Law for Palestine holds a live broadcast on FB entitled: Shireen Abu Akleh: Can the killers be prosecuted in US courts ?

Law for Palestine held a live broadcast on its Facebook page entitled: “Shireen Abu Akleh: Can the killers be prosecuted in US courts”, where the American lawyer and Executive Director of Law for Palestine, Hiba Birat, and the Palestinian journalist on the Al-Jazeera channel Majed Abdel Hadi, were hosted by the organization’s Director of Public Relations and Palestinian lawyer Ammar Jaradat.
Jaradat started the event by asking Birat about the jurisdiction of the American judicial system and the possibility of investigating the assassination of Shireen Abu Akleh by bringing her case to the American courts. Birat began her answer with an open question: “Do the American courts have a personal  jurisdiction on the parties to consider the case of the assassination of Abu Akleh?” Where she discussed at length the rules of jurisdiction of the American judicial system and what American principles and laws apply to the Abu Akleh’s case.
About Jaradat’s inquiry on the existence of specific American laws to rely on in the Abu Akleh’s case, Birat responded, acknowledging the existence of American laws that apply to American nationals in the case of a murder crime occurring outside the geographical scope of the United States of America, and stating the conditions of such crime to fall within the scope of these laws, Birat addressed the laws that the occupation violated in perpetrating the crime of assassinating Abu Akleh, which serve as a base for a lawsuit to be filed before the American courts, pointing to the many similar judicial precedents to the crime of Abu Akleh, the potentional of addimissablity and success, and the access of the victim or his/her relatives to their rights before the judiciary.
Birat expressed her faith in the efficacy of taking the judiciary venues despite the strong political alliance between Israel and the USA, explaining that persistence on such venues paves the way for countless opportunities in media and advocacy campaigns, interventions in the academic and legal jurisprudence field and campaigns within Congress itself.
Turning to Mr. Abdel Hadi, he talked about his report that he prepared and read on Al Jazeera on the assassination of Abu Akleh. Abdel Hadi also touched on the impact of the Israeli assassination of Abu Akleh on journalists’ coverage of the violations of the occupation in Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip negatively. He also said, “The killing of Abu Akleh increased the journalists’ determination and insistence to cover all events, whether in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip, to expose the crimes of the Israeli occupation to the whole world.” At the same time, he stressed the need to knock on the doors of the courts and the judiciary system and to seek gradual justice that results from the accumulation of action, rather than through the fatal blow.

• To watch the full broadcast (Arabic), click here