeting a person that never lies and has humanity in her heart," said Linda Safarini, who first met Abu Akleh in Jerusalem in the mid-'90s.
Despite working in warzones and witnessing horrors, Abu Akleh "never changed," Safarini added.
Honouring Shireen Abu Akleh's legacy
The global community must learn a lesson from Abu Akleh's killing, according to Palestinian Journalist Majeed Sawalha. Journalists are "supposed to be protected by international human law and humanitarian law," he said.
International law needs to grow "a backbone," Safarini added.
On top of bolstering protections for the press, both Safarini and Alshaer called on the world to honour Abu Akleh's memory by educating itself on the plight of the Palestinians.
There are many Israeli checkpoints on the road between Abu Akleh's home in East Jerusalem and the Jenin refugee camp, which the Al Jazeera reporter regularly covered.
Due to issues with free movement, many people in the Jenin camp "will live all their lives" without visiting Jerusalem -- including Safarini's aunt, who died at age 84 without ever visiting the city.
The camp itself is densely populated.
But that doesn't mean it's all bad. In the camp, there's a music troupe that plays for residents, Safarini said. There are artists who paint on the walls.
Abu Akleh spent lots of time in this camp, according to Safarini -- not only as a reporter, but also as a "humanitarian."
"She always went there. She always she was always seeing them, helping them, eating with them," she said.
This is the best way to honour Abu Akleh in our daily lives, Safarini added.
"Be the voice of the voiceless."
-- with translation assistance from Radio ML's Nesrine Hamdaoui
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