Washington, D.C. – A spokesman for the US State Department has faced a barrage of questions about what the United States did to answer for the murder of Shireen Abu Akleh, the Al Jazeera journalist who turned fatal last year shot down by Israeli forces.
At a press conference on Wednesday, coinciding with World Press Freedom Day, Vedant Patel repeatedly told reporters that Washington is seeking accountability by asking Israel to review its military rules of engagement.
“[Reviewing] Rules of Engagement sounds like it’s something to deter and prevent this [from] happening again,” said a visibly frustrated journalist. “Is there an active effort by the US to be accountable to Israel?”
Patel replied, “There is an active effort. And since Shireen’s tragic death, we have continued to press Israel to carefully review its engagement policies and practices and consider additional steps to reduce the risk of civilian harm and protect journalists.”
Next week marks the anniversary of the assassination of Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American reporter who was fatally shot by Israeli forces on May 11, 2022, while covering a military strike in the town of Jenin in the occupied West Bank.
Al Jazeera Media Network said that day that she was “killed in cold blood”.
But Washington has rejected attempts to bring accountability to the International Criminal Court (ICC), condemned by freedom of the press and Palestinian human rights lawyers who have called on the administration of US President Joe Biden to demand justice.
Israel, which rights groups accuse of imposing a system of apartheid on Palestinians, receives at least $3.8 billion annually in US security aid.
Adam Shapiro, director of advocacy for Israel-Palestine at Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), a US-based human rights organization, said Washington’s response to Abu Akleh’s assassination was “pathetic” from the start.
He told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that the Biden administration’s approach to the matter was to “express thoughts and prayers” while also trying to “make the matter go away.”
‘unintentionally’
While the US has not conducted its own investigation into the matter, Patel said on Wednesday that Abu Akleh’s killing was “unintentional”. He did not provide any evidence to support that assessment, which echoed Israel’s claims.
Various investigations by rights groups and Media outletsas well as witness statements, have cast doubt on the claim that the killing of Abu Akleh was accidental, noting that she was identifiable by her press gear when she was fatally shot.
Abu Akleh was also not in the immediate vicinity of any fighting, the reports show.
Washington called for accountability early on in the case, saying the journalist’s killers “should be prosecuted in the broadest sense of the law”.
However, after Israel acknowledged there was a “high probability” that its military fired the shot that killed Abu Akleh but ruled out a criminal investigation into what happened, US officials appeared to be dropping calls for the perpetrators to be prosecuted.
Israel’s leaders also openly rejected requests from the US last year to review their military’s rules of engagement. “No one will impose our rules of engagement on us,” said then-Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid.
Israeli and US media reported in November 2022 that the FBI had launched an investigation into the murder, and Israeli officials have ruled out any cooperation with the alleged investigation. The US Department of Justice has declined to confirm the investigation.
Earlier this week, Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging the publication of a new report on the incident, prepared by the US Security Coordinator (USSC).
Last year, the USSC — which oversees and encourages security cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian officials — said the Israeli military was “probably responsible for the death of Shireen Abu Akleh.”
However, it added that there was “no reason to believe this was intentional, but rather the result of tragic circumstances”.
The statement was not the result of a full investigation, US officials said at the time, explaining that it served as a summary of Israeli and Palestinian investigations. A Palestinian Authority investigation had said weeks earlier that Israeli forces had deliberately fired at Abu Akleh “for the purpose of killing”.
On Wednesday, the State Department’s Patel said he has not seen the new USSC report, but understands it came to “the same conclusion.”
“I have no additional updates or reviews on this report,” he said.
World Press Freedom Day
Earlier on Wednesday, US officials paid tribute to journalists on World Press Freedom Day, taking the opportunity to again call for the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who is imprisoned in Russia.
“Journalism is not a crime — it is fundamental to a free society,” Biden said in a statement that did not name Abu Akleh.
Blinken also released a statement denouncing the attacks on reporters and calling for the immediate release of Gershkovich, who has been formally identified by Washington as wrongly detained. The top US diplomat also did not name Abu Akleh.
Blinken also joined Washington Post columnist David Ignatius for a World Press Freedom Day event, but the murder of the Al Jazeera journalist was not mentioned in their 30-minute discussion.
“President Biden and Secretary Blinken’s omission of the brutal killing of Shireen Abu Akleh by the Israeli army during World Press Freedom Day demonstrates a dehumanizing disregard for the Palestinians, as well as a weak commitment by this administration to press freedom,” said Ahmad Abuznaid, executive director of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, told Al Jazeera in an email.
DAWN’s Shapiro also described Washington’s failure to name Abu Akleh in official statements on Wednesday as “utterly outrageous.”
“I think for Shireen it’s undoubtedly because it was Israel that killed her that the United States wants it gone,” he said. “But the fact that she was also from Al Jazeera is a secondary factor that I don’t think should be ignored.”