Israeli police beat mourners at journalist's funeral

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By JOSEPH KRAUSS

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli police on Friday moved in on a crowd of mourners at the funeral of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, beating demonstrators with batons and causing pallbearers to briefly drop the casket.

The crackdown came during a rare show of Palestinian nationalism in east Jerusalem — the part of the holy city that Israel captured in 1967 and that the Palestinians claim as their capital.

Israel says east Jerusalem is part of its capital and has annexed the area in a move that is not internationally recognized. Israel routinely clamps down on any displays of support for Palestinian statehood.

Thousands of mourners, some hoisting Palestinian flags and chanting “Palestine, Palestine,” attended the funeral for Abu Akleh, who witnesses say was shot and killed by Israeli forces earlier this week while covering a military raid in the occupied West Bank.



Mourners gather at the hospital where the body of slain Al Jazeera veteran journalist Shireen Abu Akleh will be taken from to to her final resting place, in east Jerusalem, Friday, May 13, 2022. Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American reporter who covered the Mideast conflict for more than 25 years, was shot dead Wednesday during an Israeli military raid in the West Bank town of Jenin.(AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/shireen-abu-akleh-journalist-funeral-west-bank-bb71e2ec64dd034066bc6df4a9aa2fb3

[niyad]

1. Words fail.

[underpants]

3. No kidding

[blm]

4. Horrifying.

[mountain grammy]

2. Sickening.

[moonshinegnomie]

5. its time for the US to cut israel off from aid

and i say this as a jew

[Mosby]

12. Cool story.

Enjoy your stay.

[McKim]

29. Yes Our Tax Dollars!!!

Yes, our tax dollars are funding human rights violations in Israel/Palestine! Time for a reckoning!

[TheRickles]

6. I hope a significant number of American politicians speak up about this outrage.

Even though they'll probably be labeled as anti-Semitic.

[Samrob]

15. They won't. Maybe Bernie? nt

[Bayard]

7. Unconscionable

At a funeral, for gawdsakes! I'm thinking our government should say something about this. She was an American.

[Mosby]

10. A group of Muslim men hijacked the funeral.

Abu Akleh was a Palestinian Christian, she was supposed to be placed in a hearse and taken to a Catholic church in Jerusalem’s Old City, and then a procession to the Christian cemetery where she was to be buried in a family plot. This was all agreed upon ahead of time by Israeli authorities and her FAMILY.

Instead her casket was taken over by Muslims, to be taken to God knows where, prompting her brother to scream, from atop another person's shoulders “For God’s sake, let us put her in the car and finish the day,”

But that didn't happen....

[Bayard]

21. Well, that's different

This isn't in any of the reporting I've seen. Do you have a link?

[McKim]

30. Yes, Do You Have Proof?

Yes, do you have proof, footage? You seem to have a lot of special information, so please share it.

[karynnj]

25. Do you have a valid link to your accusation?

It is not in the NYT or Haaretz stories.

The fact is this attack on mourners appears to happen as they enter a church -- yes, a church. It may be that given that attack, plans to have a ceremonial procession to a Christian cemetery were changed. That could even be the context if the brother's statement is accurate.

This is beyond stupid on the part of Israeli authorities. This was the funeral of an AMERICAN dual citizen, a Christian and a respected journalism of 25 years. This MAY show the limbo that Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem neighborhoods exist in that is little known to most Americans.

[Marius25]

26. It was mentioned in the Washington Post article.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/05/13/shireen-abu-akleh-al-jazeera-israel-jenin/


A bunch of Palestinians interrupted the funeral (she's Christian not Muslim) and demanded she be carried on their shoulders while they were chanting in Arabic. Her mourners were yelling demanding they let the Hearse through.

Supposedly rocks were being thrown too, but I haven't seen that confirmed yet.

While it's a bad look for Israel, it's not as innocent as it sounds among the other groups. There was a clash between Christian mourners and Muslims.

[robbob]

40. So the people identified as "pallbearers" in the posted article

might be more accurately described as “body snatchers”? I’m not happy with the Israeli police and their heavy handed response, but this info definitely casts the story in an entirely different light.

[Deuxcents]

8. Time to cut off their allowance

Israel won their independence on May 14, 1948...74 years ago. They are an apartheid system n we should not be supporting it.

[Bayard]

22. Agreed

They are not a poor country. I put this in the same category as subsidizing oil companies.

[Marius25]

27. You don't know what Apartheid means.

[OrangeJoe]

37. I do

I lived and worked in a "Front Line State" in Africa bordering on South Africa during the apartheid era. I then traveled to Israel and the Occupied Territories after that. The main difference in the two systems was that white South Africans tended to be paternalistic towards Africans. They would tell me how Africans "are like children, they don't want to work or organize a government, etc." Demeaning and racist but at the same time almost every white South African had an African family of servants living on their property and maintained that if the other Blacks were like "their" Blacks things would be ok.

Israelis on the other hand frequently told me how much the hated "the Arabs", wanted them to go back to another Arab country, that they were animals (cockroaches one person told me), etc. I personally observed armed Israeli settlers push old Palestinian men off a sidewalk, bully their way everywhere, saw police rudely questioning Arabs, demanding documents and just generally fucking with them to an extent I never witnessed in South Africa. And by the way South African police were no sweethearts.

So yeah I do know what apartheid is and it is alive and well in Israel.

[marie999]

9. It didn't bother Israel when they killed 34 American servicemen.

Why would it bother them to kill Palestinians?

[Mosby]

11. Palestinians have murdered 19 Israelis in the past MONTH

For nothing.

[Samrob]

17. Better check that info. Always go back to the initiating incident. Many were acts of retaliation.

[Marius25]

28. And people here don't care.

The only stories that ever get attention among them are when Palestinians are attacked, not Jews.

[SunImp]

13. I'm glad that this is getting more attention

Palestinian and anti Israeli attacks always seem to get covered by the news outlets while cases of abuse and other brutality by Israeli forces appear to mostly get thrown under the rug.

[Mosby]

14. They were following her families wishes.

She's a Christian, the route was worked out ahead of time with the authorities and her FAMILY. Then a group of Muslim men came and took her corpse. The security forces responded.

Her own brother said: "For God’s sake, let us put her in the car and finish the day,”

[Samrob]

18. This had very little to do with her "religion" and everything to do with what she was reporting on.

Anything else bought into the equation is a diversion from the actual murder.

[Mosby]

19. The murder by Palestinians.

Directly or indirectly they are at fault.

They are largely responsible for the current situation.

They refuse to negotiate.

They refuse to have elections.

They refuse to stop paying stipends to murderer families.

They refuse to allow Jews to pray at their holiest site.

They have murdered 19 Israelis in the past month.

They refuse to stop terrorism.

They are dealing with gang wars in Jenin.

The closer we get to Abu mavens demise, the worse the violence is going to get. Hamas and Iran are wetting themselves about the prospect of taking over the WB, and if they do, the Paleatinians are going to suffer like never before, sadly.

[McKim]

31. That's quite a story!!!!!

That's quite a story! I wonder how much is factual.

[Fla Dem]

23. Please provide a link to your source.

This is an updated AP report (16 minutes ago) No mention of Muslim inciters or intruders.

Israeli police beat pallbearers at journalist’s funeral
By JOSEF FEDERMAN
16 minutes ago

https://apnews.com/article/shireen-abu-akleh-journalist-funeral-west-bank-bb71e2ec64dd034066bc6df4a9aa2fb3/gallery/5e0ec313857843a0976e8ef3cecb1d36

No question the procession may have become large and unruly, but see no claim of Muslim interference.

Where did you read her brother said "For God’s sake, let us put her in the car and finish the day,” as a result of Muslim interfrence, or maybe it was just because the crowd became too large and police too violent.

[Mosby]

36. Wapo

By noon, a crowd of several hundred formed at the entrance to St. Joseph’s Hospital in East Jerusalem, where Abu Akleh’s body had rested overnight. In the minutes before the procession was due to leave the hospital, several dozen Muslim men lined up for Friday prayers, kneeling in the parking lot. Behind them, two mourners held up large floral crosses. Then the crowd gathered, with Palestinian flags waving.

“God is greatest,” some chanted in Arabic. “From Jerusalem to Jenin, God bless your soul, Shireen.”

But a group of men in the crowd prevented a hearse from backing up to the hospital door, saying they were intent on carrying her body on their shoulders. The standoff eventually prompted Akleh’s brother, sitting on a man’s shoulders, to beseech the crowd to let the hearse through. “For God’s sake, let us put her in the car and finish the day,” he said.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/05/13/shireen-abu-akleh-al-jazeera-israel-jenin/

[sarisataka]

16. It appears there may be another side to the story

According to NPR there were mourners and protesters both present. The protesters were interfering with the funeral, turning it into a political demonstration and throwing things at the police. The protesters refused to listen to the families request to allow them to proceed on foot with the casket to the church so they had to have a vehicle drive them.

Did the Israeli police overreact or mistake some mourners for protesters? Maybe/possibly or even probably. But the AP article leaves out several key facts.

[Fla Dem]

20. Would you please provide a link to your source.

Israeli police beat pallbearers at journalist’s funeral
By JOSEF FEDERMAN
49 minutes ago (as of 2:25 EDT)

https://apnews.com/article/shireen-abu-akleh-journalist-funeral-west-bank-bb71e2ec64dd034066bc6df4a9aa2fb3

This is an updated AP article with no mention of Muslim intruders, disrupters.

[sarisataka]

24. My apologies, they did not say protesters

But called them demonstrators. I do not see if they were identified as Muslim but later the article notes that the mourners at the service and cemetery included both Christians ans Muslims.

https://www.npr.org/2022/05/13/1098763536/israeli-police-beat-mourners-at-a-slain-al-jazeera-journalists-funeral

[McKim]

32. See the Washington Post Video

See the Washington Post video right now of police beating them.

[burrowowl]

33. Sad! Truly sad!

[Ziggysmom]

34. The Times of Israel story:

"The police said in a subsequent statement that it intervened at the hospital because rioters had seized the casket against the wishes of the family and prevented it from being loaded onto a hearse, as previously agreed, for that part of the funeral procession."


https://www.timesofisrael.com/scenes-from-one-part-of-a-funeral-as-shireen-abu-akleh-is-laid-to-rest-in-jerusalem/

[Duppers]

35. That's not what the video showed.

They are lying.

[ck4829]

38. ...

[zanana1]

39. Whenever the Holocaust is mentioned, it breaks my heart.

But then I see what's going on in Israel and I'm conflicted.