Update: 8:47pm GMT
The White House responds to today’s events: Jen Psaki said the Biden Administration “regrets the intrusion into what should have been a peaceful procession” but didn’t condemn Israeli police violence at Shireen Abu Akleh’s funeral in Jerusalem.
Haidar Eid writes from Gaza:
As Palestinians we know too well what Zionism means and how it managed to ruin the consciousness of so many people in Israel the same way apartheid destroyed the minds of many white South Africans. History provides us with other glaring examples of inhumane bigotry in Europe and America not more than 70-80 years ago.
Update: 5:40pm GMT
Some reactions to today’s events from Twitter.
Update: 4:42pm GMT
Zubayr Alikhan writes:
Israel’s barbarism, its ever-burgeoning reign of terror, spares none. So long as its victims are Palestinian, the occupation discriminates not between child or elder, journalist or freedom fighter, woman or man, alive or dead. When viewing these horrors unfold, we must recognize that what we are witnessing is the manifestation of 74+ years of impunity. Abu Akleh’s assassination and the barbaric assault on her funeral, are but incidents in the unceasing 74+ year Israeli ethnic cleansing of Palestine. Israel’s ethnic cleansing, settler-colonialism, and apartheid—as designated by the United Nations, B’Tselem, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International—are products of the free reign and unconditional support lent to them by the international community. It is this support—whether through military aid, normalization of ties, or iniquitous reporting—that birthed the state of Israel and facilitated the infliction of unimaginable suffering upon the indigenous of Palestine, as recompense for the suffering Europeans inflicted upon Jews.
Update: 3:53pm GMT
Ahmed Alnaouk writes:
A headline is the most important element of a news story; more than 90% of readers only read the headlines. Back in school, we were taught a basic rule: a headline should be in active voice, meaning the title should indicate the subject — the person, place, or thing that is performing the action of the sentence. Here, the Times intentionally left out the real subject, allowing the reader to assume that the subject is Abu Akleh herself: the journalist alone was the doer of the action; she died.
Also, look at the verb. And among many other verbs that could have been selected to describe the untimely ending of the journalist’s life, the Times editors chose the word die. And make no mistake, words matter. There is a significant difference between die and kill, murder, or assassinate. Reading that Abu Akleh died, a reader might not be blamed for assuming that the journalist died after battling cancer, committing suicide, incurring an accident while spending her holiday overseas, or passing away in her sleep. All these types of deaths can be described by the word die and all these type of deaths don’t involve anyone else in the commission of the death.
Update: 1:12 pm GMT
The funeral of slain Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh came to an end on Friday afternoon as her body was laid to rest in the Mount Zion Protestant Cemetery in Jerusalem, surrounded by her family, friends, colleagues, and mourners from across Palestine.
Thousands of Palestinians took part in the procession, filling up the streets of occupied East Jerusalem, as they waited to carry Abu Akleh’s casket to the cemetery from the Cathedral of the Annunciation of the Virgin, where the service was held.
According to local media, church bells across Jerusalem rung out as the procession made its way through the city.
Israeli police attack mourners
Israeli police forces in occupied East Jerusalem attacked the funeral of Shireen Abu Akleh, 51, on Friday afternoon, beating funeral goers and firing sound grenades into the procession.
The attack on the procession began as mourners began to move Abu Akleh’s casket from the St Louis French Hospital in Sheikh Jarrah, to the Cathedral of the Annunciation of the Virgin where the funeral and prayer service will be held.
Live video footage from Al Jazeera showed groups of heavily armed Israeli police officers attacking the large procession, beating people with batons and firing stun grenades into the crowd, and ripping Palestinian flags out of the hands of mourners.
In the video Israeli forces could be seen violently pushing back the crowd, and attacking the mourners who were carrying her casket, at one point causing the casket to fall, almost completely knocking it to the ground.
Al Jazeera reported that Israeli police targeted mourners because “they did not want them to walk with Abu Akleh’s casket” to the church, ordering that her body must be transported in a hearse – which is uncustomary to Palestinian funerals, specifically the funerals of martyrs.
Al Jazeera reported that Israeli police arrested at least four Palestinians for carrying Palestinian flags.
This will either not get covered by western media, or, they will call it “clashes”.
“Palestinian mourners clashed with Israeli forces today……”
It’s always the Palestinians who are at fault, you see? Because the Palestinians are violent. That’s the narrative they are paid to promote.
Israel initially (true to zionist style) blamed the Palestinians. These accusations came from their very high offices. Then they back peddled a bit, but after BT’selem came out with facts and maps, and made them look the liars they always are, they are now reluctantly admitting they may have been the culprits. Oops they did it again.
This is the way they control the message, whenever they kill innocent Palestinians. Blame the victim every time, and then act the victim for world sympathy. It is not working this time.
Israeli snipers have killed medical personnel, journalists, and unarmed children. So who in their right mind thinks this time is different? The sadistic behavior of this despicable occupier has been documented and condemned, and still the US showers it with unwavering support.
It is time this rogue nation was boycotted, sanctioned, and treated like a pariah nation. Israel is the millstone that America keeps wearing on its neck. Cut the buggers off it is time.
The Guardian and Independent in the UK both headline their reports with unequivocal Israeli police/forces attack mourners. Even the NYT more or less says the same.
Germany has banned a vigil in her memory.