Sri Lanka Solidarity Committee calls Palestinian journalist Abu Akleh murder Israeli war crime
Calls for immediate international inquiry
COLOMBO – The Sri Lanka Committee for Solidarity with Palestine (SLCSP), has called for an immediate international inquiry into the May 11 killing of well-known Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by Israeli troops, and also vehemently condemned the assaults by Israeli soldiers on pallbearers and mourners at her funeral.
In a statement issued on Sunday (15), the Committee, noted that all reports indicate the world-famous journalist to be a victim of deliberate sniper targeting, which is typical of the war crimes perpetrated against Palestinians by the occupying Israeli Defence Forces.
Abu Akleh was killed when she and other journalists were reporting on Israeli occupying forces raiding the Jenin Refugee Camp, the statement said, adding that the likelihood of the killing being by sniper fire has been acknowledged by most international monitors including international journalists’ and media rights organizations, Israel’s own human rights groups, Israeli and prominent Western news media.
“She died from a single shot in the head in the narrow area exposed between her helmet and her bullet resistant jacket, a targeting only feasible by sniper scope,” it said, noting that witnesses had said the journalist and associates were at a distance from raiding Israeli troops and that the fatal gunshot would have been fired at long range by a sniper.
Joining Palestinian and world bodies in calling for an immediate independent inquiry into this assassination of a journalist, the Solidarity Committee said Abu Akleh was believed to have been killed because of her highly effective journalistic coverage of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
“Given the Israeli government’s persistent record of failed domestic prosecutions in hundreds, if not thousands, of instances of human rights violations, no domestic inquiry is acceptable,” it said, noting that in the more than seven decades of illegal Israeli military occupation of Palestine, hundreds of Palestinian media workers have died while on duty.
-ENCL