When foreign media outlets become Israel’s enemy

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Shireen Abu Akleh of Al Jazeera is one more journalist who got caught in the crossfire between rival forces and became “collateral damage.” The way in which she was killed, the Arab and Israeli reactions that immediately followed, the understanding that her killing could prompt a new wave of violence and the speed with which Israeli army Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi announced the convening of an investigative committee – along with the demand to convene an international investigation – are evidence that the killing was one of much greater diplomatic importance than what befell Abu Akleh and her family alone.

Granted that it’s still not clear who shot the bullet that killed the Al Jazeera reporter in the West Bank town of Jenin, but Israel is already viewed as guilty, and it is Israel that needs to clear its name or assume the consequences if it is proven that it was in fact responsible. And that underlines the importance of the urgency of the investigation and who it is who actually investigates.

It’s obvious that an Israeli investigation alone would not suffice and that an international investigative panel needs to be convened immediately that will have the trust of the Palestinian public, the Israeli public and that of foreign observers sitting at the White House and in Arab and European capitals. Israeli investigations, even when they are carried out by judges and public figures, have long failed to win the trust of the international community – or that of the Palestinians.

A culture of negligence, disregard and cover-up over many years that has characterized investigations of hundreds of incidents involving Palestinians killed by the Israeli army or by settlers has contributed to that. Israel has not yet issued a statement of regret, apparently due to concern that such a humane gesture would be considered an admission of guilt. If, as Israel has claimed, Abu Akleh was killed by Palestinian gunfire, it has nothing to fear from an international investigation.

If the probe finds that soldiers fired at her and her colleague, it would be an opportunity to act as any properly run country would – taking responsibility, purging the ranks, paying compensation and, most importantly, taking significant steps to prevent not only the killing of journalists but any innocent party.

Abu Akleh became another statistic on Wednesday among the thousands of journalists around the world who have been killed on the job. According to the International Federation of Journalists, in the three decades between 1990 and 2020, more than 2,650 journalists were killed, including 561 who lost their lives in the Middle East.

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The harassment of media outlets and their employees in combat zones and areas of political and diplomatic tension has become part of the wartime strategy. Palestinian, Israeli or foreign journalists who cover the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have become an inseparable part of the war, seen not only as representatives of the media outlets that employ them but as members of the rival side. For decades, Palestinian journalists have been perceived as unreliable, just because they were Palestinian and could therefore not be trusted when it came to information on events in the territories.

That approach gave spokespeople from the Israeli army and Shin Bet security service a near total monopoly in shaping information and public consciousness, and it would be years before that status began to be undermined and that Palestinian and other journalists began to be accorded credibility. It was Al Jazeera, founded in 1996, that led the revolution in trust of Arab media as it began to report from every Arab and non-Arab capital, with cameras covering every important event.

Palestinian holds a light candle and a picture of slain Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh on Wednesday.AP Photo/Adel Hana

Dozens of its reporters, male and female, broke through the walls of censorship that Arab regimes had imposed, fearlessly criticizing the corruption, decay and failures of those regimes and at the same time building trust with the public in the Arab world and even beyond.

In the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Al Jazeera was the only network that didn’t make do with reports on military maneuvers and instead showed the damage and destruction and death that coalition forces were inflicting. Al Jazeera paid a heavy price for that. In the second Gulf War, an American plane attacked a hotel in Iraq where a team from the station was staying and killed reporter Tareq Ayoub.

It wasn’t a “regrettable incident.” Al Jazeera had been the target. Al Jazeera’s reputation preceded it to the extent that even American networks bought footage from the Qatar-based network for their coverage of the war. Al Jazeera entered a collision course with Arab regimes whose leaders it criticized and in the process sparked one of the most serious crises to erupt between Arab countries and the ruling family in Qatar, which owns the network. That reached its peak when Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE imposed a boycott and economic blockade on Qatar. One of the main conditions for lifting it was a halt to Al Jazeera broadcasts.

Al Jazeera is a professional network, but it is not objective, just as no media outlet can be objective if it wishes to shape public opinion. In Israel there is a different customary division among foreign media, and it’s not based on their objectivity. As it is mockingly asked in Israel: “Is the media outlet or journalistic objective in favor of Israel or against it?”

Although it was the first Arab network to host Israeli journalists, experts and politicians, Al Jazeera is considered pro-Palestinian. As such, all of its reporters and staff are labelled as “enemies.”

Shireen Abu Akleh “earned” that description as well. Her reporting was courageous, direct, reliable and professional. It was based on many years of reporting on the ground as well as in-depth investigating and a wide familiarity with the Palestinian society into which she was born. It gave her high standing and media authority that turned her into a powerful media personality in the Arab world.

At the same time, she became a tough adversary of government and Israeli army spokespeople when she refuted their reports and claims. The regret over her death is not just personal. It’s a resounding professional loss of someone who had managed to put the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Palestinian society and the scenes of the occupation in the forefront of Arab and world public opinion.