Israel has killed 20 journalists with impunity since 2000

[yankeedoodle]

From If Americans Knew
Israel has killed 20 journalists with impunity since 2000
https://israelpalestinenews.org/one-year-post-shireen-israel-killed-20-journalists-impunity-2000/

The May 11, 2022, killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh is part of a deadly, decades-long pattern. Over 22 years, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has documented at least 20 journalist killings by members of the Israel Defense Forces.

Despite numerous IDF probes, no one has ever been charged or held responsible for these deaths. Failure to pursue justice for slain reporters undermines freedom of the press.

Deaths are 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...

reposted from the Committee to Protect Journalists, May 9, 2023

Tel Aviv, May 9—One year after Al-Jazeera Arabic correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh was fatally shot in the head while reporting on an Israeli military raid in the West Bank, a new report by the Committee to Protect Journalists exposes a pattern of lethal force by the Israel Defense Forces alongside inadequate responses that evade accountability.

Since 2001, CPJ has documented at least 20 journalist killings by the IDF. The vast majority—18—were Palestinian. No one has ever been charged or held accountable for these deaths.

"The killing of Shireen Abu Akleh and the failure of the army's investigative process to hold anyone responsible is not a one-off event," said Robert Mahoney, CPJ's director of special projects and one of the report's editors. "It is part of a pattern of response that seems designed to evade responsibility.

Not one member of the IDF has been held accountable in the deaths of 20 journalists from Israeli military fire over the last 22 years."

CPJ's report, "Deadly Pattern," finds that probes into journalist killings at the hands of the IDF follow a routine sequence. Israeli officials discount evidence and witness claims, often appearing to clear soldiers for the killings while inquiries are still in progress.

The IDF's procedure for examining military killings of civilians such as journalists is a black box, notes the report.

There is no policy document describing the process in detail and the results of any probe are confidential. When probes do take place, the Israeli military often takes months or years to investigate killings and families of the mostly Palestinian journalists have little recourse inside Israel to pursue justice.

The report also finds that Israeli forces repeatedly fail to respect press insignia, sending a chilling message to journalists and media workers throughout the West Bank and Gaza, the Palestinian areas under Israeli military control where all 20 killings occurred. Like Abu Akleh, the majority of the 20 journalists killed—at least 13—were clearly identified as members of the media or were inside vehicles with press insignia at the time of their deaths.

For example, in 2008, Reuters camera operator Fadel Shana was wearing blue body armor marked "PRESS" while standing next to a vehicle with the words "TV" and "PRESS" when a tank fired a dart-scattering shell that pierced his chest and legs in multiple places, killing him.

"The degree to which Israel claims to investigate journalist killings depends largely on external pressure," said Sherif Mansour, CPJ's Middle East and North Africa program coordinator.

"There are cursory probes into the deaths of journalists with foreign passports, but that is rarely the case for slain Palestinian reporters. Ultimately, none has seen any semblance of justice."

Deaths are 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 sent multiple requests to the IDF's press office to interview military prosecutors and officials, but the military refused to meet with CPJ for an on-the-record interview.

The IDF killing of journalists has had a chilling effect on reporters covering their operations, undermining press freedom and heightening safety concerns for Palestinian and foreign journalists.

CPJ's report includes recommendations to Israel, the United States, and the international community to implement actions to protect journalists, end impunity in the cases of killed journalists, and prevent future killings.

This includes guaranteeing swift, independent, transparent, and effective investigations into the potentially unlawful killings of journalists.

CPJ also calls for Israel to open criminal investigations into the cases of three murdered journalists: Shireen Abu Akleh (2022), Ahmed Abu Hussein (2018), and Yaser Murtaja (2018).

Read the full report here.  https://cpj.org/reports/2023/05/deadly-pattern-20-journalists-died-by-israeli-military-fire-in-22-years-no-one-has-been-held-accountable/

[yankeedoodle]

Israel's Systemic Targeting of Journalists
https://dissidentvoice.org/2023/05/israels-systemic-targeting-of-journalists/

Tomorrow marks one year since veteran journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was murdered by the Israeli military while covering an Israeli invasion of Jenin refugee camp. The brutal silencing of her voice, and the images of Israeli riot police beating mourners at her funeral, will be remembered as defining moments exposing the cruelty of Israeli apartheid.

As part of our ongoing series on freedom of expression, we recognize that Shireen's case is not an anomaly, but reflects decades of Israeli impunity for the systemic targeting of journalists. This visual honors the journalists who were killed simply because their voices exposed the atrocities of Israeli settler colonialism and apartheid.

This visual covers the period from 2000–2022, based on a comparative review of six different sources of documentation. Organizations citing lower figures usually adopt a narrower focus on journalists killed on assignment. Higher figures sometimes cover a wider time period, use a broader definition of journalist, or include cases involving other perpetrators.

The stories of James Miller and Shireen Abu Akleh show a recurring pattern. Both journalists were killed with a single shot just below their press helmets. In both cases, they were clearly identifiable by their blue press vests and were standing in a group with other journalists. Israeli military spokespeople lied about crossfire from Palestinian armed groups in both incidents. In Miller's case, a leaked Israeli report revealed severe evidence tampering by the soldiers involved in the shooting, while in Shireen's case, Israeli officials refused to cooperate with independent investigations.

Major media has also been complicit in obscuring the facts of Shireen's murder.  In an op-ed in Mondoweiss earlier this year, VP's Executive Director Aline Batarseh highlighted how "mainstream media played a major role in perpetuating a pattern of exclusion and erasure of the truth." Needless to say, no one has been held accountable for even these most egregious and high-profile injustices.

In 2019, an independent UN Commission found "reasonable grounds to believe that Israeli snipers shot journalists intentionally, despite seeing that they were clearly marked as such" during the Great March of Return. In 2022, a case was filed before the International Criminal Court on Israel's killing of Yaser Murtaja and Ahmad Abu Hussein and its bombing of multiple media towers.

The Palestinian Syndicate of Journalists documented a total of 1,877 violations against journalists from 2019–2021. Under Israeli apartheid, killing represents only the most overt and visible fraction of the daily violence affecting Palestinians. Israel's systemic targeting of journalists takes many other shapes and forms including:
- Censorship and gag orders
- Travel bans, denial of freedom of movement
- Arbitrary arrests, interrogations, and detentions without charge
= Invasions or bombings of media offices
= Confiscation or destruction of media equipment

Without pressure and accountability, Israel will continue to maintain a system of silencing at the expense of the Palestinian people.

[abduLMaria]

Thursday was the one year anniversary of Israel's murder of American citizen Abu Akleh.

I posted about it in the "This Day in History" section, as shown in the pic.

It was gone in 15 minutes.

The Jew Moderator "Guitar Guy" deletes ANY criticism of Israel.

I recommend breaking his website with honest criticism of Israel.

https://palmettostatearmory.com/forum/

Ppalmetto State Armory is owned by a Jewish family in South Carolina.

[yankeedoodle]

https://palmettostatearmory.com/forum/

Ppalmetto State Armory is owned by a Jewish family in South Carolina.

There are a lot of jews in South Carolina, with Charleston being a slave-trading hub back in the day.

In the rural part of the US where I once lived, there were farm-size plots of land - circa 100 acres - and, if you didn't know who owed them - they weren't being lived on - they were ALWAYS owned by some jew named Altman from Florida, who seemed to have them for investment and to hunt deer.

A local who did some work for him would tell me Altman would always say "You can do it for less for me, can't you?"

I asked him a bit about Altman, and he said that he was from Charleston, and that he thought he made a lot of money during the Vietnam war, obviously peddling stuff to the military, profiting off war, like a good jew.