Al Jazeera Takes the Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh To The ICC

By Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera Media Network submitted a formal request to the International Criminal Court [ICC] to investigate and prosecute those responsible for killing veteran Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.

Abu Akleh, a television correspondent with Al Jazeera for 25 years, was killed by ‘Israeli’ forces on May 11 as she was covering a Zionist military raid on a refugee camp in Jenin in the northern occupied West Bank.

The 51-year-old al-Quds native and US citizen was a widely respected journalist who gave a voice to Palestinians through her coverage of the ‘Israeli’ occupation.

The request includes a dossier on a comprehensive six-month investigation by Al Jazeera that gathers all available eyewitness evidence and video footage, as well as new material on the killing of Abu Akleh.

The request submitted to the ICC is presented “in the context of a wider attack on Al Jazeera, and journalists in Palestine,” said Rodney Dixon KC, a lawyer for Al Jazeera, referring to incidents such as the bombing of the network’s Gaza office on May 15, 2021.

Abu Akleh was shot in the head as she tried to shield herself by a carob tree. Al Jazeera producer Ali al-Samoudi was also shot in the shoulder.

The new evidence submitted by Al Jazeera shows “Shireen and her colleagues were directly fired at by the ‘Israeli’ Occupation Forces,” Al Jazeera Media Network said in a statement on Tuesday.

The statement added the evidence overturns claims by ‘Israeli’ authorities that Shireen was killed in crossfire and it “confirms, without any doubt, that there was no firing in the area where Shireen was, other than the IOF shooting directly at her.”

“The evidence shows that this deliberate killing was part of a wider campaign to target and silence Al Jazeera,” the statement said.