Israel’s credibility ‘not very high,’ minister says on killing of Al Jazeera journalist

Read More

Diaspora Minister and former Israeli military spokesperson Nachman Shai said on Thursday morning in a radio interview regarding the killing of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh that, “With all due respect to us, let’s say that Israel’s credibility is not very high in such events.”

“We know this,” Shai added, “It is based on the past.”

Israel’s Minister of Diaspora Affairs Nachman Shai in June.Amit Shabi

Shireen Abu Akleh, a dual U.S.-Palestinian citizen, was killed in an exchange of fire between Israel Defense Forces and armed Palestinians in the Jenin refugee camp on Wednesday. Her death sparked condemnation from the U.S., the European Union, the UN, Turkey, and Qatar.

Palestinian officials such as Civil Affairs Minister claim her death was a targeted assassination by Israel. Israeli military sources, on the other hand, say that in the course of the military raid in Jenin, Abu Akleh was killed in an exchange of gunfire between Israeli forces and Palestinian gunmen – and that it remains unclear whose gunfire is responsible for her death.

Israel approached the Palestinian Authority requesting to obtain the bullet removed from Abu Akleh’s body in order to conduct forensic tests and determine the source of fire that killed her, and had offered to conduct a joint investigation into her death with the Palestinians. The office of Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Israels official governing body in the West Bank, offered to have representatives of the Palestinian Authority and the United States present in the course of the examination.

Palestinian officials rejected both requests.