Israeli military police 'will not open criminal probe' into journalist's death
The Israeli military police will not investigate the death of a Palestinian journalist who was shot in the West Bank over fears the findings would be too controversial, Israeli media reported.
Shireen Abu Akleh, a respected correspondent for Al Jazeera, was shot in the head while reporting on an Israeli raid in the West Bank city of Jenin last week.
Abu Akleh’s colleagues, who witnessed the shooting, blamed the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) while the Israeli government said she may have been killed by Palestinian militants.
A recent report by the investigative website Bellingcat also found it was likely but not confirmed that the bullet was fired by Israeli soldiers.
However, according to a report in Haaretz, the Israeli newspaper, the Israeli military police has decided not to open a criminal investigation as the soldiers based in Jenin at the time have denied any involvement.
The report, which was unsourced, went on to say that there were concerns that a probe would “provoke opposition and controversy within the IDF and in Israeli society in general”.
Israel initially blamed Palestinian militants for the shooting but military officials later said it would look into the possibility that Israeli troops may have been responsible.
Israel has said that a conclusive investigation into the journalist’s death would need cooperation from the Palestinian Authority, which has refused to hand over the bullet because it does not trust Israel to conduct a fair investigation.
Abu Akleh’s death has led to renewed scrutiny of Israel’s human rights record, which intensified after Israeli forces beat the pallbearers at her funeral with batons last week.
Israel says its officers attacked the pallbearers, which led to the coffin nearly falling to the ground, because they had wrested the coffin from the family and were trying to carry it along an unapproved route to the funeral ceremony. However, relatives of Abu Akleh dispute this.
Also on Thursday, the campaign group Artists for Palestine published an open letter, including signatures from Hollywood stars Mark Ruffalo and Tilda Swinton, calling for “full accountability” for Israel over the killing.
Bellingcat, the investigative news website known for its scrutiny of Russia, analysed footage from social media to try and establish the trajectory of the bullet that killed Abu Akleh.
“Based on what we were able to review, the IDF were in the closest position and had the clearest line of sight to Abu Akleh,” concluded the lead researcher Giancarlo Fiorella.
When approached for comment about the Haaretz report, the IDF said that a military police investigation had not been launched immediately due to “the nature of the active combat situation in Jenin”.
Israel has carried out numerous raids on the city of Jenin in recent weeks as it cracks down on a wave of terror attacks committed by Palestinians who, in some cases, used holes in the West Bank fence to enter the Jewish state.
An IDF spokesman added: “A decision regarding the necessity of an MPCID (Military Police Criminal Investigation Division) investigation will be determined by the Military Advocate General’s Office, in accordance with the findings of the still-ongoing operational inquiry, as is standard in such cases.”
