“She was a journalist -- she was one of us. And she was Palestinian, through and through. That was the driving force behind her work, her passion, her will and drive to tell the stories no one else wanted to tell.” I hope this tribute does Shireen justice.
Social media users are sharing a photo of a fiery explosion with false claims it shows Russia’s 2022 attack on Ukraine. It actually shows Israeli air strikes in Gaza in 2021. Here are the facts.
Israeli forces shot & killed 17-year-old Palestinian-American Mohammad Ahmed Mohammad Khdour in the occupied West Bank yesterday. He was in a car with a relative in a wooded area west of Biddu when Israeli forces opened fired, striking him with two bullets in the head.
As someone who fought the IVF battle, I feel this with every fiber of my being. I watched this heart-wrenching video of a mom cradling her dead child in Gaza. She says she endured a total of 580 injections in her journey to conceive him through IVF. She asks for his forgiveness.
A few things to know about the Palestinian detainees being released:
Most are “administrative detainees’ which is a nice way of saying they are held without being charged based on ‘secret evidence’ and can be held indefinitely
It’s Shireen’s birthday today. She should be here with us. Israel has robbed us of her presence, love and compassion. We have been left with a vacuum in our hearts.
There is literally ONE guy who makes these windows. I interviewed him once. It takes him months to make a window. He does everything by hand. It makes this even more difficult to stomach.
re-sharing video from morning of 15 April, showing Israeli forces smashing the upper windows of Al-Aqsa, using their batons, in order to shoot rounds of rubber bullets at youth barricaded inside the prayer hall.
video in Quote Tweet below shows the damaged windows, filmed today.
You want to know how insane France is? My niece was denied entry to a pool because her swim suit covers her thighs and half her arms (to avoid sunburn). She’s 7.
My sweet girl. I can’t believe this. What justice is there in this world? There’s none as long as you live under Israel’s military rule. They will say they will investigate. What does it matter? She’s gone.
I see the lengths the New York Times has gone to obscure and diminish the atrocities Israel is perpetrating in Gaza & for that I’m compelled to share this: I was once approached for a position with the paper and the bureau chief asked me to write a ‘hit piece’ about myself
A summary of what's going on in Gaza atm:
This morning, fighters from Gaza carried out an operation that took Israeli by surprise, reaching Sderot, and taking Israeli hostages amidst a barrage of rocket fire. 🧵
My friend’s mom in Gaza eats a piece of bread and a hot pepper. That’s her meal of the day. She hasn’t been able to find flour and so her family has gone without eating for a few days until someone found a bag for them. My other friend’s sister hasn’t drank any water in two days.
"The hunger war has started." A bag of flour goes for $120 in Gaza. There's a black market for sugar. Forget about eggs. Thousands of people pounce on aid trucks when they arrive; crowds ransacked a warehouse where food had piled up before distribution.
This is how you dehumanize Palestinians:
- You call Jenin a flashpoint camp
- You call it a cesspool of “terror”
- You preface the killings with “Palestinians say”
- You use the passive voice
- You use “clashes”
When journalists defend their shity reporting by saying they’re merely relaying official statements, I ask them what my professors at journalism school often asked us: Is your job to be a stenographer? To merely parrot what officials say? Or to question and investigate?
Shireen was killed 6 months ago by an Israeli soldier. Since then, Israel has denied they did it and/or deflected blame. The US has been complicit in this charade, even after Israel finally admits to killing her. No justice, accountability, or rest for those of us who loved her.
The Palestinian Authority has rejected Israeli calls for a joint investigation into the death of Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh, who witnesses say was shot dead by Israeli forces. Israel says it is still carrying out its own probe into the shooting.
Why have journalists become parrots? Stop saying "mistakenly killed" three hostages. They killed them thinking they're Palestinian. They chased one of them to a building and gunned him down. That is no mistake.
Never did I imagine I would be reading headlines about Shireen dying. She covered both Intifadas; to me, she was invincible, everlasting, a beautiful person that will outlast all of us. My heart is with her brother, her sister-in-law, her nieces who loved her so much.
The Wash Post confirmed there was no command center under Al Shifa hospital
The New York Times confirmed Israel bombed safe zones where it told Palestinians to shelter
Forensic Architecture confirmed systematic targeting campaign of hospitals
Do you believe Palestinians now?
I think it’s important to talk about what’s happening inside Israeli prisons. I’ve heard the testimony of at least three Palestinians (men and women) who were released and said they witnessed cases of rape and sexual assault or were subject to beatings while completely naked.
Two things happened this week that are heart-wrenching: Today, the Sub Laban family was thrown out of its home in the old city of Jerusalem. You can see them crying. The house was immediately taken over by Israeli settlers.
I was taken as a human shield during the 2002 Israeli invasion of the West Bank. But putting civilians in Israeli military uniforms and chaining them is unlike anything I've seen before in this regard.
Watch Israeli forces kidnap a Palestinian today, make them put on IOF uniform, tie them up in chains, and use them as a human shield during a raid at Qalandia refugee camp in occupied Jerusalem 🤯
After Gilad Shalit was exchanged for Palestinian detainees, Israeli forces went and re-arrested many of those who were released. This will happen again. In fact, many of the people currently in prison were former prisoners. It’s a never-ending cycle.
Reminder: 2022 has been the deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank since the United Nations started recording fatalities systematically in 2005.
@TelAviv
-Yafo stands with the women and girls bravely protesting across Iran for their basic rights. We will always stand with those who fight for freedom against oppressive regimes.
#Mahsa_Amini
#IranProtests
"Walla this is not how I imagined Jenin... Show them what I have in front of me"
Israeli soldiers in Jenin smoking a hookah (probably looted), while mocking arrested Palestinian detainees, and joking around about vacationing (and having sex) in the Gaza beach in the future.
When you’re a Palestinian journalist you’re immediately discredited by the NYT. You’re too close, biased, emotional, you’re told. You’re gaslit and sidelined. I’m thankful to the editors I worked with there who actually fought crazy battles to help me write. But the paper…
The child prisoners were all subject to a military "justice" system in which they were interrogated without a lawyer or parent present. In many cases, they were being made to sign documents in Hebrew, which most can’t read or understand
…has discredited itself in an embarrassing and shocking way. It has become extremely tiring to be a journalist of color in this industry, especially a Palestinian one. Which makes me even more grateful to the editors who believe in my work and trust my judgment.
Im wondering how many interviews will mainstream media outlets do with released Palestinian prisoners. To ask them about the brutal conditions they were kept under, the dehumanization or torture they've experienced or witnessed.
I think the
@nytimes
missed the part in journalism school where you learn how to use the active voice and identify perpetrators. This is so deliberate, it chips away at the newspaper’s reputation. Truly shameful attempt at letting Israeli soldiers off the hook.
Here’s a good example of how you dehumanize Palestinians. Israel purposefully struck a residential area in one of the most densely populated places on earth. It is impoverished and besieged. 12 people are killed, including women and children. And the headline is about “militants”
الزميلة الراحلة #شيرين_أبو_عاقلة أعدت هذا التقرير لذكرى النكبة قبل اغتيالها على يد قوات الاحتلال الإسرائيلي بيومين، ولم تكن تعلم أنه سيكون الأخير لها | شيرين أبو عاقلة | الجزيرة | الأغوار #الأخبار
We can’t take it anymore, we’re exhausted… We’re gonna get killed, it’s just a matter of when. There’s no protection, no impunity. These PPEs don’t protect us. Nothing protects journalists. We lose lives, one by one… Mohammed Abu Hatab was here, half an hour ago.
Basically a piece laying out all the ways people could go after me if I took said position. My immediate reaction was to ask if my Jewish friend and colleague had to do the same and the answer was essentially no. I never wrote the hit piece of course. It wouldn’t have mattered
Let's go through the number of false statements made by Israel authorities:🧵
The 'infamous' calendar: They showed a paper on a wall of a hospital that they said was a 'list of terrorist names' - Those who read Arabic recognized it as having the days of the week written down.
Look at this girl. She’s ten. I’m four times older and I’d be scared if a bunch of masked armed men surrounded me like hyenas. This is life in the West Bank for many children. They are traumatized at a young age and they carry that trauma with them and pass it on.
The girl in pink is my sister Tasnim. She’s 10. Today she went with our sheep when the army stormed my village in Masafer Yatta. Soldiers stopped her, and arrested two women for herding flock on their land, which they decided to make a “closed military area”. >>
Imagine if you go to the US, fall in love with a girl and you have to let the Pentagon know about it within thirty days. I honestly can’t wrap my mind around it.
Netanyahu is right. We are at war. But he fails to say that we’ve always been at war. This place hasn’t seen a day of peace since before 1948. The daily killings, settlement expansion, home destruction, land expropriation, mass detentions.
PRIME MINISTER NETANYAHU: "WE ARE AT WAR"
"We will respond to the enemy in a scope and scale never experienced before," says Netanyahu in an official statement
Already Israeli forces have started harassing families of detainees slated for release: Soldiers raided the home of Amany Hasheem in Jerusalem. She’s one of the women set to be released today. People waiting outside are being dispersed and told no celebrations are allowed.
Four children are dead and the Jerusalem Post thinks it’s more horrifying that this Israeli couple has had to postpone their wedding. Dehumanization at its worst.
The ongoing security situation in Israel after overnight airstrikes in Gaza has forced Lilian Yondov and Eliav Levy, who have been together for eight years, to postpone their wedding.
#Israel
|
#Gaza
Reminder that Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons right now are being subject to punitive measures: *Electricity out from 6pm to 6am, *no personal items allowed, *windows have to be open in cells at all times despite cold, *no visits by family or lawyers and more
The unprecedented operation from Gaza comes on the heels of the killing of 4 Palestinians in the West Bank, Israeli settler attacks, especially in Huwara, and increased tensions at Al-Aqsa
It’s 2023 and this is a cartoon that the
@washingtonpost
decided was fit for print. It includes a portrait of the angry brown man (complete with a big nose), the ugly veiled docile Arab woman, and of course both the kids and the woman are being used as human shields.
This is the story of the baby girl who was born from the womb of her mother killed in an Israeli strike on Rafah.
Sabreen was killed along with her husband and other daughter, where 19 others were also killed overnight in strikes on two houses. 13 of those killed were children
An Israeli sniper shot dead two Christian women at the Holy Family Parish in Gaza, where the majority of Christian families have taken refuge since October 7.
Nobody does Easter celebrations like Ramallah. This is the Holy Fire ceremony and all the girl and Boy Scouts (Christians and Muslims) are taking part. It’s a spectacular event.
This is what the head of al-Shifa actually said: They were offered 300 liters of fuel, which wouldn’t last 20 minutes. And he was told to go somewhere unsafe to physically pick up said amount. When the suggested the Israelis do this via the Red Cross, he was rebuffed.
A Gaza health ministry spokesman said that head of Al-Shifa Hospital refused to accept fuel because “taking this fuel would give Israel credit for allowing fuel into Gaza.”
This remains one of my favorite pics out of Palestine. Reminds me of a similarly absurd incident in 2002 when Israeli soldiers "chilled" at our house and smoked ciggies while my mom chastised them for not wiping their feet at the door or using the ashtray.
BBC editors know better than to use the passive voice and omit the culprit of this horrid crime. This is a deliberate attempt to erase Israeli culpability.
Every single word of this is accurate and a lot of us Palestinian journalists have to go the extra mile to prove our trustworthiness, worthiness and capability to tell our own stories.
I’ve been covering Palestine/Israel for over 20 years and I’ve never had this much hate directed at me as I have in the past few days since I tweeted something about France and Islamophobia. I can’t imagine what it’s like to be visibly Muslim in a place like that.
I just saw new footage of the day Shireen was killed — I won’t link to it. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING was happening — I’m talking guys joking around and the Al Jazeera team just walking casually — when the shots are fired and continue to be fired even after she falls.
These numbers are staggering: More than half (58%) of all Palestinians in the occupied territories suffer from depression, according to the World Bank. That's 50% of Palestinians in the West Bank and 71% of Gazans. Trauma, depression and violence are connected and on full display
Catastrophe is imminent in the West Bank & Gaza in the event of a coronavirus mass outbreak: 1) There is only *1 testing kit* in one lab in Gaza for 1.8 million residents 2) There are only b/w 70-80 respirators in WB&Gaza 3) Gaza needs 2-3 tons of alcohol gel for hand sanitizers
In the New York Times, less than 2 percent of the nearly 2,500 opinion pieces that discussed Palestinians since 1970 were actually written by Palestinians. In the Washington Post, the average was just 1 percent.
Especially in the Holy Land, context is everything. Gaza is a pressure cooker, the West Bank has been seeing killings on an almost daily basis and Israeli settlers have been rampaging with impunity. Tensions in AlAqsa have been flaring.
This is from last night:
Palestinian village of Huwara, West Bank, last night. On its main road settlers - incl Netanyahu coalition members - held prayer & torah services, while others clashed w Palestinians & attacked shops (IDF closed shops). 1 Palestinian killed by Israeli fire
14-year-old Palestinian kid killed by Israeli soldiers in Husan, near Bethlehem. Stop the bullshit about him throwing a Molotov cocktail. a) We don’t know if it’s true b) That’s not a reason to kill someone c) Use the same standards you use for Ukraine when talking about this
Still thinking about how a CNN anchor tweeted “don’t look away” about the beheaded babies story that was ultimately debunked but never had similar words for Palestinian babies whose killings and horrific injuries have been captured on cameras for the world to see.
My close friend and veteran journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh has just been shot by Israeli soldiers in Jenin I believe. I’m shaking. I’m gonna die if anything happens to her
The UAE - like many Arab states before it - is using the Palestinians (we stopped the annexation!) as a fig leaf for a relationship it has had with Israel for years. It will portray itself as a pan-Arab hero that made a bold move for the sake of the region.
Israelis are slut-shaming this unidentified Palestinian woman who likes to wear lingerie. So feeling sexy is now akin to being a degenerate pervert? Or is it because she's Muslim and therefore not permitted to enjoy herself?
In Gaza, the IDF has uncovered a brothel used by Hamas terrorists.
Islamic fanatics are the biggest perverts on Earth, and project their own degeneracy onto the West.
Israelis will not forgive Netanyahu or his govt for what will be remembered as the biggest security failure in Israel since 1973. The infiltration from Gaza, images of Palestinian fighters in Israeli towns, on a Saturday that's also a holiday, taking Israelis by complete surprise
Frankly I’m disgusted at the reaction of some of my Israeli peers. Many have written to me privately, instead of publicly condemning the awful killing of one of their own. Shireen wasn’t just my friend. She was their colleague. And their no.1 concern should not be Israel’s image.
I can’t put into words what an amazing person Shireen is. She is funny, beautiful, kind, giving and just so down to earth even though she is the smartest, most accomplished woman I’ve ever known.
Coming up in 30 minutes on
@cnni
, my interview with Jared Kushner about the Israel/UAE peace deal, as well as perspective from UAE Minister for Foreign Affairs
@AnwarGargash
. We'll also have analysis from
@vali_nasr
and
@MarietjeSchaake
.
8pCET on
@cnni
and tonight on
@PBS
.
This morning, far-right MK Itamar Ben Gvir set up his parliamentary office in the Palestinian neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, declaring “we are the landlords.” Nearby, settlers erected an outpost on the land of the Salem family, whose eviction is set for March. 📸
@OrenZiv_
Reuters cameraman Essam Abdullah killed and journalists Carmen Jokhdar and Ellie Brakhaya from Al Jazeera wounded by Israeli shelling in south Lebanon now.
One month ago, Shireen Abu Akleh, a veteran journalist and all-around wonderful person, was gunned down by an Israeli soldier. No accountability so far, courtesy of US impotence and European acquiescence. I won’t rest until justice is served for my beloved Shireen.
Shireen is an American citizen. Is that gonna make a difference? Is that where we get our worth? Is this why there will be an investigation??? Every life is precious, and hers was definitely that. She was so full of life. She was the life of every party. She loved her nieces.
Dark days ahead. Certainly a war, and Palestinians in Gaza will pay the price. The death tolls on either side are still unclear. Reports of Israelis held captives also still unverified.