WASHINGTON: The killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, one of the Arab world’s most recognisable journalists, was not an isolated event, it was part of a pattern, warns a report released in the United States on Tuesday.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which prepared the report, has documented at least 20 journalist killings by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) since 2001.

The vast majority — 18 — were Palestinian; two were European foreign correspondents; there were no Israelis. No one has ever been charged or held accountable for these deaths.

Shireen, a Palestinian-American journalist who worked for Al Jazeera for 25 years, was one of the most prominent names across the Middle East for her decades of reporting in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.

On 11 May 2022, while covering an IDF raid on the Jenin Refugee camp in the West Bank, Shireen was shot and killed, although she was wearing a blue vest with “PRESS” written on it. The CPJ report insisted that her killing was “part of a deadly, decades-long pattern” to intimidate journalists.

At least 20 media persons killed by Israeli Defence Forces: report

“Despite numerous IDF probes, no one has ever been charged or held responsible for these deaths,” the report added. “The impunity in these cases has severely undermined the freedom of the press … (in) the region.”

Five months after Shireen’s death, an IDF probe concluded there was a “high possibility” that one of its soldiers “accidentally” shot the journalist while firing on Palestinian gunmen. To date, no one has been held accountable. CPJ Director of Special Projects Robert Mahoney said in a statement released with the report that Shireen’s “killing and the failure of the army’s investigative process to hold anyone responsible (was) not a one-off event.”

Hagai El-Ad, the executive director of Israeli human rights group B’Tselem. said “Israel’s efforts to examine its soldiers’ actions, particularly when it comes to Palestinian journalists killed, amount to less of a serious inquiry than a theatre of investigation.”

According to the CPJ report, Israel’s army is responsible for 80 per cent of journalist and media worker killings in the Palestinian territories. The other 20pc — five cases — died due to different causes.

CPJ’s research spans some of the most violent and repressive years of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, from the start of the Palestinian uprising known as the Second Intifada, in 2000, to repeated Israeli operations against militants.

The research showed that all deaths took place in the West Bank, territory under Israeli military occupation, or in Gaza, a coastal strip under Israeli military blockade. No journalist was killed within Israel’s internationally recognised borders.

The report noted that deaths were just one part of the story. Many journalists have been injured, and in 2021 the military bombed Gaza buildings that housed offices of more than a dozen local and international media outlets, including The Associated Press and Al-Jazeera.

CPJ reminded Israeli authorities that “journalists are civilians under international law, and as such militaries must take steps to safeguard them during hostilities.”

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2023