Reem Issa
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Results of the American Forensic Analysis Kills Shireen Again
After the assassination of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh on May 11, a lengthy Kassioun Research Unit article examined the immediate reactions after the incident. It is important to recall that the official statements were vague and devoid of blaming the responsible side that assassinated her, that is, “Israel”. Later, the Palestinian authorities handed over the bullet that killed the Palestinian journalist to an independent body to perform forensic analysis to determine the responsible party as part of a process overseen by the US Security Coordinator (USSC).
The US Department of State issued last Monday, July 4, a press statement in which it said that “After an extremely detailed forensic analysis, independent, third-party examiners… could not reach a definitive conclusion regarding the origin of the bullet that killed… journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. Ballistic experts determined the bullet was badly damaged, which prevented a clear conclusion”. The Department’s spokesperson, Ned Price, added with his usual insolence that “the USSC concluded that gunfire from IDF positions was likely responsible for the death of Shireen Abu Akleh. The USSC found no reason to believe that this was intentional but rather the result of tragic circumstances during an IDF-led military operation against factions of Palestinian Islamic Jihad on May 11, 2022, in Jenin, which followed a series of terrorist attacks in Israel”.
These conclusions by the Americans are not something new or surprising with regard to their selectivity regarding human rights, which they claim to protect and respect, not to mention obligating whomever they want to observe them. At the same time, they disregard violations thereof if it is in their political interests, and this is especially so when it comes to the Zionist entity. This can be contrasted with the high degree of certainty and reaching final and quick conclusions regarding guilty parties, without investigations or evidence when that is in their interest and the interest of their allies. The list of examples of that is quite long, some of which are examples from the current international situation relating to the Ukrainian crisis. There are also many examples from our region, where the US has used quick conclusions based on nonexistent evidence to launch its war against Iraq, which resulted in what is happening in Iraq today.
On the other hand, evidence of the Zionist entity’s violations against Palestine and Palestinians, as well as the region’s other countries and peoples, are crystal clear to the point of being blinding. Despite that, the US pretends not to see them, while at the same time indirectly justifies them by describing the circumstances in which the incident took place as a military operation for the “Israeli” army in the context of self-defense in response to “terrorist” attacks. This is even though this incident in particular and the surrounding circumstances were all very clear, as they were caught on camera for the entire world to see what happened that day, as well as the barbaric attacks by the occupation forces against the mourners at the funeral a few days after Shireen’s assassination.
Talking about the Western and American double standards is not new, but as with all phenomena, at a certain degree of accumulation a qualitative shift occurs. It seems that we are living in the midst of that transformation at the global level today with regard to the West, and in particular the Americans and the British, where their hypocrisy and exploitation of human rights and democracy slogans have reached an unprecedented degree of decay. This decay is actually a reflection of the decay of the global system they lead, the collapse and disintegration of which, despite all the catastrophes we are experiencing, we are glad to be witnessing.
