Indian Journalists Write to Israeli PM, Condemn ‘Murder’ of Al Jazeera Reporter

A group of senior Indian journalists have written to Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett condemning the 'murder' of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by Israeli forces. Akleh, an American-Palestinian, was shot dead in the occupied West Bank while reporting on a raid by Israeli forces, according to Al Jazeera.

The letter mentioned that Akleh, a long-time TV correspondent for Al Jazeera Arabic, was wearing a press vest and was standing with other journalists when she was killed. It said that the journalist’s death underlined the Israeli government's inability to accept independent journalism.It also condemned the Israeli police attacking the pallbearers of the casket at Akleh’s funeral procession and said it come from an environment of impunity where Israeli military targets Palestinians at will.

Urging the PM to strongly condemn both incidents, the Indian journalists demanded an independent investigation to ensure that Akleh gets justice and such targeted attacks and killings are stopped. Read the full letter here:

To

Mr. Naftali Bennett, Prime Minister of Israel, Tel Aviv,

Israel

Through

Mr. Naor Gilon,

Ambassador of Israel to India, New Delhi,

India 16.05.2022

Dear Mr Prime Minister,

We, Indian journalists, are writing to you to express our strong condemnation of the 'murder' of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh who was shot in the face while she was reporting a raid by Israeli soldiers from Jenin. The shocking assassination -- described as such by Al Jazeera -- again underlines your government's inability to accept independent journalism that speaks the truth.

Akleh was known for her independent reporting. She was killed by an Israeli sniper, according to Al Jazeera, even though she was wearing a helmet and body armour marked "Press". Shireen Akleh was standing with other journalists when she was shot in the face. An Al Jazeera producer was shot in the back but survived.

We are also amazed that despite the worldwide condemnation, Israeli police were again directed to stop her funeral procession. And resorted to violence when the Palestinians tried to move forward, with videos recording the brutal attack on the pallbearers that made them nearly drop the casket. The videos also record the police beating and kicking the mourners. We understand that some kind of enquiry has been ordered, as well as an investigation as to whether the well known journalist was shot from an Israeli army jeep.

This attack comes from a deliberately created environment of impunity, where the Palestinians are targetted by Israeli military at will, and the journalists pay the price for independent reportage. We expect strong condemnation from you Sir, as well as a transparent investigation by an independent authority to ensure that she gets justice in death, and that more such targeted attacks and killings are stopped.

Signatories (all are senior journalists from different parts of India):

Abid Shah A.Amaraiah

Amit Prakash Singh
Amit Sengupta
Amitabh Srivastava Amitabha Roychowdhury Amita Verma

Ammu Joseph

Ajaz Ashraf

Ajoy Ashirwad

Anand Sahay

Ananth Nath

Anil Chamadia

Anjali Deshpande

Antara Dev Sen

Anuradha Bhasin

Ashlin Mathew

Bobby Naqvi

Bharat Bhushan

Bharat Sharma Chandrakant Deepak Parvatiyar

Dhanya Rajendran G.Anjaneyulu

Geetha Seshu

Jawed Naqvi

Jigeesh AM

John Cherian

John Dayal

John Thomas

Jyoti Malhotra

Jyoti Punwani

11. Muniraj

K.Murali

K.A.Shaji

Karuna John

Kavitha Muralidharan

Keya Acharya

K.S.Dakshina Murthy Kumkum Chadha

Kunal Shankar

Kuldeep Kumar

Latha Jishnu

Laxmi Murthy

Madhavan Narayanan Mandira Nayyar

Mannika Chopra

Masoom Moradabadi Meghnad Bose

Mehru Jaffer

Mrinal Pande

Mukesh Kumar

Murali Krishnan

11. A.Ravooth

12. N.Kondaiah

Neelam Jeena

Nikita Sharma

Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay

Nirmala Ganapathy Nivedita Jha

Padmaja Shaw

Pamela Philipose Pankaj Srivastava

Paranjoy Guha Thakurta

Paromita S.

Parsa Venkateshwar Rao

Jr. Patricia Mukhim

Poornima Joshi Prakash Dube

Preeti Mehra

Purnima Tripathi

Raghu Karnad

Rahul Bedi

Rajashri Dasgupta Rajalakshmi

Rajeev Khanna

Rathin Das

Rashme Sehgal

Revati Laul

Rita Anand

Rita Manchanda Rukmani Anandani Sandhya Ravishankar Satish Mishra

Seema Chishti

Seema Mustafa

Shaikh Azizur Rahman Sharda Ugra

Shastri Ramachandaran Shobhna Jain

Shubha Singh

Shiv Inder Singh

S.K. Pande

Soma Basu

Sonal Kellogg

Smita Gupta

Sucheta Dalal

Sujata Madhok

Sujata Shakeel

Sujata Raghavan

Sukumar Muralidharan Sunita Aron

Suresh Bafna

Tanushree Gangopadhyay

Teesta Setalvad

Tripta Batra

Uma Kant Lakhera

Urmilesh

V.Sreenivasa Rao Vaishna Roy

Venkat Parsa Venkatesh Kesari

Vidya Subrahmaniam Vijay Lokapally

Vinod Sharma

Vivian Fernandes Wadood Sajid