{"id":9053,"date":"2022-12-12T11:56:42","date_gmt":"2022-12-12T03:56:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/perdana4peace.org\/v2\/?p=9053"},"modified":"2023-07-12T14:00:52","modified_gmt":"2023-07-12T06:00:52","slug":"biden-administration-opposes-icc-investigating-shireen-abu-akleh-killing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/perdana4peace.org\/v2\/biden-administration-opposes-icc-investigating-shireen-abu-akleh-killing\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden administration opposes ICC investigating Shireen Abu Akleh killing"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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By Michael Arria<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Al Jazeera is submitting a case to the International Criminal Court (ICC) over the killing of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. The request includes a dossier on the network\u2019s six-month investigation into the death of their reporter along with new material.<\/p>

Lina Abu Akleh, the niece of Shireen, made a public statement about the move during a press conference at The Hague. \u201cIt is clear that Israel has a history and a de facto state policy of targeting Palestinians journalists like my aunt in order to silence their reporting on Israel\u2019s human rights violations against Palestinians,\u201d she told reporters. \u201cIsraeli soldiers are almost never held responsible for their war crimes, which creates a culture of impunity that allows these atrocities to continue. But enough is enough. We must end impunity for Israeli war crimes. It\u2019s past time for justice for Shireen and for every Palestinian that\u2019s been killed by the Israeli army.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWe expect the prosecutor to work quickly to pursue the truth and justice, and we expect the court to deliver with accountability for the individuals and institutions responsible for this crime,\u201d she continued. \u201cThe evidence is overwhelmingly clear. It\u2019s time for the ICC to take action. Wouldn\u2019t you expect the same if your aunt, sister, or best friend was killed?\u201d<\/p>

Israel has predictably criticized the move and have refused to cooperate with the probe. \u201cNo one will investigate IDF soldiers and no one will preach to us about morals in warfare, certainly not Al Jazeera,\u201d said outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid.<\/p>

The Biden administration also opposes the investigation. \u201cWhen it comes to the ICC, we maintain our longstanding objections to the ICC\u2019s investigation into the Palestinian situation and the \u2013 and the position the ICC should focus on its core mission, and that core mission of serving as a court of last resort in punishing and deterring atrocity crimes,\u201d State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters this week.<\/p>

When the ICC announced that it was launching a war crimes probe into Israel\u2019s actions in occupied Palestine last year, the Biden administration also criticized the move. \u201cThe ICC has no jurisdiction over this matter,\u201d\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0Secretary of State Tony Blinken at the time. \u201cIsrael is not a party to the ICC and has not consented to the Court\u2019s jurisdiction, and we have serious concerns about the ICC\u2019s attempts to exercise its jurisdiction over Israeli personnel.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThe Palestinians do not qualify as a sovereign state and therefore, are not qualified to obtain membership as a state in, participate as a state in, or delegate jurisdiction to the ICC,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Biden administration reaction to killing<\/strong><\/p>

The Biden administration has consistently called for accountability and transparency in the case of Abu Akleh, but their public positions on the matter has quietly shifted. Shortly after she was killed Price\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0reporters that \u201cthose responsible for Shireen\u2019s killing should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.\u201d<\/p>

However, the State Department also consistently implied that Israel was capable of investigating Abu Akleh\u2019s death on its own. This claim seemingly contradicted the country\u2019s early indications that it had would not look to press any criminal charges. Members of Abu Akleh\u2019s family, and activists across the globe, insisted that an independent investigation was needed because the Israeli probe could not be taken seriously.<\/p>

At some points the administration\u2019s messaging was contradictory. When Blinken was\u00a0confronted<\/a>\u00a0by journalist Abby Martin about the issue at a Los Angeles for a Summit of the Americas event earlier this year he told her, \u201cWe are looking for an independent, credible investigation. When that investigation happens, we will follow the facts, wherever they lead. It\u2019s as straightforward as that.\u201d However, during State Department briefings Price continued to imply that Israel could carry out its own probe.<\/p>

In September Israel\u2019s military released the results of its investigation to widespread outrage. The IDF admitted there was a \u201chigh possibility\u201d that one of its soldiers killed Abu Akleh, but pointed out that it was accident. It also officially announced that it would not press any charges against the soldier. A senior IDF official who briefed journalists before the report\u2019s release suggested that Abu Akleh had died amid dueling gunfire, a lie that has been disproven by video and eyewitness accounts.<\/p>

The State Department\u00a0issued a statement\u00a0<\/a>welcoming the Israeli report and accepting its conclusions at face value. It once again urged \u201caccountability\u201d and called for Israel \u201cto closely review its policies and practices on rules of engagement,\u201d a suggestion that Israeli government openly\u00a0rejected.<\/a><\/p>

Amid pressure from Abu Akleh\u2019s family and Palestine activists, the FBI finally launched an investigation into the killing last month.\u00a0Axios\u2019<\/em>\u00a0Barak Ravid\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0that The White House and State Department were unaware of the probe, or at least have expressed as much to Israeli officials.<\/p>

Israel\u2019s government greeted that news in the same way it reacted to the ICC probe. \u201cOur soldiers will not be investigated by the FBI or by any other foreign country or entity, however friendly it may be. We will not abandon our soldiers to foreign investigations,\u201d\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0Lapid.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Source: Mondoweiss<\/a>. 12 Dec. 2022<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Michael Arria. Al Jazeera is submitting a case to the International Criminal Court (ICC) over the killing of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. The request includes a dossier on the network\u2019s six-month investigation into the death of their reporter along with new material. Lina Abu Akleh, the niece of Shireen, made a public statement about… Read More »Biden administration opposes ICC investigating Shireen Abu Akleh killing<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":9057,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28,29,1],"tags":[128,39,97,301,199,49],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/perdana4peace.org\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9053"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/perdana4peace.org\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/perdana4peace.org\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perdana4peace.org\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perdana4peace.org\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9053"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/perdana4peace.org\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9073,"href":"https:\/\/perdana4peace.org\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9053\/revisions\/9073"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perdana4peace.org\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/perdana4peace.org\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perdana4peace.org\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perdana4peace.org\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}