US rights groups urge Congress to probe Palestinian journalist Abu Akleh’s killing

Dozens of rights groups in the United States have called on Congress to pass a bill that would require the Biden administration to investigate the killing of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by Israeli forces.

In a letter sent to Congress members on Tuesday, a coalition of more than 60 national organizations urged lawmakers to pass the legislation, dubbed the Justice for Shireen Act, which was first introduced by Congressman Andre Carson last year.

The letter was signed by prominent human rights and press freedom advocacy groups, including American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), Amnesty International USA, Committee to Protect Journalists, Human Rights Watch, Oxfam America, Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED) and Reporters Without Borders.

Israeli forces killed Palestinian reporter Shireen Abu Akleh ‘intentionally’: Probe

An investigation concludes that reporter Shireen Abu Akleh was intentionally targeted and killed by Israeli forces.

“We call upon Congress to pass Representative Carson’s Justice for Shireen Act to require necessary reporting into Shireen Abu Akleh’s killing and urge Congress and the Biden administration to take immediate steps to ensure that US military funding to the Israeli regime does not support human rights abuses against Palestinians,” the letter read.

It added that the US has a “moral and legal obligation to ensure that its military funding is not used to support actions that violate international humanitarian or human rights law”.

The groups further noted that “Abu Akleh was a celebrated journalist who gave voice to Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation,” adding that her killing ” horrified the entire world.”

“And yet, a forceful response from the United States government for accountability for her killing has been noticeably absent,” they said in the letter.

The bill, which requires the FBI and State Department to publicly report on the details surrounding the killing of Abu Akleh, is unlikely to pass in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, where Israel also has many staunch supporters amongst Democrats.

Israel belatedly admits Abu Akleh ‘accidentally’ killed by its forces, refuses to open criminal probe

The Israeli military admits that Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was “accidentally” killed by the regime’s gunfire in the West Bank city of Jenin.

Abu Akleh, a veteran of the Qatar-based Al Jazeera network's Arabic service, was shot in the head and killed by the Israeli army forces on May 11, 2022 while she was covering their raid in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. At the time of her killing, the 51-year-old journalist was wearing easily-recognizable press attire.

Multiple investigations by independent organizations and media outlets have already concluded that Abu Akleh was deliberately shot by Israeli forces.

Abu Akleh’s tragic murder sent shock waves across the region, drawing global condemnation. The United Nations and the European Union, among others, called for a full investigation into what has been described as a deliberate murder “in cold blood.”

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