The family of the Palestinian slain journalist Shireen Abu Akleh on July 8 sent a letter to President Biden, stressing their demands to meet him during his trip to the region to renew their demand to the US to hold Israel accountable for the killing.
“We, the family of Shireen Abu Akleh, write to express our grief, outrage, and sense of betrayal concerning your administration’s abject response to the extrajudicial killing of our sister and aunt by Israeli forces on May 11, 2022, while on assignment in the occupied Palestinian city of Jenin in the West Bank,” Shireen’s brother on behalf of the family wrote.
On July 4, the US concluded that Israeli soldiers were ‘likely’ to blame for the killing of the Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, but the incident was described as ‘unintentional’.
The US statement came after multiple investigations conducted by a number of media outlets, including CNN, New York Times, and The Washington Post, which concluded that Abu Akleh was killed by Israeli gunfire.
Abu Akleh’s family added that the US administration “failed to meet their bare minimum expectations”. Instead, “It has been skulking toward the erasure of any wrongdoing by Israeli forces.”
For her part, Lina Abu Akleh, Shireen’s niece, confirmed that the family wanted to meet with Biden. “We want clarity. We want accountability. And we want to be provided with all information and details used in order to come up with the statement,” Lina said.
51-year-old Palestinian-American Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was covering an Israeli military raid in Jenin in the occupied West Bank when an Israeli sniper fatally shot her in the head despite clearly wearing a press vest and helmet.
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