Al Jazeeraone of the most important information networks in the world, based in Qatar, he announced to file a complaint against Israel with the International Criminal Court – the international crimes tribunal based in The Hague, the Netherlands – over the killing of the Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. The journalist, who worked for Al Jazeera for 25 years, she had been killed last May while following an Israeli army operation in a refugee camp in Jenin, in the West Bank. She had been hit in the head by a bullet which according to an investigation by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), a United Nations agency, had been fired by an Israeli soldier.
Israeli authorities have always denied being directly responsible for Abu Akleh’s death, and instead claimed that his killing occurred accidentally during an exchange of gunfire between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers. It was only in September that the Israeli army admitted the possibility that Abu Akleh had been killed by a bullet fired by an Israeli soldier, but still specified that the possibility remained that the bullet had been fired by a Palestinian.
Al Jazeera argues that the Israeli thesis is completely unfounded, and in the complaint presented to the court in The Hague has attached a series of documents that would prove how the Israeli army had deliberately fired at Abu Akleh and other journalists, despite wearing bibs with the words “Press ” (“Press”). “Evidence shows that the deliberate killing (of Abu Akleh, ed) was part of a larger campaign to target and silence Al Jazeera” reads the press release with which the network announced the complaint.
