It has been more than a week since the Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was killed while reporting on a violent clash between Israeli troops and Palestinians in the Jenin refugee camp, and it will most likely never become clear who shot the fatal bullet that hit her in the head and killed her.
And both sides are more at ease with this uncertainty and neither is really interested to know who killed the journalist. Israel at this point has already decided that the Military police will not open an investigation into the incident (even though they are obliged to do so) because without the cooperation of the Palestinian Authority, who holds the bullet that was extracted from Abu Akleh’s body, there is not enough material to investigate. The Palestinians, from their side, claim that they do not trust the Israelis and they will conduct their own investigation.
And as a result, both sides are mainly busy with accusing each other while both the Israeli and the Palestinian side demand to enjoy the benefit of the doubt. For Israel, the uncertainty is way better than the possibility that they (or anybody else), will do a thorough investigation and find out that an Israeli soldier shot the journalist, while for the Palestinian Authority, the uncertainty leaves them with the option to blatantly accuse the Israelis of the killing. An additional benefit (for both sides) is that the United States is unlikely to put serious pressure on Israel to investigate as long as the Palestinians do not produce the bullet they took from the body.
So what remains (as in most incidents like this), is a public relations war between Israelis and Palestinians; a war that neither has a chance to win but both cannot afford to lose. Thus the Palestinians again bring up the argument that Israel is using excessive force against a people that has lived under occupation for more than fifty years while not allowing them even the slightest hint of expressing nationalistic feelings, including the show of the Palestinian flag. However, while the allegations of excessive violence and brutality by Israeli military and police are shown on a daily basis almost on TV screens the world over, it should not be forgotten that the reason (or at least one of them), that Israel decided to enter the Jenin refugee camp is the increased terrorist activity that originates in Jenin, with as latest example the brutal killing (using axes!) of three men in the Israeli town of Elad, whose only sin was, that they were Israelis.
And then came the (for Israel) next Public Relations disaster: The burial service for Shireen Abu Akleh in East Jerusalem. The video recordings of Israeli policemen, heavily armed and in extensive protective gear, attacking the funeral procession, beating up the pall bearers causing the coffin to almost fall to the ground, caused anger and indignation the world over, seen as proof of the brutality of Israeli forces against Palestinians that does not even stop when they are burying their death.
Of course, the whole sad story of the death of Shireen Abu Akleh and her funeral, is just one short chapter in the never-ending story of Palestinian-Israeli stand-offs, one episode in what has become the curse of occupation.
On one hand, it clearly shows that Israel will go any length to prevent the Palestinians from expressing, let alone realizing their nationalist aspirations (the Israeli police demanded from Abu Akleh’s family to remove Palestinian flags from their house and during the funeral, dozens of Palestinian flags were confiscated), while at the same time pointing out (in a not to be misunderstood, violent way) who is the ruling force in “Palestine”. That is also the main reason that the reactions in Israel’s political circles to the violence, or even the killing of Abu Akleh, was in general minor and lacking the moral indignation that such a killing should cause.
And that is a much more worrying problem that Israel should deal with. The killing of a Palestinian is nothing to get excited or indignant about, it is only a Palestinian, even if it is a renowned journalist. It proves, that as far as Israel is concerned, the occupation is permanent and the same rules apply to Palestinians as apply to all “goyim”: they are only goyim. Even without the violence, this puts Israel on a very slippery slope, which will lead it to where many say it has already arrived: An Apartheid State. Because the occupation is a done deed, a fact that cannot be altered and it is time to deal with the day after, which means keeping the others in their place.
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