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12-05-2023
JERUSALEM/ DOHA: One year since Al Jazeera’s television reporter Shireen Abu Akleh was killed by Israeli forces, demands for justice remain unanswered.
Al Jazeera Media Network submitted a formal request to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate and pro
secute those responsible for shooting the veteran journalist on May 11, as she was covering an Israeli military raid on a refugee camp in Jenin, in the northern occupied West Bank.
Evidence provided in the request, filed in December 2022, includes a comprehensive six-month investigation by the network, gathering witness accounts and video footage, among other material.
The ICC has acknowledged its receipt, yet no further steps have been taken. Attacks intentionally targeting journalists, as civilians, constitute war crimes.
“We are anxious to move it along and ensure that the case is investigated expeditiously so that the evidence can be gathered and those responsible identified, including those in command,” said Rodney Dixon KC, counsel for Al Jazeera for the ICC case.
“We are hoping that the anniversary will serve as a solemn reminder of the need for justice without delay. We will be following up with the Office of the Prosecutor to find out what the timeline is.”
The family of 51-year-old Abu Akleh, a Jerusalem native and a Palestinian-American dual national, said they also had no information on the court’s handling of the case.
Palestine became the 123rd member of the ICC in 2015. Over the course of 2020, The Hague-based court deliberated that it had legal jurisdiction over Palestine, a party to the ICC and could respond to legal questions surrounding potential investigations of the “Situation in Palestine”.
Per Article 19(1) of the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the court, the legal body is obliged to ensure it possesses the jurisdictional power to investigate a given situation.
In 2021, former ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda opened an investigation into alleged war crimes in the Palestinian territories, which she said would look into events in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip since June 2014. (Al Jazeera)
