The Lesson of Shireen
Posted on 19 October 2024 by Jedidjah de Vries — 3 min
Do you all remember Shireen? Journalist. US citizen. Killed in 2022 by the IDF. When I say killed by the IDF that isn't speculation or insinuation. She was shot by an IDF sniper while where a blue press vest. When news of her death first came out Israel said: It wasn't us. "We weren't even in the area. It must have been Palestinian militants". Then they said "Ok, so maybe we were in the area, but we don't think we shot her. The Palestinian militants were shooting at us, so it was probably them." And finally they fell back to "Maybe we shot her while returning fire or something but we didn't know who she was." However, separate investigations from CNN, the Washington Post, and the New York Times all established that there had been no Palestinian gunfire prior, that Shireen was standing with a group of other journalists and wearing a clearly marked blue press vest, and her wounds were consistent with being shot by an IDF sniper (whose presence nearby has been admitted to by the IDF).
This is what I mean when you should trust the IDF as much as you trust the cops after they kill someone. Both come out, leaning on their authority, insisting you have to take their version of events at face value. Both delegitimize the other with: they were probably armed, a thug, not so innocent past, gang member, terrorist… None of these are offered as serious justifications, let alone with any evidence. Their real purpose is to dehumanize the other just enough so they are no longer a human whose story is worth listening to. It's about who gets the benefit of the doubt. When there are confusing conflicting stories cops in uniform get the benefit of the doubt. Black men don't. The IDF does. Palestinians don't. But we know that cops lie and that racism is baked into who they are. The IDF has shown over and over and over again that they lie and that disregard for Palestinian life is part of who they are.
Let me be explicit: it seems like a lot of US liberals understand this about the cops but don't want to accept it about the IDF. I don't know how many hospitals need to be bombed or how many villages need to be wiped out or how much evidence of a calculated campaign of mass starvation it will take for that change.
To finish Shireen's story: did the IDF ever do an internal investigation or subject the sniper who killed her to any consequences? No. They violently disrupted her funeral. We only know as much as we do because she was a journalist and US citizen, so the international media paid attention. At the end of the day the only thing we don't know is whether they targeted Shireen specifically or they just didn't give a fuck which Palestinian they were killing. It doesn't take much to imagine how this plays out day after day for regular Palestinians.