*Originally published in 2022 and preserved as part of our archive project.Get E-International Relations delivered to your inbox, free of charge. As you sign up, consider becoming a paid subscriber to support our work.

After a series of terror attacks targeting citizens in Israel, as well as military operations by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in the West Bank, a new fatality shocked the world on Wednesday, May 11th, 2022: Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Aqla, working for Qatar-based Al Jazeera, was killed during early morning in the outskirts of Jenin. The IDF had entered the town, after which exchanges of gunfire took place with Palestinians reacting to the operation. In situations of the like, investigations and ballistic examinations may help shed a light on what happened, but they are not always straightforward.In the Israeli-Palestinian context, this type of examinations and the establishment of responsibilities are downright complex, for different reasons.

First of all, it is important to note that, for observers from outside the Arab world, it may be difficult to grasp the importance and centrality of a figure as Shireen Abu Aqla. Across Arab countries, which in certain respects differ considerably from each other and are each confronted with their own challenges, mass media have traditionally played a particular, often unifying role. In such a context, program hosts and journalists are automatically looked up to, all the more when they cover a topic as sensitive as........

© E-International