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Today in Focus

The killing of Shireen Abu Akleh – and another ordinary day in the West Bank

Today in Focus

The Guardian

News, Daily News

4.65.9K Ratings

🗓️ 11 May 2023

⏱️ 34 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A year ago the renowned journalist was shot, but it was far from the only news story in Palestine that day. Kaamil Ahmed looks into the stories Abu Akleh never got to report. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/infocus

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is the Guardian.

0:10.6

Today, an ordinary day in the occupied West Bank.

0:23.3

A year ago today, one of the most famous Arab journalists in the world

0:27.5

was shot and killed on assignment in the Palestinian West Bank.

0:31.8

During her career, Shrine Abu Aqle was a pioneer for millions of women.

0:37.1

Since her death, she's become a symbol of the terrible state of press freedom worldwide

0:42.5

and of the Palestinian struggle. Her faces appeared on walls and billboards around the world.

0:48.5

Nobody knew that face, better than her family. People like her niece, Lena Abu Aqle,

0:54.5

who aren't just mourning Shrine the symbol or the pioneer, they mourning Shrine the person.

1:01.2

Shrine's family were incredibly close. They lived in the same building. They saw each other

1:07.9

most Sundays. Her story, Lena told me about was when they went on drives.

1:14.8

She would play these classical Arabic music.

1:25.5

And she would tell us, okay, young look, who is it?

1:28.0

And when we guess wrong, she would get a disappointment and start laughing.

1:32.7

And when we guess right, she would get so excited.

1:36.1

So yeah, it was these little memories that definitely like a lot of days

1:42.1

I'm just miss hearing her voice and spending time with her.

1:47.0

Shrine's family and her colleagues keep saying this one thing.

1:57.2

She would have hated becoming the story. She wanted to tell other people's stories.

2:02.4

The things that happen every day in the Palestinian territories.

2:06.0

The things that happened on the 11th of May, the day Shrine was killed.

2:10.5

The news that day didn't stop. There were so many other stories, but Shrine never got to tell them.

...

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