The Israeli government said on Monday that it would not cooperate with any “external investigation” into the May killing of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. Earlier, the American press reported that the FBI, the American federal police, began efforts to investigate the case.
Palestinian-American citizen Abu Akleh was shot dead while covering an Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin. In September, Israeli investigations concluded that she was likely shot by an Israeli soldier, without being the intended target of the fire.
Earlier, Israel’s Military Prosecutor’s Office announced that it saw no suspicions of a criminal act “that warranted a criminal investigation.” Israeli soldiers say troops conducting the operations were under heavy fire and retaliated, including firing at the area where Abu Akleh was located, about 200 meters away. They say they were unable to identify her as a journalist.
A report from the United Nations human rights office, however, indicates that Abu Akleh was with other reporters and was clearly identifiable with the press statements on his blue bulletproof vest. A colleague was wounded in the same situation by another bullet.
The death of Abu Akleh, one of the most recognizable faces in reporting on the Israel-Palestinian conflict for two decades, has sparked outrage around the world, particularly after police beat up people carrying his coffin at his funeral in Jerusalem.
This Monday, news that the American justice had not closed the case provoked reactions from Israeli authorities. “The decision by the US Ministry of Justice to investigate the unfortunate death of Shireen Abu Akleh is a serious mistake,” Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said in a statement.
The US Department of Justice and the FBI declined to comment on the Israeli government’s demonstration, according to the Reuters news agency.
Other eyewitness accounts of the death disputed the information that Israeli soldiers were coming under fire from the area where Abu Akleh was stationed. Palestinian officials and Abu Akleh’s own family said they believed she was deliberately killed and rejected claims by Israel that there were armed militants close to where she was.
“All the evidence, facts and investigations that have been conducted have proved that Israel was the perpetrator, who killed Shireen and should take responsibility for this crime,” said Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Al Jazeera also criticized the findings of the Israeli investigation. “This confession is nothing more than an attempt to evade criminal responsibility. Al Jazeera condemns the reluctance of Israeli forces to explicitly admit their crime and their attempts to evade legal action against the perpetrators,” it said in a statement released in September.
A US State Department report in July concluded that she was likely killed by fire from an Israeli position, but that there was no evidence to suggest she was intentionally targeted by Israeli forces.
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