Two weeks ago, I attended the premiere of the new investigative documentary, Who Killed Shireen?, about Israel’s killing of the renowned Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in the West Bank city of Jenin in 2022. In the film, a team of reporters sets out to uncover the identity of Shireen’s killer –– a secret highly guarded by Israel –– and they do it. In this week’s episode of Question Everything, I interview one of those reporters, Dion Nissenbaum, about how they figured it out. 

But there’s another thread in the documentary that we didn’t get into in as much depth. During his investigation into who killed Shireen, Dion and his team also reveal a Biden administration cover-up. 

The day Shireen was killed, the Biden administration called for the shooter to be prosecuted. But once false initial Israeli narratives –– that she’d been shot by Palestinian militants –– fell apart and it became clear that an Israeli soldier was likely responsible, the U.S. shifted its stance. They took Israel’s word that Shireen’s killing was not intentional, but rather a tragic accident; that she was killed in crossfire. The U.S. produced a classified report on Shireen’s death, but refused to release it. And they claimed they couldn’t determine if Shireen’s killer had shot her intentionally unless Israel provided access to the shooter, which Israel refused to do.

All this was known before Dion and his team started investigating. But once they did, they discovered even more egregious behavior by the Biden administration. In the film, Dion interviews an anonymous official who divulges that, in fact, the U.S. knew more than it said. That they sat on information in order to maintain their good standing with the Israeli government. Here’s the conversation:

DION NISSENBAUM: Based on everything that the U.S. was able to find out about Shireen Abu Akleh’s killing, what was the initial conclusion?

FORMER BIDEN ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: The evidence as it stands, based on the proximity of the reporters in the road and the soldiers from the Duvdevan units on the street, it was an indication that it was an intentional killing of at this point in time Shireen Abu Akleh. Whether or not they knew it was her, or not can very well be debated, but they would have absolutely known that it was a media person or non-combatant at a minimum that that person shot and killed. 

DION NISSENBAUM: This soldier knew that it was someone in the media and intentionally opened fire and killed her?

FORMER BIDEN ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Absolutely knew that it was a non-combatant and every indication, with that, it was media, cause it was clear with the, within all optics from that distance and location and the visual capabilities of that day. 

DION NISSENBAUM: So your belief is that that soldier looked down his scope and could see the blue vest and that it said ‘PRESS’?

FORMER BIDEN ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: That is my belief, yes. So it changed ultimately to be that it was a tragic accident versus being an intentional killing of the individual. 

DION NISSENBAUM: That's shocking to hear. 

FORMER BIDEN ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, ultimately, I think what it came down to was different pressure within the administration to not try to anger the government of Israel too much by trying to force their hand at saying that they'd intentionally killed a U.S. citizen. 

DION NISSENBAUM: To go from saying something is an intentional killing to a tragic accident is night and day.

FORMER BIDEN ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: It absolutely is.

DION NISSENBAUM: They didn't want the killing of an American journalist to upset relations between America and Israel. 

FORMER BIDEN ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: That's correct, at least not in the terms to say that the Israelis intentionally killed her, to say they intentionally killed an American.

DION NISSENBAUM: Would you say that the Biden administration failed Shireen Abu Akleh?

FORMER BIDEN ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I would say so. The U.S. should have absolutely come forward and actually pressed the fact that an American citizen was killed intentionally by IDF. 

Dion’s film, Who Killed Shireen? takes this information and connects the Biden administration’s failure to hold Israel to account for Shireen’s killing, to what we’re seeing today –– the Israeli military killing over 200 Palestinian journalists in Gaza with total impunity. 

We’ve also continued to see Palestinian journalists silenced through arrests, including Shireen Abu Akleh’s former producer, Ali Samoudi. Ali was with Shireen when she was killed, and was also shot himself that day. He’s interviewed in the documentary, talking about what happened and criticizing Israel and the U.S. He says, “I believe the big disaster which prevented the occupation from being punished and repeating these crimes is the neglect and indifference by many of the institutions, especially American ones, which continue to defend the occupation.” Just a week before the film premiered, Israeli forces detained Ali after an early morning raid on his son’s home in Jenin. They have not charged him with any crime.

According to CNN, Ali’s lawyer says he’s being held in Megiddo prison in central Israel, where he is still waiting to receive his eyeglasses and medications for several chronic health conditions. His family says he was beaten and chained to a hospital bed. Ali is one of at least 20 Palestinian journalists who were detained since October 7th and remain behind bars without trial or charge –– that’s according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS).

In Who Killed Shireen?, Ali continues, “From the moment Shireen was killed, I said and continue to say, and will continue to say, that this bullet was meant to prevent the Palestinian media from the documentation and exposure of the occupation’s crimes.” Now, despite the Israeli military admitting they do not have “sufficient evidence" against him, Ali remains imprisoned indefinitely.

– Sophie Kazis