Is there any limit to Israel’s impunity?
The purposeful shooting of a reporter is deeply bothersome as the public is offended by the killing of Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh by the Israeli corps in the occupied West Bank on May 11. Abu Akleh was covering an Israeli invasion in the city of Jenin early in the morning, donning a press vest and helmet, when she was shot in the face. Though originally, the Israeli corps did not miss a strike before alleging it was Palestinian gunmen who had slain the veteran journalist, the military general has now backtracked to let out that it is “indistinguishable who blazed the shot.” Our rage and rebuke towards this incident are on two counts: For the intentional execution of a fellow journalist and Israel’s ongoing occupation and unrest in Palestine.
Reporters presented when Abu Akleh was shot reportedly verified that it was certainly Israeli forces who were accountable for her death. This is despite Abu Akleh and her crew showing flak vests captioned “Press” and rendering themselves known to Israeli forces in the region. While the gruesome and indiscriminate unrest against Palestinians is endless, the disposition of this particular killing—that is, to fire on the face of a reporter during the job time who was donning a press vest and helmet—truly encapsulates the magnitude of Israel’s intention to block any information that tries to tell the Palestinian side of the saga.
The recent Russia-Ukraine war has also divested new light on the Israeli invasion of Palestine. The global outflow of backing and compassion for Ukrainian refugees and war sufferers is admirable and well-deserved. But we must marvel, for the umpteenth time, why even a proportion of the same has not been delivered to the Palestinian people, who have been suffering at the hands of Israeli armies for over five decades? Where are the open limbs and substantiating content for them? Race and faith play crucial positions in this bigotry, specifically by the West, which is indubitable. Yet, Israeli unrest in Palestine persists, as does the US military assistance to the occupying nation. All we can now strive for is that Shireen Abu Akleh’s demise does not get forfeited in the crowd of the thousands of Palestinian murders before hers. An autonomous and impartial inquiry must be administered to discover the exact situation of the killing. The Israeli corps can detonate dead a working reporter in broad daylight gives us an idea of how robustly the West backs the state.