The scene is as incredible as it is unimaginable: a police charge on a crowd carrying a coffin leaving a hospital. However, the scene took place on Friday, May 13, during the funeral of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was shot in the head on Wednesday in the West Bank while covering an Israeli raid.
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As often during major events, Jerusalem is squared off for the occasion. The police force is important with barriers, horses, vehicles but also a helicopter. At 2 p.m., at the exit of Saint-Joseph hospital in the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Hanina, the Israeli police charged the crowd and beat up the carriers of the coffin, which almost fell to the ground.
Horrible scenes in #Jerusalem as Israeli security forces beat mourners carrying the casket of slain journalist Shireen Abu Akleh pic.twitter.com/tcVAmV4pjd
— Dylan Collins (@collinsdyl) May 13, 2022
“They blocked us with their horses and their tear gas“, says a few minutes after the charge Houda Imam, a well-known activist in Jerusalem. Shireen represented all of us. She was in every house, in every neighborhood, in every refugee camp.
“All of Palestine mourns Shireen. I haven’t experienced this since Yasser Arafat’s funeral.”
Houda Imam, Israeli activistat franceinfo
The coffin and the crowd struggled to make it to the old town. At that time, it was around 30 degrees and tempers were heating up. Even though the police stay away from the church the crowd is sad and angry. Palestinian flags and keffiyehs are raised.
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“The Palestinians present came to say ‘thank you’ for what she has done“, explains Michel, present for the funeral. “I am Palestinian first, then Christian. 99% of the people present are Palestinian Muslims. She spoke the truth, always the truth, and she paid the price with her life. Journalists are targets, be careful.”
In this sad and tense atmosphere, a woman struggles to hold back her tears. This is the communist and feminist Arab MP Aida Touma-Suleiman: “All free people around the world are sad. We have come to show our respect for a voice she wanted to make heard: that of the Palestinian struggle for freedom.“
Shireen Abu Akleh now rests in Mount Zion Christian Cemetery alongside her parents.
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At the same time, no significant progress has been made in the investigation into the journalist’s death. This lack of progress benefits the conspiracies and invectives that thrive on social networks. The Israeli army considers it impossible to know who shot the journalist.
The Palestinian Authority, meanwhile, refuses to participate in a joint investigation with Israel. She actually refuses to pass the bullet that hit Shireen Abu Akleh. In fact, the investigation even took a back seat to the symbolic violence of the images of the Israeli police beating the pallbearers of the coffin. In a statement, the same Israeli police assures that it had to use force because there was, she assures: “Nationalist chants that incited hatred as well as stone throwing.” The impact is terrible for Israel. These images were filmed by television channels around the world.