By David Boddinger, The Progressive Magazine
There is a shaky cellphone video that’s haunted me since the day I first saw it. It shows the horrifying aftermath of the cold-blooded killing of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who died in early May while covering an Israeli army operation in the West Bank town of Jenin for Al Jazeera.
What stands out to me most from the footage of that horrific assault—which multiple journalistic investigations and the U.N. Human Rights Office have determined was likely carried out by members of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF)—is Abu Akleh’s colleague, Shatha Hanaysha, who is as she is pinned down by gunfire beneath a small tree, just a few feet from Abu Akleh’s lifeless body. I’ll never forget Hanaysha’s expressions of trauma, grief, and panic during those devastating moments of abject violence.
The circumstances of Abu Akleh’s killing—she and her colleagues were wearing clothing clearly identifying them as press, and they had alerted Israeli officials of their presence—reveal a disturbing pattern of brazenness by her killers that has become increasingly common, not only in the West Bank, but around the world. The number of journalists killed and disappeared globally is troubling, and while the circumstances of each crime vary, one word is consistently repeated in discussions about the trend: impunity.
Recent Posts
200 Caring People Are Ready To Sail On The Freedom Flotilla To Gaza
April 25, 2024
Take Action Now For decades, corporations have used taxpayer-funded fellowship opportunities to help them secure billion-dollar defense contracts.…
Is The Iran Nuclear Deal Dead Forever?
April 25, 2024
Take Action Now Trump blew up the deal — why hasn’t Biden taken the opportunity to fix it? by Bob Dreyfuss, Tom Dispatch One, erratic and…
Big Oil Wants To Limit Safety Checks On CO2 Pipelines
April 25, 2024
Take Action Now After a leak in Sulphur, Louisiana, experts and residents express grave concerns about the fossil fuel industry’s carbon capture…
Columbia, NYU, The New School…MIT, Tufts, Emerson… Berkeley, Chicago, Chapel Hill… Everywhere…
April 24, 2024
Take Action Now For decades, corporations have used taxpayer-funded fellowship opportunities to help them secure billion-dollar defense contracts.…