Death of Al Jazeera reporter: In the court of global opinion, Israel has already lost

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Immediately after the death of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh on Wednesday morning during an Israel Defense Forces operation in Jenin, Israeli leaders and spokesmen went into the traditional self-righteous routine. Senior figures, hasbara people and a few volunteer journalists were quick to scatter accusations and hints about Palestinian responsibility for the tragic incident. The Palestinians, it was explained, are responsible for the death of the Al Jazeera reporter because of the terrorism they perpetrate, which forces the IDF to enter deep into the West Bank. And they are responsible specifically for the shooting itself, because the IDF opens fire only in an orderly, controlled manner, whereas the armed Palestinians tend to spray volleys of gunfire every which way.

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Some even went so far as to blame Abu Akleh herself for her death: She’s no more than a paid propagandist for our enemies, they asserted, and from the moment she chose to enter a combat zone, her blood was forfeit. Fictions were also bandied about over the narrative. In Israel it was claimed that the Palestinians had rushed to bury the body immediately after the incident in order to avoid an autopsy. It was also alleged that Israel had suggested to the Palestinian Authority that the two sides carry out a joint investigation, and had been turned down. In practice, the funeral took place only the next day, and the Israeli suggestion was conveyed to the PA many hours after it was reported in the media. It was a distraught cycle of prevarication that fed on itself and resonated enthusiastically in the political arena.

The hasbara counteroffensive was eventually toned down. In the afternoon Israel beat a tactical retreat. The army agreed to admit that it’s possible, after all, that Israeli gunfire killed the veteran journalist. The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit released a video clip in which Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi promised that a thorough examination would be carried out and expressed sorrow for Abu Akleh’s death.

By evening, the head of Central Command, Gen. Yehuda Fuchs, was giving television interviews in which he said, in a praiseworthy manner, what should have been said in the morning: I, as the representative of the IDF, am responsible for everything that happens on the ground. This is not the result we wanted. We will examine ourselves to find out whether the reporter was accidently killed by one of our people.

Thus, after some hours, the self-righteousness faded away. Instead of holy anger at the hypocritical world that is bad-mouthing our soldiers, the IDF expressed readiness to examine the facts as they are. A contributing factor was undoubtedly the sudden revelation that Abu Akleh held American citizenship. At the same time, more details began to flow in from the field. They showed that fighters from the undercover Duvdevan unit, who had come to arrest a wanted man from Islamic Jihad, were 100 to 150 meters from the spot where the reporter was shot. Their gunfire was limited and focused toward the south, whereas Abu Akleh was north of the soldiers, but again, it could not be definitively ruled out that her death was the result of Israeli gunfire.

Shireen Abu Akleh.- – AFP

Internationally, there is no way Israel can emerge with the upper hand in an event like this. World sympathy tilts automatically to the side of the weak, certainly when the victim is a well-known journalist who has no connection with armed activity. Still, there are extenuating circumstances. Journalists are killed in many places where violent conflicts are waged, from Iraq and Afghanistan to, most recently, Ukraine. The area of operation in Jenin was densely built up, violent and saturated with gunfire. It’s hard to castigate combat troops who accidentally hit a civilian who found herself at the scene during exchanges of gunfire. Moreover, the incident involving soldier Elor Azaria, the “Hebron shooter,” in which he cold-bloodedly killed a wounded terrorist who was lying on the ground, was an extreme event. On the Israeli side, at least, very few will suspect that this was a case of the deliberate shooting of a journalist by troops from an elite unit. It might turn out to have been an operational hitch; it’s very doubtful that it stemmed from a conscious act.

In the meantime, the PA complicated the situation. The 5.56 mm cartridge that struck Abu Akleh in the head and killed her was removed from her body. That’s the ammunition used in M-16 rifles, the standard-issue weapon of the Duvdevan unit, but it’s also frequently used by Palestinian militants, as can be seen in video footage taken that morning in the Jenin refugee camp. Israel requested the cartridge to conduct a test and compare it to the soldiers’ weapons. The test, it was said, would be conducted in the presence of experts from the PA and the United States. But on Thursday the PA refused to hand over the cartridge, explaining that they did not want to cooperate with the occupation. Israeli public diplomacy at last found the triumphant argument.

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Not that this will persuade the international community, before it refocuses on Ukraine and other arenas. The case of the death of Abu Akleh could develop into a reprise of the death of 12-year-old Mohammed al-Dura in September 2000. On the second day of the second intifada, al-Dura was shot to death in an exchange of gunfire at the Netzarim junction in the Gaza Strip, and to this day the two sides are arguing over who killed him.

The image of Mohammed al-Dura (left) taking cover with his father Jamal.AP

In the absence of an autopsy on Abu Akleh’s body, and without a ballistics test, that story is likely to repeat itself. If the U.S. administration does not force the Palestinians to hand over the cartridge, the truth will not be known and the anger at Abu Akleh’s death will act in part as fuel that feeds the flames of the struggle.