Al Jazeera television network has filed a formal request to the international criminal court against Israeli forces over the killing of the veteran Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.
Abu Akleh was shot in the head during an Israeli raid in a refugee camp on the outskirts of the occupied West Bank city of Jenin in May, while wearing a helmet and flak jacket that clearly indicated she was a member of the press. Several investigations by human rights organisations, as well as international news outlets and the UN, have concluded that Abu Akleh, 51, was shot by an Israeli soldier. Her colleague Ali al-Samoudi survived after being shot in the shoulder.
Some of the investigations alleged that the reporter was deliberately targeted by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and that no Palestinian militants representing targets were present at the scene. After changing its stance several times, Israel now says there is a “high possibility” that Abu Akleh was killed by an IDF soldier during an exchange of fire but that the shooting was accidental and therefore does not warrant a criminal investigation.
Tuesday’s submission of new video evidence to The Hague, some of which was also aired in a new Al Jazeera documentary, provides a detailed account of events during the morning Abu Akleh died.
The formal filing shows “Shireen and her colleagues were directly fired at by the [IDF]”, Al Jazeera said in a statement, and “confirms, without any doubt, that there was no firing in the area where Shireen was, other than the [IDF] shooting directly at her”.
The Qatari-owned network claims that Abu Akleh’s “deliberate killing” is “part of a wider campaign to target and silence Al Jazeera”, also referencing the bombing of the news outlet’s offices in Gaza City during last year’s war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.
Al Jazeera’s request builds on September’s formal complaint to the ICC submitted by Abu Akleh’s family. In April, a coalition made up of the International Federation of Journalists, the Palestinian Press Syndicate, and leading human rights lawyers submitted an initial appeal to the ICC over the alleged systematic targeting of Palestinian journalists. Abu Akleh was killed a few days later, and Al Jazeera filed its own case asking the court to address her death in late May.
The ICC decided in 2021 that it had a mandate to investigate violence and war crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories, although Israel is not a member of the court and does not recognise its authority. Tuesday’s submission from Al Jazeera requests that Abu Akleh’s killing is included in the wider investigation.
The US, which is not a party to the ICC, said it is opposed to Al Jazeera taking the case to this court, renewing objections to investigations involving Israel.
“The ICC should focus on its core mission, and that core mission is of serving as a court of last resort in punishing and deterring atrocity crimes,” said State Department spokesman Ned Price.
While the Biden administration has largely embraced Israel’s version of events, and resisted an independent US investigation into the killing of an American citizen, pressure from members of Congress forced it last month to agree to an FBI inquiry.
Israel has said it will not cooperate with the FBI. “No one will investigate IDF soldiers and no one will preach to us about morals in warfare, certainly not Al Jazeera,” the outgoing prime minister, Yair Lapid, said in a statement in response to Tuesday’s ICC appeal.
