Alwaght- The United Nations Security Council has unanimously condemned the Israeli regimefor murdering Al Jazeera's Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in the occupied West Bank.
The statement, a rare case of Security Council unity on an issue related to Israeli regime, also called for “an immediate, thorough, transparent, and impartial investigation” into her death.
The UN’s Human Rights Office has also called for a thorough and independent investigation into the killing, saying it might constitute a war crime.
The sources told AFP that China pushed the US to remove paragraphs condemning abuses committed against the media around the world.
A high-ranking Chinese official told Al Jazeera that Beijing was one of the members that initiated the statement on the killing, and that when the initial draft did not mention Israel it pushed for it to include that it was carried out “by the Israel security forces” or “while covering the Israel security operations”.
The official said China had requested the deletion of certain paragraphs from the draft to keep the text focused on Abu Akleh’s killing and the Israeli occupation, and avoid “whitewashing” the issue.
Abu Akleh, an internationally respected veteran journalist for Al Jazeera, was shot by Israeli armed forces as she covered a raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. She was wearing a helmet and a vest that clearly identified her as a journalist.
The Security Council statement made no mention of the violence during Friday’s funeral for Abu Akleh.
Television footage showed pallbearers struggling to prevent Abu Akleh’s coffin from falling to the ground as baton-wielding Israeli police officers charged at them, grabbing Palestinian flags from mourners.
