The Palestinian human rights organisation, Meezaan, confirms that the killing of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh, Al-Jazeera correspondent, during her media coverage of the Israeli army raid of the Jenin refugee camp, is an “assassination of the truth” and a continuation of crimes against Palestinian journalists and an attempt to prevent the publication of the truth.

Meezaan strongly condemns and denounces the killing and assassination of the Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh and the targeting of journalist Ali Al-Samudi, the producer at AlJazeera in the Jenin area, injuring him with a treacherous bullet in the back. We at Meezaan wish Ali-Samudi a quick and speedy recovery.

It is important to highlight the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations in 1948 which states that: “everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference, and to seek, receive and import information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers”.

Meezaan considers that killing the Palestinian journalis Shireen Abu Aqleh is an attempt to “assassinate the truth” and to hide the crimes of occupation forces, whose presence in the 1967 occupied territories is already in violation of international law. We confirm that the Israeli occupation forces should be held accountable for the murders and criems carreid out by its soldiers.

Accordingly, the Palestinian human rights organisation, Meezaan, calls on the United Nations Special Rapporteur, Irene Khan, to launch an investigation into the shooting and killing of the Palestinian Journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh.

Lastly, Meezaan sends its condolences to Shireen’s family and AlJazeera’s team for their great loss.

Meezaan, Palestinian human rights organisation – Nazareth

Wednesday- 11/5/2022