Israeli MP calls Al Jazeera journalist’s killing ‘tragic’ and a ‘mistake’

A member of Israel’s parliament has described the May 11th killing of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh as “tragic” and a “mistake”.

Moshe Turpaz, a member of the Israeli Knesset and the ruling Yesh Atid ‘There is a Future’ liberal party, was speaking during a visit to Dublin in his capacity as chair of the Knesset Israel-Ireland Friendship League.

He was accompanied by fellow Knesset member Emilie Moatti, a member of the Israeli Labour Party, on the visit, during which they met Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney.

Mr Turpaz said the Israeli police beatings of pallbearers at the funeral of Abu Akleh, the Palestinian-American journalist, was “horrifying” and a “tactical mistake”.

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The US State Department said earlier this week that the journalist was likely to have been killed by gunfire from Israeli positions when she was shot dead during an Israeli raid in the town of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, but that her killing was probably unintentional.

Speaking to The Irish Times, Mr Turpaz said he was “very, very sorry” for the journalist’s death and offered his condolences for the “tragic killing”, but said it was a “typical case” where Palestinians were at the time attacking Israeli forces from within a civilian population.

“We are not sure we did it, but if we did, we are very sorry about it and we are sure to take actions now to make sure that journalists are kept safe in those areas of fighting,” he said.

He could not, he said, defend the journalist’s killing or the horrific images showing her funeral procession being attacked, but asked Irish people to look at the “bigger picture” and Israel’s desire to sit “at the one table” with the Palestinian Authority to reach a peaceful solution between their peoples.

Mr Turpaz cited the killings of 20 Israeli civilians at the hands of Palestinian attackers over the past three months.

“I would like people in Ireland to understand when an innocent journalist is killed it does so by mistake. When terrorists are hitting Israelis, they are doing it deliberately. They are always doing it to kill an Israeli just for being an Israeli. That’s a very essential point,” he said.

Ms Moatti said human rights groups labelling Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians as “apartheid’ played into the hands of right-wing groups in Israel and undermined the efforts of centrist and left-wing Israelis who were trying find peace with the Palestinians.

The Israeli Labour Party has pushed consistently for a two-state solution with the Palestinians – a position that she said was “really hard and sometimes a nightmare”.

“There is a solution for this conflict and we have to move forward and see what we can do to change the situation,” she said.

Mr Turpaz said pushing the Irish Government to acknowledge Israeli actions against Palestinians as “apartheid” – as human rights group Hagai El-Ad has called for – undermined centre-left parties and “gives the extremists on our right more weapons to attack our diplomacy”.

“It’s a practical thing: if you want to strengthen the more liberal, the more open-minded centre and left Israeli parties, talking about apartheid isn’t getting us anywhere,” he said.

Israel is in the midst of deep political instability, facing its fifth election in four years this November as former leader Binyamin Netanyahu is embroiled in a long-running corruption trial.

Yair Lapid, a former television host, will remain caretaker prime minister until the election, with his Yesh Atid party now the second largest after Netanyahu’s conservative Likud.

Mr Turpaz said that despite a diverse coalition of eight parties with a thin majority led by his party leader, the political instability has created a period of dysfunction in Israel’s parliament.

“It’s terrible. We have had three years with no budget, meaning any change in budgets can’t be done, so you can’t do any new projects,” he said.