The International Federation of Journalists will be a partner in a lawsuit against Israel at the International Criminal Court (ICC) following the killing of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by an Israeli sniper, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
“Palestinian journalists are fighters who face on a daily basis the aggression of the occupation in all fields as well as the main project of the occupation to expel the Palestinians from their land,” Ali Youssef, a member of the federation’s executive board, told Wafa.
🇵🇸 The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) will be a partner in a lawsuit filed against Israel.
🎥 The suit follows the murder of @aljenglish journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed by Israeli forces while on reporting.https://t.co/OS8VLXXcPS
— Doha News (@dohanews) July 5, 2022
Youssef added that the IFJ has succeeded in exposing Israel’s acts of aggression against media professionals and the Palestinian people.
Palestinians argue that the Israeli military deliberately targeted and killed Abu Akleh. Israel denies this, claiming that she may have been hit by errant army fire or by a bullet from one of the Palestinian gunmen who were clashing with its forces at the scene. According to eyewitnesses, however, there was no such clash at the time that the journalist was killed.
Head of the Jordanian Association for Human Rights Mustafa Nasrallah called for the ICC to take measures against the Israeli occupation for its ongoing crimes against Palestinians, stressing that the killers of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh are ‘Israelis’. pic.twitter.com/Z5EOSwIvit
— PALESTINE SUNBIRD 🇵🇸 (@SBPal_Eng) June 28, 2022
The ICC recognized in a February 2021 ruling that it has jurisdiction over the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. This has paved the way for cases to be brought against Israel over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Last month, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki handed the ICC prosecutor the official outcome of the Palestinian investigation into the murder of Abu Akleh. He noted that it constitutes a turning point in the crimes committed by Israel against the Palestinian people.
Even in reference to a clear Israeli war crime against a US citizen, USA stands with Israel. Only 1 way left to achieve justice for #ShireenAbuAkleh, it's the ICC. Her family, @AljazeraTV & HR organizations must invest all resources to achieve this justicehttps://t.co/tD8xMbXQSC
— Samer Sinijlawiسامر السنجلاوي (@SSinijlawi) July 4, 2022
During the meeting with ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan, Maliki demanded that the criminals responsible for targeting civilians, children, women, journalists, doctors and other protected groups be brought to international justice.
Moreover, a video message by Nasser Abu Bakr, President of the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate, urged Prosecutor Khan to hold Israel to account. “Fifty Palestinian journalists have been killed since 2000 alone,” he explained. “Seven thousand crimes against Palestinian journalists have been documented.”
(MEMO, PC, Social Media)
