Another Palestinian Journalist Killed by the IDF
- Phil Pasquini
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ONLY 21 DAYS after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) killed Palestinian-American Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, they have once again killed another journalist. The latest victim is 31-year-old Ghufran Harun Warasneh, who was shot by IDF soldiers on June 1 while being questioned at an Israeli checkpoint at the entrance of the al-’Arroub refugee camp near Hebron.
The camp, first established in 1949 in the aftermath of the Nakba (catastrophe) by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), has since 1967 been under Israeli occupation and today houses more than 10,000 displaced Palestinians.
Warasneh was killed while on her way with a friend to the new job she was about to start as a radio presenter at Dream, a local news agency in Hebron. Ironically, it was reported in Middle East Eye that her first assignment was a report on Shireen Abu Akleh.
Israeli media reports state the shooting occurred when Warasneh attempted to stab a soldier and troops opened fire to counter a “terrorist threat.” Eyewitnesses, however, dispute the statement and said the journalist did nothing wrong. Her brother Mohammad reported that she had been “shot twice to her left side, in her armpit and chest” and was allowed to “bleed out” for 20 minutes when a responding Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance was held up at the checkpoint.
Middle East Eye reported that, “After her body was prepared for burial, her family and neighbors carried Warasneh back to her to final resting place, having to pass the spot where she was killed. There, a group of Israeli soldiers were waiting for them. The funeral was attacked as soldiers tried to prevent its passing, firing stun grenades, tear gas and beating the pallbearers.” Her brother Mohammad was also quoted in the same article as saying that, “Abu Akleh was a journalist. My sister was a journalist. Abu Akleh was killed on the job. My sister was killed on her job.”
In January of this year, after reporting on a pro-Palestinian march, Warasneh was jailed for three months and had her camera equipment confiscated and destroyed. It’s thus clear that long before being killed, she was targeted by Israeli authorities.
Without international pressure to conduct an unbiased, impartial, comprehensive and transparent investigation into her death, it is highly unlikely that the Israeli authorities will find fault with the IDF. Going by the usual Israeli playbook, a narrative will be created that accuses Warasneh of being complicit in her own death.
The targeted killing of Shireen Abu Akleh and now the wanton killing of Ghufran Harun Warasneh amounts to an open season of killing journalists by IDF forces. This latest killing elevates the count to 45 (mostly Palestinian) journalists killed by the IDF since 2000.
—Phil Pasquini
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