‘They knew she was press’: Documentary claims to name killer of slain Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh

Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - This file photograph shows a Palestinian man rides his bicycle in front of a mural painted by an artist in honour of slain veteran Al-Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in Gaza City May 13, 2022. — AFP pic

NEW YORK, May 11 — A new documentary purports to name the Israeli soldier who killed Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh, who was gunned down in the West Bank while reporting in 2022.

Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist known for her coverage of the Arab–Israeli conflict, was shot dead in Jenin in the north of the occupied West Bank while she worked, wearing a bulletproof vest marked “press.”

Al Jazeera and witnesses immediately blamed the Israeli army.

Then Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett said it was probable the shots had come from Palestinian militants.

In the weeks that followed, several journalistic investigations pointed the blame at Israeli gunfire.

Months later, Israel released an internal investigation that found a “high probability” that Abu Akleh was accidentally shot by the Israeli army, which claimed it was targeting armed Palestinians.

Produced by independent news site Zeteo, the documentary Who killed Shireen? names for the first time the suspect as Alon Scaggio, an elite soldier.

“Israel did everything it could to conceal the soldier’s identity, they wouldn’t provide the US with any information. They wouldn’t let the US interview him. They wouldn’t give the US his statement. And they wouldn’t give his name,” said Dion Nissenbaum, a journalist who worked on the film.

Assisted by producer Conor Powell and reporter Fatima AbdulKarim — who worked for The New York Times in the West Bank — Nissenbaum, a former Wall Street Journal correspondent, consulted testimony from two Israeli soldiers present in Jenin on May 11, 2022 as well as top US officials.

‘Intentional killing’ claim

The documentary alleges that Scaggio, then 20, had completed training for the elite Duvdevan unit just three months prior.

“He shot her intentionally. There’s no question about that. The question is did he know she was a journalist and did he know she was Shireen Abu Akleh? Was it an order from above?” Nissenbaum told AFP.

“Personally, I don’t think it was an order. I don’t think he knew it was Shireen. Nobody ever has indicated that he could tell that it was Shireen. But she was wearing the blue flak-jacket with the word ‘press’ on it.”

“The evidence (suggests)... it was an intentional killing of Shireen Abu Akleh. Whether or not they knew it was her or not can very well be debated, but they would have absolutely known that it was a media person or a non-combatant at a minimum,” said a senior official from the administration of then US president Joe Biden, speaking in the film anonymously.

Washington did not exert significant pressure on the issue, the documentary claims, for fear of antagonising its ally.

Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen said he called on Biden to declassify documents about the killing — but went unanswered.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said “it is the first time that a potential suspect has been named in connection with an Israeli killing of a journalist” according to its records dating back to 1992.

Impunity in the case “has effectively given Israel permission to silence hundreds more” journalists, the CPJ said.

Reporters Without Borders estimates around 200 journalists were killed in the past 18 months of Israeli strikes on Gaza.

An Israeli army spokesman condemned the unauthorised disclosure of the suspect’s name despite no “definitive determination” of who shot Abu Akleh.

The soldier in question “fell during an operational activity,” the army added.

Nissenbaum had initially thought Scaggio died in Gaza, but ultimately concluded he was killed in Jenin on June 27, 2024 almost two years after Abu Akleh. — AFP