The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Thursday called on US authorities to reopen the investigation into the killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, an Al Jazeera correspondent who was shot dead in the occupied West Bank in May 2022.
In a letter addressed to the US Department of Justice — which oversees the Federal Bureau of Investigation — and FBI chief Kash Patel, the committee said the FBI had opened an investigation into the incident in November 2022, “but no demonstrable progress” has been made.
The committee added that “This troubling lack of concrete progress — four years after Abu Akleh’s death — represents a profound failure of the US government to respond promptly and impartially to the killing of one of its citizens by a foreign military.”
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Abu Akleh, one of the most prominent journalists covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, was shot dead in the northern occupied West Bank on 11th May 2022 while wearing a helmet and a bulletproof vest marked “Press”.
Video footage of the moment she collapsed to the ground spread widely, as colleagues tried to reach her while shots were still being fired.
Abu Akleh’s family said in a statement published through the CPJ that they were “deeply disappointed by the lack of concrete action” by both the current and previous US administrations.
The family warned that “impunity sends a dangerous message: journalists can be targeted without accountability”.
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