Her name was Shireen Abu Akleh. She was a Palestinian-American journalist, a veteran correspondent for Al Jazeera, and one of the most recognized voices in Middle East reporting. On May 11, 2022, she was shot and killed by Israeli forces while covering a military raid in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank. She was wearing a clearly marked press vest.

For three years, the U.S. government’s official position was that the shooting was likely unintentional. That position, according to a new New York Times investigation, was built on a cover-up.

Retired Colonel Steve Gabavics, who led the U.S. military investigation into Abu Akleh’s killing, told the Times that he and his team concluded the Israeli soldier who shot her must have known he was shooting at a journalist. His findings were based on documented Israeli military radio traffic showing soldiers were aware journalists were in the area that morning; the absence of incoming fire from the journalists’ direction that might justify shooting toward them; and the confirmed sight lines from an Israeli military vehicle positioned down the road — from which a sniper would have been able to see Abu Akleh and her colleagues clearly.

Those conclusions, Gabavics told the Times, were allegedly disregarded by Lt. Gen. Michael R. Fenzel. The Biden administration’s public statement did not reflect what investigators found. It reflected something else: a determination to protect the relationship with Israel, regardless of what an American journalist’s death actually showed.

“We commend retired Colonel Gabavics for bravely coming forward and confirming what was obvious to everyone: an Israeli sniper deliberately murdered an American journalist and the Biden administration covered it up,” United Voices said.

Shireen Abu Akleh was an American citizen. The U.S. government has a legal and moral obligation to pursue justice for American citizens killed abroad — including when the perpetrator is an ally. That obligation was abandoned by the Biden administration, which spent four years enabling Israeli government conduct while suppressing findings that complicated that relationship.

United Voices is calling on President Trump to order a genuine investigation into Lt. Gen. Fenzel and every official allegedly involved in the cover-up. We are calling on the State Department and the FBI to pursue a real investigation into Abu Akleh’s murder and to seek criminal charges against the Israeli sniper responsible for killing her. And we are naming the officials who built the cover-up — Biden, Brett McGurk, Jake Sullivan, and the others who chose relationship management over justice for a murdered American journalist — so the record is clear about what was done and who did it.

Shireen Abu Akleh spent her career telling the stories of people whose lives were being shaped by forces they could not control. She deserves to have her story told fully, accurately, and without the political calculations that buried the truth for three years.