This Thursday morning, a procession of thousands of Palestinians accompanied the body of Shireen Abu Akleh from the Istishari hospital in Ramallah to the presidential palace of the Palestinian Authority, where Mahmoud Abbas paid him a national tribute. Then his remains will be transferred to Jerusalem, about twenty kilometers away. She will be buried tomorrow in the Mont Sion cemetery, on the outskirts of the old town, alongside her parents.
“Journalism Icon”
The 51-year-old journalist, star correspondent in Jerusalem for the Qatari channel Al-Jazeera, was shot in the head on Wednesday in Jenin (northern West Bank) during an exchange of fire between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militiamen. . A few hours after her tragic death, she was already becoming a myth for Palestinian nationalism. Huge posters bearing his likeness hang in Al-Manara Square, in the center of Ramallah. Social networks are full of tributes and calls for revenge. In maternities, babies born yesterday afternoon even bear his name. Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh hailed “an icon of journalism killed by occupation forces while fulfilling his duty”. Same tone on the side of the Islamist movement Hamas which calls for “a transparent international investigation to hold the occupation and its army responsible for hate crimes”.
The Palestinians did not doubt for a moment that Israel was responsible for this tragedy. As soon as the death of Shireen Abu Akleh was announced, the Palestinian Authority published a press release denouncing an act committed by Tsahal soldiers. A version taken up by AFP which affirmed in a first dispatch: “An Al-Jazeera journalist killed by Israeli army fire in the West Bank”. A little later in the morning, the news agency changed its title by indicating that the journalist had died “during clashes in the West Bank”.
Circumstances to be clarified
Because the exact circumstances of the death of Shireen Abu Akleh remain to be clarified. When she was hit, the journalist was covering an Israeli army raid on the Jenin refugee camp. This Palestinian city, a traditional bastion of Palestinian armed groups, finds itself once again at the heart of the conflict, because the perpetrators of two bloody attacks in Israel are from there. Yesterday morning, the Israeli soldiers of the Douvdevan commando confronted several armed Palestinians there. According to the director of the pathology institute of the Palestinian University of Nablus, Ryan al-Ali, it is difficult to determine the origin of the shooting which killed the journalist. The caliber of the bullet found in his head (5.56 mm) is indeed used by both the Israeli army and the Palestinian militias. This is in particular the caliber of the famous M16 assault rifle, a very widespread weapon in the region.
Tense context
Without excluding the responsibility of the Israeli army in this tragedy, the Israeli Minister of Defense Benny Gantz proposed to the Palestinians to carry out a joint investigation. This morning, the Palestinian Authority rejected him, arguing that Israeli guilt was beyond doubt. And Mahmoud Abbas threatened to take Israel to the International Court of Justice.
This case comes in a particularly tense context in the Middle East. Israel is facing a wave of attacks of an intensity unprecedented since the second Intifada of the early 2000s. Since March 19, 19 people, the vast majority of them civilians, have been killed in six attacks perpetrated in the heart Israeli cities. In response, the Israeli army multiplies the raids in the West Bank, destroys the houses of the perpetrators of attacks and imposes closures of the occupied territory.
In recent years, Israeli-Palestinian security cooperation has prevented hundreds of attacks. But the Israeli security services fear that the Palestinian Authority will lose control of entire sections of the West Bank, as is already the case in Jenin. Mined by corruption and challenged by Hamas, it is experiencing its most serious crisis since the civil war of 2007. The collapse of the Palestinian Authority would leave the field open to Hamas, a supporter of the all-out fight against Israel.