Washington, D.C. – Shireen Abu Akleh’s family has rebuked Israel for saying it is “sorry” for the death of the Al Jazeera reporter without accounting or even acknowledging that her forces killed her.
Abu Akleh’s niece, Lina Abu Akleh, said Thursday outside the Capitol in Washington, D.C., that the Israeli statement does not amount to an apology.
“To be clear, the Israeli military has not admitted or apologized for Shireen’s murder. We don’t take that as an apology to us,’ Lina said. “It really is a slap in the face to Shireen’s legacy and to our family. An apology – which it wasn’t – is no accountability.”
On May 11, the first anniversary of Abu Akleh’s death by shooting, an Israeli army spokesman was asked by CNN whether the military was “ready” to apologize.
“I think this is an opportunity for me to say here that we are deeply sorry for the death of the late Shireen Abu Akleh,” spokesman Daniel Hagari said.
On Thursday, Lina said the murdered journalist’s family is seeking accountability, which “requires action”.
“From the moment Shireen was killed, the Israeli government and military have lied and distorted the truth,” she told reporters. “So it is deeply disturbing that, on the one-year anniversary of Shireen’s murder, the Israeli army has – again – victimized the family again.”
Lina has worked for Al Jazeera as a news producer, but she spoke on Thursday in her capacity as an advocate for the Abu Akleh family.
The late Abu Akleh, a US citizen, was killed on May 11, 2022 while reporting an Israeli attack on the occupied West Bank city of Jenin. Initially, Israeli officials falsely accused Palestinian gunmen of fatally shooting the veteran reporter, who was known throughout the Arab world.
Months after the assassination, Israel acknowledged that one of its soldiers probably killed Abu Akleh, but dismissed the incident as accidental. The Israeli government has not opened a criminal investigation into the murder.
Numerous media outlets, human rights organizations and eyewitnesses have documented that there was no fighting in the immediate area where Abu Akleh was shot.
Yet the US — which provides Israel with at least $3.8 billion in aid annually — has accepted Israel’s version of events, despite initial calls for accountability and an independent investigation.
Lina and other relatives of the slain journalists are back in Washington, DC this week to plead the case.
“I’m here with my family to continue to demand accountability and justice for her murder and to get more support from the Hill, like last year,” Lina told Al Jazeera.
In 2022, Abu Akleh’s relatives met with US lawmakers and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, but the White House failed to honor their request to meet with President Joe Biden.
At a press conference on Capitol Hill on Thursday, several Democratic members of Congress joined Abu Akleh’s family in renewing their call for justice.
The Biden administration has repeatedly said it is calling for accountability by urging Israel to change its military rules of engagement to prevent similar incidents in the future — a demand explicitly rejected by Israel’s leadership.
Lina told Al Jazeera on Thursday that while she welcomes efforts to review Israel’s rules of engagement, the push falls short of the definition of accountability.
“We want accountability – the soldier held accountable, the whole system held accountable for the murder of a journalist and an American citizen,” she said.