Continuing with its biased and irresponsible reporting practices, CNN published a baseless report accusing the Israeli military of deliberately killing Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh earlier this month. In an article on Wednesday, CNN claimed that “Abu Akleh was killed in targeted attack by Israeli forces.”
CNN based this serious allegation against the Israeli military on thin and flimsy evidence. The report relied on “eyewitnesses testimonies.” But two key eyewitnesses featured in the article, namely PLO-Fatah lawmaker Jamal Huweil and Palestinian reporter Shatha Hanaysha, have a history of glorifying acts of terror against Israeli civilians (see embedded tweets below). The expert hired by CNN, Chris Cobb-Smith, regularly engages in anti-Israel activities, the noted blogger Elder of Ziyon pointed out.
Al Jazeera reporter Abu Akleh died of a gunshot wound on May 11 while she reported from Jenin, a terrorist stronghold for jihadist groups such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). Video footage from the scene showed Palestinian gunmen shooting at Israeli troops conducting an anti-terror raid in response to recent terrorist attacks in Israel.
Palestinian Authority rejected the Israeli offer to conduct a joint inquiry into the shoot-out and refused to submit the bullet that killed the Al Jazeera journalist to a ballistic probe in Israel.
Many informed Twitter users questioned the credibility of eyewitnesses picked by CNN:
Dovid Efune, editor-in-chief of the New York-based Algemeiner Journal, wrote a detailed Twitter thread debunking many of the claims made in the CNN report.
The baseless CNN report will only add fuel to the fire by giving credence to the propaganda already being peddled by Palestinian terrorist organizations. Israel-based blogger David Lange aptly called the biased report “an antisemitic blood libel.”
“CNN’s report is anti-Israel propaganda masquerading as serious journalism, aimed to incite against the Jewish state,” Lange wrote on his popular blog Israellycool. “And yes, it is an antisemitic blood libel,” he concluded.
The Israeli government called out the CNN report for its factual inaccuracies. The CNN “investigation is full of inaccuracies and question marks regarding the reliability of some of the evidence presented in it. It is not possible to reach a firm conclusion before completing a thorough investigation,” the Israeli news agency TPS reported, citing an official source.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), which has repeatedly urged the Palestinians to allow joint investigation into the incident, dismissed the report as ‘baseless.’
The Jerusalem Post reported the IDF’s responded to CNN’s report:
“The IDF has been investigating the circumstances of the reporter’s death in a thorough manner since the incident. The interim investigation revealed it was not possible to determine the source of the shooting,” [the IDF] said in a statement. “The claim that the shooting was intentional has no basis.””CNN‘s claims that the IDF intentionally shot journalist Shireen abu Akleh have no basis,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Idan Roll. “The IDF acts in Jenin only to prevent terrorism against Israel’s citizens. This report is filled with inaccuracies and unreliable testimonies. We once again call on the Palestinians to cooperate with Israel in the investigation of the incident, but they continue to refuse.What do they have to hide?”
While CNN smears the IDF, Palestinian terrorist activities continue unabated — particularly around the jihadist bastion of Jenin where the May 11 shooting took place:
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