The funeral of American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh on Friday was one of the largest gatherings of Palestinians in recent memory in Occupied East Jerusalem.
Her brother, Anton Abu Akleh, had arrived from the US to oversee her funeral. He was called into Israeli Occupation police headquarters where they ordered him to not allow any traditional Palestinian funeral customs to be followed, such as: not carrying the coffin on the shoulders of pallbearers and not allowing any Palestinian flags to be displayed.
The Israeli Occupation forces killed Shireen Abu Akleh, and they wanted to orchestrate her funeral as well.
On Friday, the funeral route began at the French Hospital just outside the New Gate at noon.
As the pallbearers lifted her coffin onto their shoulders in the process of loading the coffin into a hearse, the Israeli police set off stun grenades and rushed forward and brutally beat the pallbearers and other mourners, including women, with metal batons. Videos of the scene showed a mixed crowd of men and women mourners who were there to accompany the coffin to the church and were beaten severely by the police, while none of the mourners had any weapons, or posed any threat. The unprovoked attack by the Israeli police, wearing full riot gear, was so forceful that at one point the coffin almost touched the ground, but at the last moment, one pallbearer was able to catch the edge and hold the coffin aloft once more.
The threat to the Israeli government, which prompted the violent response, was the presence of thousands of Palestinians carrying hundreds of Palestinian flags. The Israeli police were attacking and beating unarmed civilians, living under a brutal military occupation now lasting 74 years. The occupation of Palestine and subjugation of five million people is a threat to Israel that they are deadly afraid of.
From there the coffin was taken to the Cathedral of the Annunciation of the Virgin in Jerusalem's Old City.
After her funeral service, the coffin was then transported to the Melkite Catholic Cemetery section of the Mount Zion Cemetery complex where she was laid to rest next to her parents. She was born in Jerusalem, and her mother as well, but her father was from Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus Christ.
Rima Baqleh said, "This is the least I can do, participate in the funeral of this iconic woman who has changed the history of Palestine," she said. "For the first time, she managed to raise the Palestinian flag by thousands of Palestinian people in [Jerusalem's] Jaffa Gate."
On Wednesday morning, Abu Akleh was assassinated by an Israeli sniper while standing with a group of four journalists reporting on an Israeli raid into Jenin in the Occupied West Bank. The 25-year veteran journalist for Al Jazeera was wearing a blue flak jacket marked "PRESS" and a helmet. According to eyewitness accounts from the other journalists, one of whom was shot in the back, there were no Palestinian fighters present, only the Israeli commandos. Al Jazeera and many other international groups and bodies have demanded an impartial investigation into her killing.
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