Voters Support Investigating Death of Palestinian-American Journalist

In May, Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was tragically killed while covering Israeli military raids in the West Bank. Although the Israeli military initially said that she was killed by militant fire, they are now admitting there is a high likelihood that an Israeli soldier hit her by mistake. 

This summer, lawmakers in Congress introduced an amendment to require the FBI and State Department to investigate Abu Akleh’s killing. Specifically, the investigation would help identify the origins of the weapon used to kill her.  

A recent poll by Data for Progress finds 71 percent of voters support investigating Abu Akleh’s death, including 80 percent of Democrats, 64 percent of Independents, and 66 percent of Republicans.

The killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, a journalist simply doing her job, sets a dangerous precedent for free speech on the global stage. It’s essential that a full investigation is properly conducted. There is clearly bipartisan support for discovering the truth about Abu Akleh’s death. 

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Sabrina Jacobs is a digital fellow at Data for Progress. 

Survey Methodology

From July 8 to 11, 2022, Data for Progress conducted a survey of 1,330 likely voters nationally using web panel respondents. The sample was weighted to be representative of likely voters by age, gender, education, race, and voting history. The survey was conducted in English. The margin of error is ±3 percentage points.