US-Israeli Relations Tested Over Shireen Abu Akleh's Murder?

ALBAWABA - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has met with the family of slain Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, Tuesday, in Washington. News of the meeting on different parts of the social media has gone rife. 

Different media utter the story of the Al Jazeera journalist who was killed by an Israeli soldier's sniper bullet while covering an Israeli raid on Jenin. She died instantly, it was a great shock.

Abu Akleh, a veteran journalist, was shot dead in May while covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for the Al Jazeera news outlet Anadolu reports. She was a household name on the small screen in the Arab world.

"Today I met with the family of slain Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, whose fearless journalism earned her the respect of audiences around the world. I expressed my deepest condolences and commitment to pursue accountability for her tragic killing," Blinken said on Twitter.

He also shared pictures of the meeting according to the Turkish news website.

Abu Akleh, a 51-year-old Palestinian-American, was shot dead on May 11. The Americans couldn't simply sweep the killing under the rug as it was claimed although US president Joe Biden, when he visited Israel and the Palestinian territories in mid-July, wouldn't see the family of the slain journalist because it wasn't on his agenda.

While Palestinian officials and Al Jazeera accused Israel of killing the reporter, Tel Aviv denies any responsibility Anadolu writes. Although now they face a bad case of public relations exercise. 

Earlier in July, the family had harshly criticized the results of an investigation where the US avoided remarks that held Israel responsible for her killing.

"We, the family of Shireen Abu Akleh, write to express our grief, outrage and sense of betrayal concerning your administration’s abject response to the extrajudicial killing of our sister and aunt by Israeli forces on May 11, 2022, while on assignment in the occupied Palestinian city of Jenin in the West Bank," family members said in a long letter to US President Joe Biden.

It underlined that the journalist, who was also a US citizen, was killed by an Israeli-fired bullet to the head, despite wearing a protective helmet and a blue bulletproof vest that was marked "press.”

There is an enormous hatred by Israel for the late journalist because of her job in covering Jewish news atrocities in the West Bank over the last 20 years. The Israelis are going to try their hardest to make sure that an open investigation and free investigation into her killing will not happen and will likely push the Americans to soft-paddle their approach into her murder.