A year after the assassination of Shireen Abu-Akleh by apartheid forces, there’s no justice, no accountability, nothing but renewed waves of violence against Palestinian civilian populations. The legendary Palestinian journalist wasn’t killed for committing any crime or doing anything outrageous. She was simply killed because she gave a voice to Palestinians in pursuit of the truth.
This article offers the thoughts of three Palestinian writers working to make sense of the murder of a journalist that became a household name. She did the work that so many considered impossible or futile. She represented a new style of Arabic reporting, directing the attention of the entire Middle East toward Israel’s use of extrajudicial killings, collective punishment, and excessive and disproportionate force, particularly against unarmed protesters. She managed to humanize the Palestinian freedom struggle at a time when the US and international cable networks were trying to cast Palestinian resistance to military occupation as some equivalent of stereotypical Muslim religious extremism.
Her murder may seem like just another victory for Israel in its attempts to kill the Palestinian story, but Shireen has managed to prove them wrong yet again. Even in death her storytelling inspires generations of young Arab girls and boys around the world. Her legacy is that neither the truth of Israeli apartheid nor the righteousness of the Palestinian cause will be silenced.
Side Items
Tokyo Joe’s Last Stand: Really interesting long-read about Ken Eto, Japanese-American gangster in Chicago’s underbelly in the 70’s and early 80’s. Wild to read about how an Asian man with no mob ties could rise through the ranks to become one of the more senior members of the Chicago Outfit
Weekend at Dianne’s: Poor Dianne Feinstein! They really wheeled this poor women into work as if she’s capable of anything other than sipping smoothies and slipping into death’s inevitable embrace. Sweet woman she may have been, madam Feinstein is clearly in no shape to vote on any issue of importance
Pigs Being Pigs: A former pig/special agent with homeland security investigations was convicted of sexually assaulting two women and abusing his official position to prevent the victims from reporting his crimes, according to the US department of justice. John Jacob Olivas, 48, of Riverside, CA was found guilty of three counts of deprivation of rights under color of law, and in any just society, he’d be tarred and feathered or at least exiled to an inhospitable landscape