For immediate distribution
Montreal, May 11th, 2022
Shireen Abu Akleh, one of of Al-Jazeera’s best known journalists, was killed today, Wednesday, May 11, 2022 by Israeli sniper fire while covering armed clashes in the occupied West Bank , according to witnesses. She fell under the bullets of Israeli sharp-shooters during her coverage of the Israeli attack at the Jenin refugee camp. Witnesses on the spot reported that Israeli occupation forces fired live ammunition at protesters and members of the press.
Middle East Eye (MEE) reporter Shatha Hanaysha said she and a group of six reporters, including Shireen Abu Akleh, were together when they came under fire from sniper fire. It is common practice for the forces of the apartheid State of Israel or “Murder Incorporated” to shoot and kill Palestinian journalists even though they are clearly seen wearing “Press” jackets. According to the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, 86 Palestinian journalists have been killed since 1967, the year Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza. An estimated 50 Palestinian journalists have been killed since 2000, with six killed in the occupied Palestinian territory in the last two years.
Reporters Without Borders, meanwhile, has said that 144 Palestinian journalists have been on “the receiving end of live rounds, rubber bullets, stun grenades or tear gas fired by Israeli soldiers or police” in the occupied Palestinian territory since the weekly Great March of Return protests began in 2018.
Israel’s campaign of relentless terror enacted against the Palestinian population is committed with absolute impunity thanks to the complicity of politicians such as Justin Trudeau and that of an indolent corporate media the agenda of which is to cover up Israeli extra-judicial murders and war crimes.
PAJU denounces what amounts to the cold-blooded murder of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and calls on the International Criminal Court to finally launch its investigation into war crimes committed by the Israel Defense Forces in the occupied Palestinian territories including the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.
PAJU further calls upon the Prime Minister of Canada to condemn the Israeli killing of Shireen Abu Akleh and the wounding of other journalists.
-30- Info : kab1@videotron.ca
