Shireen Abu Akleh, a journalist for Arab television channel Al Jazeera – shot dead Wednesday while watching an Israeli army operation in the West Bank – has been noted for her courage and professionalism.
Born to a Christian family in the occupied area of Jerusalem in 1971 and also an American citizen, the Palestinian studied journalism at Yermuk University in Jordan before founding the Ramallah-based “Voice of Palestine” radio.
He joined Al Jazeera in 1997, a year after the station opened, where he became one of its top correspondents.
Hoda Abdel Hamid, one of her colleagues in Ukraine, told AFP that she was “undoubtedly a very brave journalist”.
“I asked him: ‘Aren’t you tired?’ “He was there whenever something happened. He took a lot more risks than I did. But he was very experienced, he wasn’t taking any stupid risks,” he stressed.
In a recent interview with a local agency, Abu Akleh said he felt fear while on the field. “I try to settle down with my team in a safe place before I worry about the footage,” he told the childless journalist.
Keep fighting and fulfill your dreams
Shireen Abu Akleh was wearing a helmet and bulletproof vest with a press ID, but was gunned down in Jenin, a Palestinian city where the Israeli army, which has occupied the West Bank since 1967, has recently stepped up operations.
Several attackers against Israel in recent weeks have come from this northern West Bank city and its affiliated Palestinian refugee camp.
In early 2022, the journalist wrote to “This Week in Palestine” that Jenin does not represent “an ephemeral story in her career, even in her private life.”
“The city that has managed to change my mood,” he said, because Jenin “embodies the spirit of Palestine, which sometimes trembles and falls, but rises to continue the struggle and realize their dreams.”
Two decades of reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has made the journalist an icon for many Palestinians.
For his colleague and friend Mohamad Daraghmeh he was also “one of the most important journalists in the Arab world”.
“She was one of the first Arab women to become war correspondents in the late 1990s, when the role of women on television was still limited to presenting news in the studio,” Dima Khatib, another Al Jazeera journalist, wrote on Twitter. his friend “pioneer”.
“He was a brave, loving journalist. Millions of Palestinians like me grew up watching Shireen,” said Fadi Kuran, a director of Avaaz, a US-based NGO.
source: Noticias
