On the murder of U.S. journalist Shireen Abu Akleh

Shireen Abu Akleh, targeted, murdered by IDF

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This entry is lifted from a post by Josh Paul on Linked in. Paul, along with partner Tarik Habash, heads up a new lobbying firm, A New Policy. He a former State Department administrator who approved or rejected arms transfers, including those to Israel. He quit his post at the State Department over the U.S. supported Israeli genocide in Gaza.

In this post he looks at the Israeli investigation into the assassination of U.S. journalist – of Palestinian heritage – of Shireen Abu Akleh

“Colonel Gabavics said he and others on the team agreed that the Israeli soldier who shot Ms. Abu Akleh must have known that he was shooting at a journalist, though they did not believe that the shooter was targeting Ms. Abu Akleh specifically.

“Colonel Gabavics said he concluded the shooting was deliberate based on several factors:

“- Records of Israeli military radio traffic on the morning before the shooting showed that soldiers were aware of journalists in the area, he said. And there had been no gunfire coming from the journalists’ direction that might make the Israeli soldiers likely to shoot toward them in self-defense, he said.
“- There was an Israeli military vehicle down the road from Ms. Abu Akleh that morning. A sniper watching the road from inside the vehicle would have been able to see the journalists clearly, Colonel Gabavics said.
“- When he visited the scene of the shooting hours after it occurred, he said, his colleagues, wearing blue vests similar to Ms. Abu Akleh’s navy-blue protective vest marked “Press,” positioned themselves where she had fallen. They were visible to him from where the shooter’s vehicle had been, he said.
“- Colonel Gabavics said that the precision of the shots, hitting Ms. Abu Akleh’s head and a carob tree near her, did not suggest an uncontrolled spray of gunfire. That, together with the fact that the shooter fired first at Ms. Abu Akleh’s producer, then at her, then at a passerby who tried to help, indicated to him the shooting was deliberate, he said.”

But, the July 4, 2022, State Department statement on the matter attributed the shooting only to “tragic circumstances.”

As Stephen G. tells the Times, “he and his colleagues ‘were just flabbergasted that this is what they put out.’ That the U.S. government avoided calling it intentional, he said, ‘continued to be on my conscience nonstop.'”

In May of 2024, Stacy Gilbert resigned from the State Department because senior officials insisted on writing a report to Congress that refused to reflect the facts of Israel’s actions towards Gaza. Now today we have a story of a U.S. Army Colonel almost being fired – and certainly being silenced by his chain of command – because he, too, wanted to see the facts, in this case regarding the murder of an American citizen, see the light.

And, of course, in my own resignation I pointed to a long history of the U.S. refusing to apply the Leahy Law to Israel’s security forces.

The U.S. Government must release all information it has regarding the death of Shireen Abu Akleh and all U.S. citizens killed by Israeli security forces. There should not be any partner whose impunity outweighs the lives of our own people.