Shireen Abu Akleh’s Assassination: In the Court of Global Opinion, ‘Israel’ Has Already Lost

By Amos Harel | Haaretz

Shortly after the ‘Israeli’ assassination of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh on Wednesday morning during a Zionist raid on the West Bank city of Jenin, ‘Israeli’ leaders and spokesmen went into their traditional routine.

In an analysis piece to ‘Israeli’ Haaretz newspaper, Amos Harel wrote that senior figures and a few journalists were quick to scatter accusations and hints about Palestinian responsibility for the tragic incident. Claims suggested that the Palestinians are responsible specifically for the shooting itself, alleging that the Zionist military opens fire only in an orderly, controlled manner.

In the afternoon ‘Israel’ beat a tactical retreat. The army agreed to admit that it’s possible, after all, that ‘Israeli’ gunfire killed the veteran journalist.

By evening, the head of Central Command, Gen. Yehuda Fuchs, was giving television interviews in which he said, in a praiseworthy manner, what should have been said in the morning: I, as the representative of the ‘Israeli’ military, am responsible for everything that happens on the ground. This is not the result we wanted. We will examine ourselves to find out whether the reporter was accidently killed by one of our people.

At the same time, more details began to flow in from the field. They showed that fighters from the undercover Duvdevan unit, who had come to arrest a wanted man from Islamic Jihad, were 100 to 150 meters from the spot where the reporter was shot.

Internationally, there is no way ‘Israel’ can emerge with the upper hand in an event like this. World sympathy tilts automatically to the side of the weak, certainly when the victim is a well-known journalist who has no connection with armed activity.

The case of the death of Abu Akleh could develop into a reprise of the death of 12-year-old Mohammed al-Dura in September 2000. On the second day of the second intifada, al-Dura was shot to death in an exchange of gunfire at the ‘Netzarim’ junction in the Gaza Strip.