Lhe American president’s Middle Eastern tour was haunted by the violent death of two Arab journalists: Jamal Khashoggi, assassinated at the age of 60 in atrocious conditions, in October 2018, within the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, and Shireen Abu Akleh, killed 51 years old last May by an Israeli army shooting in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank.
Joe Biden had deemed it necessary to justify his trip to Saudi Arabia by a column published in the washington postthe daily which employed Khashoggi, in order to recall the sanctions taken against “anyone involved in harassing dissidents abroad”. On the other hand, the Democratic administration had decided to bury the investigation into the death of Abu Akleh, concluding that the fatal shooting “presumably came from an Israeli position”Nevertheless “without reason to believe that it was intentional, but rather the result of tragic circumstances”.
From Rachel to Shireen
Shireen Abu Akleh, a seasoned professional, was wearing a hard hat and a bulletproof vest with the words “press” crossed out in white capital letters. The bullet thus penetrated with deadly precision into the very limited space left unprotected, killing the journalist instantly. Such a blank check granted by the White House to the Israeli army was all the more shocking CNNthe washington post where the New York Times had published damning investigations into the responsibility of the occupying forces in this death.
The funeral of the Palestinian journalist was also disrupted in East Jerusalem by violence from the Israeli police, which then sparked the ” trouble ” in Washington. But the most “troubling” in the attitude of the United States towards this drama is perhaps that Abu Akleh held the American nationality. And that the Biden administration’s relative indifference fits into a two-decade-long history of Washington’s low profile in the face of the violent deaths of American nationals in Palestinian territories under Israeli occupation.
Also listen Who was Shireen Abu Akleh, the journalist killed in an Israeli army raid?
Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old peace activist, was crushed in March 2003 by an Israeli army bulldozer in Rafah, in the Gaza Strip. Originally from Washington State, she paid with her life for her conviction that a non-violent mobilization, exposing her defenseless body, could be enough to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian house. The Israeli authorities have consistently affirmed that it was an accident, the driver of the bulldozer not having seen the activist, yet standing in front of his vehicle.
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