House Dems and Shireen Abu Akleh’s Family Urge US to ‘Hold Her Killers Accountable’

Progressive U.S. lawmakers on Thursday joined relatives of Shireen Abu Akleh in demanding the Biden administration thoroughly and transparently investigate the Israeli military’s killing of the Palestinian-American journalist, with one congressman introducing a bill that would require such a probe.

“We want to know who pulled the trigger, and why,” said Victor Abu Akleh, a nephew of the 51-year-old Al Jazeera reporter, outside the U.S. Capitol. “And we want there to be accountability for the system that gave the green light so that other families don’t suffer the way that we have. The reality, of course, is that in Palestine, our family’s grief is not unique.”

While speaking at the press conference, Rep. André Carson (D-Ind.) announced the Justice for Shireen Act, proposed legislation that would require the State Department and FBI to investigate Abu Akleh’s killing, and publish a report on their findings.

“We need answers to hold the perpetrators fully accountable,” said Carson, who called the killing an “attack on the Fourth Estate, the free press, which is vitally important to our society.”

“From Day One the Israeli government has denied Shireen’s murder. There is no reason for them to be conducting an investigation,” he continued. “It makes it more important for our government to conduct our own investigation. Shireen needs justice. Every American killed abroad is entitled to our protection. Every human killed, American or not, deserves justice, Palestinians included.”

Furthermore, demanding that the Biden administration investigate the killing of U.S. citizens by Israeli forces, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) said Abu Akleh’s death “was not an accident.”

“Maybe, for some of my colleagues, they need to take out the word ‘Palestinian’ from ‘Palestinian-American’ for her life to matter,” she speculated. “We have different standards applied when it comes to Israel even as they kill Americans, including 78-year-old Omar Asad or… Rachel Corrie,” the 23-year-old International Solidarity Movement volunteer crushed to death in 2003 by an Israeli bulldozer while trying to prevent the destruction of Palestinian homes in Gaza.

Reps. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) also spoke at the press conference. Ocasio-Cortez asserted that President Joe Biden should meet with Abu Akleh’s relatives.

Originally published at Commondreams.org.