By Dr Sheree Trotter on Stuff…
OPINION: The recent shooting of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh ignited social networks and media outlets with accusations that Israel had committed a war crime by deliberately targeting the journalist.
Tragically, Abu Akleh was caught in the midst of a gunfight in an Israeli anti-terrorist operation in Jenin, a terrorist hot-bed. Israel has called for the Palestinian Authority to co-operate in an investigation, but the Palestinians are refusing to hand over evidence. In all likelihood, without Palestinian co-operation, the truth will never be known.
However, that didn’t stop media outlets, Palestinian leaders and their supporters from repeating the unsubstantiated claim that Israel deliberately targeted her.
The background to the conflict in Jenin was the spate of terrorist attacks on Israeli citizens in the past two months. Nineteen civilians in Israel have been murdered in seven separate terrorist attacks since mid-March. The latest attack in Elad was a particularly brutal axe murder which took the lives of three men and left 16 children fatherless.
Did these deaths provoke an outpouring of rage and grief on social media? Were there calls for the images of the 19 murdered Israelis to be projected on public buildings? To the contrary, Palestinian social media was awash with celebratory posts, while Palestinian leaders praised the bravery of the terrorists and declared, “We will trample over the skulls of the Zionists; Israel will be annihilated”.
Read the full article on Stuff here.
