According to a Haaretz report, the Israeli military police criminal investigation division will not investigate the killing of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh after denying any criminality in her death. The department reportedly fears that the investigation may demoralize the Israeli army which operates “under caution” and also create controversy in Israeli society.
Akleh (51), a senior Al-Jazeera journalist, was shot dead by an Israeli sniper on May 11 when she, along with other journalists, was going to cover an Israeli military raid in Jenin in the occupied West Bank.
Immediately after her death, Israel claimed that she was killed by Palestinian fighters during crossfire. However, Israel was later forced to retract the claim after Israeli human rights group B’Tselem published an investigative video debunking it.
Israel had offered a “joint investigation” with the Palestinian Authority (PA) into Akleh’s killing. However, the PA refused to conduct any inquiry with Israel. The PA said that Israel does not conduct inquiries but whitewashes the crimes committed by its forces.
Akleh was a US citizen and her family was earlier assured by the US of an investigation. Israel’s decision to not conduct an investigation has been criticized by several human rights groups across the world.
The IDF will not conduct an investigation into Shireen Abu Akleh's murder, claiming that it "would provoke opposition & controversy within the IDF & in Israeli society in general."
Maybe a government that must deny justice to continue to exist shouldn't exist at all.
— CODEPINK (@codepink) May 19, 2022
B’Tselem reiterated its demand for global action against Israel in order to end its impunity. It said that “no one should expect that they [Israel] will deliver justice to Palestinians.”
As B'Tselem has stated again and again: no one should wait for Israel's "investigations" nor expect that they will deliver justice for Palestinians. It is time for the world to finally wake up to this reality and take action. Anything else simply enables Israel's impunity. https://t.co/1SQPcqPhtO
— B'Tselem בצלם بتسيلم (@btselem) May 19, 2022
Israeli forces also used force to disrupt Akleh’s funeral procession in occupied East Jerusalem on Friday. Israeli security forces charged with batons on the Palestinians carrying Akleh’s coffin.
Naftali Bennett government now in a minority
Meanwhile, Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi, a member of the Knesset (Israeli parliament) from the left-wing Meretz party that is part of the ruling coalition, resigned from the party on Thursday, May 19. She claimed that the Naftali Bennett-led coalition government in Israel has ditched its promise to carve out “a new path of equality and respect” but remained “hawkish, hard line and right wing.”
With this resignation, the government is in a minority. The ruling coalition now has the support of 59 members in the 120-seat Knesset. The ruling coalition already only had a very thin majority of one vote but lost that last month after Idit Silman, a Knesset member from Bennett’s own ultra-rightwing Yamina party, resigned.
Interestingly, Silman had accused the Bennett government of compromising the “Jewish nature” of the Israeli state. She accused the government of pursuing policies under the influence of centrist Yair Lapid and the Arab members of the coalition.
Zoabi cited the killing of Akleh by the Israeli forces and the continued violence against worshipers in the Al-Aqsa mosque as among the reasons for her resignation. In her letter of resignation, she claimed that she “cannot support a coalition that is disgracefully harassing the society I come from.”
The opposition in Israel now has the opportunity to introduce a no-confidence motion in the Knesset or seek fresh elections – the fifth in three years – if it is able to hold its ideological differences in check.
In an interview to a local news channel later on Thursday, Zoabi however expressed her hesitation about voting against the government in case the opposition brings a no-confidence motion in the Knesset. She said that “if Interior minister Ayelet Shaked and Defense Minister Benny Gantz change their behavior, I might support the coalition from the outside,” Times of Israel reported.
Shaked and Gantz are considered as hardliners in the coalition. Shaked has been pursuing the so-called citizenship law which prevents Palestinians married to persons in Israel from staying inside Israel. Gantz’s ministry is directly responsible for attacks inside Al-Aqsa and the forceful displacements of Palestinians.
