PostedMay 14, 2022, 1:00 p.m.
The international community has criticized the intervention of the Israeli police at the funeral of a Palestinian journalist. His coffin almost fell after baton blows against the carriers.
On Friday, thousands of Palestinians attended the funeral of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh of Al Jazeera TV, who was shot in the head on Wednesday while covering an Israeli military raid on the refugee camp in Jenin, West Bank. She wore a bulletproof vest marked “press” and a reporting helmet.
As the coffin was removed from St. Joseph’s Hospital in East Jerusalem, the Palestinian sector of the city also occupied by Israel, police burst into the facility and attempted to disperse a flag-waving crowd Palestinians. The coffin almost fell from the hands of the carriers, beaten by police armed with truncheons, but was caught in extremis, according to images broadcast by local television.
Rare unanimity at the UN
“We were deeply disturbed by the footage of Israeli police intruding on the funeral procession,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. The European Union condemned “the disproportionate use of force and the disrespectful behavior of the Israeli police against the participants in the funeral procession”.
Finally, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply troubled” and a unanimous statement from the UN Security Council “strongly condemned” the killing. Initiated by the United States, this very rare unanimous position on a subject concerning Israel also calls for “a transparent and impartial investigation”. “The occupation forces did not just kill Shireen, but they terrorized those who accompanied her to her final resting place,” Qatar said.
“If you don’t stop these nationalist chants, we will have to disperse you using force and we will prevent the funeral from taking place,” an Israeli policeman said in a megaphone to the crowd at the compound. Saint Joseph’s Hospital, according to a video released by the police.
The police wanted to prevent the crowd from taking the coffin
According to law enforcement, “rioters prevented the family members from loading the coffin into a hearse to proceed to the cemetery, as agreed with the family. The crowd refused to put the casket back in the hearse and the police intervened to prevent them from taking it. During the riot triggered by the crowd, glass bottles and other objects were thrown.
After claiming that the 51-year-old journalist had “probably” succumbed to Palestinian fire, the Israelis then said they did not rule out that the bullet was fired by their soldiers. According to the Palestinian prosecutor’s office in Ramallah on Friday, “the first results of the investigation showed that the only origin of the shooting against Shireen, it was the Israeli occupation forces”.
Israel demanded that the bullet be given to it for ballistic examination, and proposed that Palestinian and American experts be present during this examination. But Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas refused a joint investigation with Israel. “The Israeli authorities committed this crime and we do not trust them.”
(AFP)