Slain Al Jazeera journalist was icon of Palestinian coverage
Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Saturday
January 28, 2023

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, 2023
Slain Al Jazeera journalist was icon of Palestinian coverage

Middle East

AP/HT
12 May, 2022, 02:45 pm
Last modified: 12 May, 2022, 03:03 pm

Related News

  • Israeli military boosting forces in West Bank, spokesperson says
  • Blinken to travel to Israel, West Bank, urge end to violence
  • US urges de-escalation after Palestinians killed in Israeli operation
  • Bangladesh condemns Israeli attack on Palestinians in Jenin camp
  • Israel army kills 10 Palestinians, wounds at least 20

Slain Al Jazeera journalist was icon of Palestinian coverage

News of Shireen Abu Akleh's death reverberated across the region

AP/HT
12 May, 2022, 02:45 pm
Last modified: 12 May, 2022, 03:03 pm
Shireen Abu Akleh. Photo: Reuters
Shireen Abu Akleh. Photo: Reuters

An Al Jazeera correspondent who was shot dead on Wednesday during an Israeli raid in the West Bank was a highly respected journalist in the Middle East whose unflinching coverage was known to millions of viewers.

News of Shireen Abu Akleh's death reverberated across the region.

The 51-year-old journalist became a household name synonymous with Al Jazeera's coverage of life under occupation during her more than two decades reporting in the Palestinian territories, including during the second intifada, or uprising, that killed thousands on both sides, most of them Palestinians.

Abu Akleh's name trended across Twitter in Arabic on Wednesday, setting social media alight with support for the Palestinians. Her image was projected over the main square in the West Bank city of Ramallah as mourners flooded the Al Jazeera offices there and her family home in east Jerusalem.

Al Jazeera and witnesses, including her producer who was shot in the back Wednesday, said she was killed by Israeli gunfire. Israel said it was unclear who was responsible, calling it "premature and irresponsible to cast blame at this stage."

Later Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister, Benny Gantz promised a transparent investigation and said he was in touch with US and Palestinian officials.

Abu Akleh's coverage of the harsh realities of Israel's military occupation was inextricably linked with her own experiences as a Palestinian journalist on the front lines. Her death underscores the heavy price the conflict continues to exact on Palestinians, whether they are journalists or not.

Although she was also a US citizen who often visited America in the summers, she lived and worked in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, where those who knew her said she felt most at home. A Palestinian Christian whose family was originally from Bethlehem, she was born and raised in Jerusalem. She leaves behind a brother.

In an Al Jazeera video released last year, Abu Akleh recalled the scale of destruction and "the feeling that death was at times just around the corner" during her coverage of the second intifada, from 2000-2005. "Despite the dangers, we were determined to do the job," she said.

"I chose journalism so I could be close to the people," she added. "It might not be easy to change the reality, but at least I was able to communicate their voice to the world."

Abu Akleh joined Al Jazeera in 1997, just a year after the groundbreaking Arabic news network launched. Among her many assignments were covering five wars in Gaza and Israel's war with Lebanon in 2006. She reported on forced home evictions, the killings of Palestinian youth, the hundreds of Palestinians held without charge in Israeli prisons and the continuous expansion of Jewish settlements.

Her longtime producer, Wessam Hammad, said Abu Akleh possessed an incredible ability to remain calm under pressure.

"Shireen worked all these years with a commitment to the values and ethics of our profession," he said of Abu Akleh, who the network called "the face of Al Jazeera in Palestine."

He and Abu Akleh were often caught in Israeli cross-fire during the many stories they covered together, he said. On one assignment, their car filled with tear gas and they struggled to breathe. When they would think back on these moments, he said Abu Akleh would laugh and marvel at how they managed to survive.

Images of the moments after Abu Akleh was shot in the head on the outskirts of the Jenin refugee camp circulated online and were broadcast on Al Jazeera and other Arabic news channels. Wearing a helmet and a vest clearly marked "PRESS," Abu Akleh's body was shown lying face down in a patch of sand. A Palestinian man jumped over a wall to reach her as gunshots rang out, dragging her motionless body to a car.

In a video from the West Bank hospital where Abu Akleh was pronounced dead, a male colleague was seen weeping at her hospital bed as others choked back tears. A female correspondent for Al Jazeera in the Gaza Strip wept on air as she reported from a vigil for the journalist.

Later Wednesday, Abu Akleh's body, draped in a Palestinian flag and covered by a wreath of flowers, was carried through downtown Ramallah on a red stretcher. Hundreds chanted, "With our spirit, with our blood, we will redeem you, Shireen."

An outpouring of condemnation came from governments around the world. The US State Department called her death "an affront to media freedom." And UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was "appalled by the killing."

In an opinion piece published in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, columnist Gideon Levy praised her bravery, saying "Abu Akleh died a hero, doing her job," and noted that she went to Jenin and other occupied areas that Israeli journalists "rarely if ever visited."

It had started as another routine assignment for Abu Akleh. She'd emailed colleagues that she was heading to the Jenin refugee camp to check on reports of an Israeli military raid. "I will bring you the news as soon as the picture becomes clear," she wrote.

"Generations grew up seeing her work," producer Hammad, said. "People listened to Shireen's voice and were influenced by her to study journalism so they could be like her."

Abu Akleh's niece, Lina Abu Akleh, described her as a "best friend" and "second mom".

"She is someone that I was looking up to since I was a kid, watching all of her reports," she told journalists from the family's home. "I never thought this day would come where the news would be about her." 

Top News / World+Biz

Shireen Abu Akleh / Palestine / Al Jazeera journalist / Al Jazeera reporter / Palestine-Israel / Israel - Palestine Conflict

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • The Bombay blood type: A rare blood group in urgent need of database
    The Bombay blood type: A rare blood group in urgent need of database
  • Photo: TBS
    TBS Roundtable: What lies ahead in 2023
  • Photo: TBS
    BNP demands govt's immediate resignation as road march in Dhaka begins

MOST VIEWED

  • Israel security forces stand guard at the scene of a shooting attack in Neve Yaacov which lies on occupied land that Israel annexed to Jerusalem after the 1967 Middle East war, January 27, 2023. REUTERS/Ammar Awad
    Israeli military boosting forces in West Bank, spokesperson says
  •  A national flag depicting a picture of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad flutters at a checkpoint in Douma, in the eastern suburbs of Damascus, Syria March 10, 2021. Picture taken March 10, 2021. REUTERS/Omar Sanadiki/File Photo
    Chemical weapons watchdog blames Syrian air force for Douma attack
  • Palestinians protest recent activity in Gaza in front of the Dome of the Rock on the compound known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount, in Jerusalem's Old City January 27, 2023. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo
    Major flare-ups between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza
  • U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a visit to the Office of Director of National Intelligence in McLean, Virginia, July 18, 2022. Saul Loeb/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
    Blinken to travel to Israel, West Bank, urge end to violence
  • FILE PHOTO: Israeli President Isaac Herzog looks on during a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, not pictured, in Washington, DC, on October 25, 2022. Stefani Reynolds/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
    Israel urges NATO to confront Iran threat
  • Palestinians inspect damaged vehicles following an Israeli raid in Jenin in the Israeli-occupied West Bank January 26, 2023. REUTERS/Raneen Sawafta
    US urges de-escalation after Palestinians killed in Israeli operation

Related News

  • Israeli military boosting forces in West Bank, spokesperson says
  • Blinken to travel to Israel, West Bank, urge end to violence
  • US urges de-escalation after Palestinians killed in Israeli operation
  • Bangladesh condemns Israeli attack on Palestinians in Jenin camp
  • Israel army kills 10 Palestinians, wounds at least 20

Features

Snipe in flight. Photo: Enam Ul Haque

Baikka Beel: 'A world where snipe work late'

56m | Panorama
Photo: Noor-A-Alam

Pet cafes: Where love for food and animals cohabit

2h | Food
Illustration: TBS

How MFS is turbocharging national economy

5h | Thoughts
Now is the time to focus on FDI composition

Now is the time to focus on FDI composition

7h | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

Gold covered mummy discovered in Egypt

Gold covered mummy discovered in Egypt

26m | TBS World
Kajol’s road paintings bring change in Gafargaon

Kajol’s road paintings bring change in Gafargaon

1d | TBS Stories
Carew & Company witnessed a remarkable growth

Carew & Company witnessed a remarkable growth

1d | TBS Stories
Gavi may have to leave Camp Nou

Gavi may have to leave Camp Nou

18h | TBS SPORTS

Most Read

1
Picture: Collected
Bangladesh

US Embassy condemns recent incidents of visa fraud

2
Four top bankers arrested in DSA case filed by S Alam group 
Bangladesh

Four top bankers arrested in DSA case filed by S Alam group 

3
Illustration: TBS
Banking

16 banks at risk of capital shortfall if top 3 borrowers default

4
Photo: Collected
Splash

Hansal Mehta responds as Twitter user calls him 'shameless' for making Faraaz

5
A frozen Beyond Burger plant-based patty. Photographer: AKIRA for Bloomberg Businessweek
Bloomberg Special

Fake meat was supposed to save the world. It became just another fad

6
Representational Image
Banking

Cash-strapped Islami, Al-Arafah and National turn to Sonali Bank for costly fund

EMAIL US
contact@tbsnews.net
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2023
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net