Images of the journalist’s funeral Shireen Abu Akleh have traveled the world. After the international outcry aroused by the charge of the police to disperse Palestinian demonstrators, the Israeli police announced, Saturday, May 14, the forthcoming opening of an investigation. The decision was taken by the National Police Commissioner in coordination with the Minister of Public Security, the statement released during the Jewish weekly Shabbat rest day said. “The findings of the investigation will be presented to the commissioner in the coming days.”
On Friday, thousands of Palestinians attended the funeral of the American-Palestinian journalist for Al-Jazeera TV, who was shot in the head on Wednesday while covering an Israeli military raid in the Jenin refugee camp, in West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967. She wore a bulletproof vest marked “press” and a reporter’s helmet.
As the coffin was released from St. Joseph’s Hospital in East Jerusalem, a Palestinian sector of the city also occupied by Israel, police burst into the facility and attempted to disperse a crowd waving Palestinian flags . The coffin almost fell from the hands of the bearers who were hit by police armed with batons but was caught in extremis, according to images broadcast on social networks and television.
In its statement on Saturday, the Israeli police explained that its “officers had been exposed to the violence of the rioters, which prompted them to use force”. “The police support their officers (…) but would like to learn from this incident”.