(TheLibertyRevolution.com)- After an al Jazeera reporter was fatally shot in the head last week while covering an Israeli raid in the West Bank, two Democrat lawmakers began circulating a letter demanding that the FBI and US State Department investigate her death.
Israel has called for a joint investigation with the Palestinian Authority to look into the death of Shereen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist who has worked with al Jazeera since 1997.
Anti-Israel Democrat lawmakers Andre Carson (IN) and Lou Correa (CA) are gathering signatures for a letter addressed to FBI Director Christopher Wray and Secretary of State Antony Blinken requesting the FBI join the investigation and asking the State Department to determine if the death of Abu Akleh in Israel violated any US laws.
The State Department has called on the Israeli government to investigate her killing, but because Abu Akleh is an American citizen, the lawmakers want the US to launch its own investigation into her death.
It is still unclear who fired the shot that killed Abu Akleh. Palestinians at the scene accused Israeli forces. Initially, the Israeli military blamed her death on a Palestinian gunman but has since conceded that Abu Akleh may have been shot by an Israeli soldier.
Abu Akleh’s funeral procession on Friday grew violent after Israeli police charged into the angry crowd of mourners, beating the people, including those carrying Abu Akleh’s casket.
Footage of the violence went viral on social media, sparking worldwide outrage.
On Saturday, Israeli police defended the decision, claiming they only charged the procession because “hundreds of rioters” attempted to sabotage the funeral and harm the police.
Israeli police said about 300 rioters arrived at the hospital and prevented Abu Akleh’s family from loading the coffin into the hearse for the trip to the cemetery. The rioters threatened the driver and then “proceeded to carry the casket on an unplanned procession to the cemetery.”
When police and Abu Akleh’s family demanded the casket be returned, the mob refused. It was then that the police intervened “to disperse the mob.”
