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Opinion The Abu Aqla shooting investigation: a blow to Israel's credibility - and at a particularly bad time Israel today

2022-09-05T20:35:41.076Z


Four months have passed since the incident in Jenin until the publication of the IDF's conclusions • What began with unfounded accusations against the PA - ended in a severe blow to the security system's information reliability • Acceptance of responsibility will lead to a deep moral deficit vis-à-vis the Americans


With all the appreciation for the IDF's willingness to fully investigate the shooting in Jenin in which the journalist Shirin Abu-Aqla was killed, at the end of the day it is a blow to Israel's credibility.

The obvious question is why it took so long to get to the truth about the incident that happened in May 11 this year.

The very day after the incident, in a speech in the Knesset, former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett accused Palestinian Authority Chairman Abu Mazen of hurling baseless accusations at Israel. "There is a significant chance," said Bennett, "that the journalist was even hit by gunfire from armed Palestinians ".

A day later, the IDF already announced that it regrets the death of the journalist and that freedom of the press is dear to it. But the main weight of the conclusions led the hasty IDF investigation in a direction that seemingly confirms the accusations against the Palestinians.

That is, it was probably massive and uncontrolled firing by the Palestinians that caused the death of the journalist.

In the meantime, it was revealed that there was a fighter who shot from a gunshot hole in a vehicle in the direction of the journalist.

Documentation from the fighters' body cameras near the incident in which Shirin Abu-Aqla was killed // Photo: IDF spokesperson

Now, four months after the incident, the IDF decides that it is highly probable that Irin Abu-Aqla was killed by that fighter's gunfire. Israel's initial reactions, from Bennett down, were ill-informed. On the one hand, Israel did the right thing in not rushing to take responsibility. It should have been The lesson from the death of the boy Muhammad a-Dora at the Netzer junction at the beginning of the second intifada, when Prime Minister Ehud Barak and with him the top of the IDF took responsibility for the shooting that allegedly killed the boy.

But the failure to accept responsibility this time should not bring the highest executive authority in the country to issue a false declaration.

This is a difficult problem for Israel and the IDF, since the reliability of the security system's information is constantly at stake.

Bennett, Lapid and Gantz.

They did not say that it was a report from a television network that serves Islamic terrorism, photo: Oren Ben Hakon

The whole treatment from the beginning was wrong.

The IDF embarked on activities in response to a murderous campaign against Israeli citizens. Instead of rejecting the American pressure to investigate the journalist's death, because she is a journalist, Israel bowed down and succumbed to the pressure. The Americans from the beginning tried to incriminate us. The question was whether or not to conduct a comprehensive and exhaustive investigation. There was no escape from revealing the results of the investigation. But the real story that Lapid, Gantz and Bennett had nothing to say was that it was a report by a television network that serves Islamic terrorism, Al Jazeera. Israel must take care of the safety of journalists, but not at the cost of abandoning Israeli citizens and fighters IDF.

In Operation "Guardian of the Walls" when Israel saw fit, it bombed an apartment and office tower that served Hamas but also the offices of the news agencies.

In the last phone call between them, President Biden dismissed the Iranian issue altogether and demanded that Lapid immediately close a deal with Lebanon on the issue of the maritime border.

The IDF's acceptance of responsibility now will put Israel in a deep moral deficit vis-à-vis the Americans when the timing just before the head of the Mossad's visit to Washington is particularly unfortunate.

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Source: israelhayom

All news articles on 2022-09-05

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