Did Israel Assassinate Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh?

Shireen Abu Akleh, a well-known Palestinian reporter for Al Jazeera,was shot dead May 11, 2022 as she covered an Israeli raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the Occupied West Bank. Her death is regarded by Al Jazeera as an Israeli assassination. The Rev. Dr. Alex Awad, a Palestinian minister, educator and author who was pastor of a church in Jerusalem for 25 years, speaks about Shireen Abu Akleh’s stature in the Arab world, why he believes Israel deliberately targeted her, the Israeli attack on her funeral procession and the impact of her tragic death. Marjorie Cohn,a professor emerita of the Thomas Jefferson School of Law who lectures frequently on human rights law and U.S. foreign policy and has been a media consultant for CBS, discusses her recent article in Truthout about the death of Abu Akleh. She notes that Abu Akleh’s death is part of a larger pattern of israeli attacks on Palestinian journalists going back 20 years. Two weeks prior to Abu Akleh’s death, the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate, the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians, and the International Federation of Journalists filed a formal complaint with the International Criminal Court charging that Israel was systematically targeting Palestinian journalists. Cohn discusses the complaint, the news media’s coverage of Shireen Abu Akleh’s death, and the role of the Unites States in protecting Israel from facing any consequences for this and other murders.


Share This Episode