When Al Jazeera’s veteran journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh, was shot dead on May 11, 2022, in Jenin, occupied West Bank, something within me sensed that a larger storm was coming. Her killing was more than the death of a reporter, it was a signpost of a gathering tragedy that the world refused to interpret.
I remember watching how Al Jazeera remained unrelenting, demanding justice and truth. They pursued the case at every possible level, from diplomatic channels to the International Criminal Court (ICC), yet all efforts proved abortive. The silence of global power blocs and the failure of international institutions to hold anyone accountable deepened the wound. It sent a message: that even truth could be killed with impunity.
To me, that was when the seed of the present war was sown. The inability to obtain justice for Shireen symbolized the world’s moral fatigue, a dangerous indifference that emboldens cycles of revenge and retaliation. The Holy Land, long bleeding between politics and prophecy, had once again lost its balance.
When the Israel–Hamas war broke out in October 2023, it didn’t come as a surprise to me. It felt inevitable, the eruption of anger, mistrust, and historical pain that had been simmering since that fatal morning in Jenin. The killing of Shireen Abu Akleh wasn’t just a headline; it was the spark of a suppressed fire.
If the world had listened, if justice had been done, perhaps the war that has now consumed thousands of lives could have been avoided. But history shows: whenever truth is ignored, blood soon follows.
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