Analysis: The shadow of two slain journalists — Jamal Khashoggi and Shireen Abu Akleh — will hang over President Biden's Middle East trip.
, the veteran Palestinian-American journalist for Al Jazeera who was fatally shot on May 11 while covering unrest in the West Bank town of Jenin. Forensic, open-source investigations by numerous media outlets,
, concluded that, contrary to initial Israeli claims, Abu Akleh was hit by a bullet likely fired by Israeli security forces.Palestinians pointed to her killing as only the latest example of the impunity with which Israel carries out its military occupation of the Palestinian territories. They were hardly buoyed by U.S. State Department findings, which concluded that Israeli gunfire was “likely responsible” for Abu Akleh’s death, but said it had “no reason to believe that this was intentional.
, who have also demanded Biden meet with them during his visit. “It is as if you expect the world and us to now just move on. Silence would have been better.” Despite a protest planned in Abu Akleh’s honor Thursday in Jerusalem, many analysts doubt Biden will be pressed to do much to reckon with her death. Indeed, there are low expectations for the entire trip to Israel and the West Bank: In the former, Biden meets lame-duck Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, who was recently installed and already in the throes of an upcoming election cycle.
“The administration has gone out of its way to absolve Israel of any moral responsibility” surrounding Abu Akleh’s death, Khalid Elgindy, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, told me during a webinar hosted by the Washington-based think tank. “We already knew that the Palestinian issue was really lowdown on the list of priorities for this administration … They don’t seem to be particularly concerned with Mahmoud Abbas’s declining popularity or legitimacy.
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