Al Jazeera had slammed the killing as “deliberate” and took up the matter to the ICC.

Al Jazeera has received a “prestigious” DotComm Award for its year-long online campaign seeking justice for its slain journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, the network announced on Sunday.

The Qatar-based broadcaster received the Platinum DotComm award in addition to eight others from the international awarding entity, it said in a statement. 

“A Platinum DotComm award was given for the year-long campaign seeking justice for the slain journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, as well as for the revamping of Al Jazeera’s corporate website and the innovative internal communication portal, ‘Tawasul’,” the statement read.

Israeli occupation forces (IOF) shot and killed Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist, on 11 May 2022 while she was covering a raid on the Jenin refugee camp. 

The IOF soldier proceeded to aim at Abu Akleh despite her clearly identifying as a member of the press with her blue vest and helmet, in what many have described as a deliberate killing and an attempt to silence media on the ground.

“Shireen was tragically targeted and killed by Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank town of Jenin in May 2022. This campaign showcased Al Jazeera’s unwavering commitment to press freedom and the pursuit of justice for its courageous journalists,” Al Jazeera said.

It also noted in its statement that the award was in “recognition of the compelling and impactful year-long international campaign aimed at seeking justice” for the veteran journalist.

“Winning a DotComm Award signifies that the recipient’s web and digital work is among the very best in the industry, serving as a testament to their exceptional achievements,” Al Jazeera said.

Lack of justice

The killing of the renowned journalist sent shockwaves across the world and sparked global outrage, especially in Palestine where thousands of mourners held the biggest funeral in the country’s history.

Abu Akleh was among the first to join the Al Jazeera network and quickly became known for her in-depth, critical coverage of the ongoing Israeli occupation’s crimes against Palestinians, which made her widely known as “the voice of Palestine”.

Al Jazeera had slammed the killing as “deliberate” and took up the matter to the International Criminal Court (ICC), though there has been no progress reported on the case more than a year on.

The lack of movement in the ICC also comes despite bullet examinations and multiple investigations by rights organisations and leading US outlets that had pointed to Israel as the sole perpetrator of the crime. 

To date, Washington has yet to hold its ally to account as calls for justice increase, especially within Congress. 

In May, Congressman Andre Carson introduced the Justice for Shireen Act to demand a “forceful response” from the US government.

“And yet, a forceful response from the United States government for accountability for her killing has been noticeably absent,” Carson said at the time.

More evidence of the IOF’s killing of Abu Akleh emerged in May with the release of Al Jazeera Arabic’s investigative documentary “What is Hidden is Greater” (Ma Khafiya A’tham).

Titled “The Murder of Evidence”, the episode unveiled the findings of a team from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), who had conducted a field investigation in Jenin where Abu Akleh was shot and killed.

Speaking to the Qatar-based broadcaster at the time, American expert who analysed the recordings, Stephen Buck, said that the “acoustic analysis of bullets and their directions settled the controversy over who fired them.”

“The shooting was from a distance of about 200 meters from the side of the Israeli forces only […] I think it strongly supports the fact that gunfire came from the IDF [Israeli Defence Forces],” Buck told Al Jazeera.