TEL AVIV: Palestinians rallied on Sunday to mark the “Nakba,” or catastrophe, 74 years after Israel’s creation, with condemnation spreading over a police raid on the funeral of a slain journalist.
The annual demonstrations across the occupied West Bank, annexed east Jerusalem and inside Israel came with tensions high over the killing of 51-year-old Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh.
The Palestinian-American was shot dead on Wednesday during an Israeli raid in Jenin, a West Bank flashpoint. A prominent Palestinian activist wounded in clashes there, Daoud al Zubaidi, died from his injuries in an Israeli hospital on Sunday.
Israeli police have vowed to investigate the chaos that marred the day of Abu Akleh’s funeral, after television footage seen across the globe showed pallbearers struggling to stop the casket from toppling to the ground as baton-wielding police descended upon them, grabbing Palestinian flags.
The scenes on Friday sparked international condemnation, including from the United States, European Union and United Nations. Late South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s foundation said Israeli police “attacking pallbearers” was “chillingly reminiscent of the brutality” seen at the funerals of anti-apartheid activists.
As Israel reopened following the Shabbat pause, local commentators joined the chorus lambasting the raid as Abu Akleh’s coffin emerged from Jerusalem’s St Joseph’s hospital. “The footage from Friday,” wrote Oded Shalom in leading Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot, “documented a shocking display of unbridled brutality and violence”. — AFP
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