The funeral of an Al Jazeera reporter escalated into violence between Palestinians and Israeli security forces.
Clashes erupted in Jerusalem on Friday during the funeral of Shireen Abu Akleh, a veteran Palestinian journalist who had worked at Al Jazeera for more than two decades. The reporter was killed earlier this week under unclear circumstances during an Israeli military raid in the West Bank.
Israeli police blamed the violence on Palestinian “rioters” who allegedly pelted the hospital compound from which the funeral procession began with stones. Policemen “were forced to act,” Tel Aviv insisted, with security forces deploying crowd control measures to disperse the “rioters.”
כך נראית אלימות משטרית, ליד הכנסייה הכתולית בירושלים במסע הלווית העיתונאית שירין אבו עאקלה. pic.twitter.com/Gv3qzCIhbs
— Deiaa haj yahia-ضياء حاج يحيى (@DeiaaHaj) May 13, 2022
Footage from the scene shows Israeli police charging the funeral procession and beating Palestinians with batons. People carrying the reporter’s coffin were apparently targeted as well, nearly dropping the casket on the ground. At least 10 Palestinians were injured in the violence.
Unbelievable pictures of Israeli forces attacking mourners carrying the coffin of Shireen Abu Akleh to church for her funeral in Occupied East Jerusalem.
Absolutely heart stopping moment when it looks like casket may fall.
Live coverage on @AJEnglish pic.twitter.com/k5OYh5POwq— Barbara Serra (@BarbaraGSerra) May 13, 2022
Abu Akleh was killed on Wednesday during a military raid on the city of Jenin in the northern part of the West Bank. The Palestinian authorities were quick to blame the Israeli forces for her death, claiming the 51-year-old journalist was shot in her head. Another Palestinian journalist, Ali Samoudi, was reportedly wounded in the back during the deadly raid on the city. He was hospitalized in stable condition.
Al Jazeera, a state-owned Qatari network, has strongly condemned the killing of the reporter, branding it a “heinous crime” and pinning the blame on Israel for her death.
“We hold the Israeli government and the occupation forces responsible for the killing of the late colleague Shireen,” the network said in a statement, urging an independent and transparent investigation.
While Israel has expressed its readiness to conduct a joint probe into the incident with the Palestinian authorities, it demanded they surrender the bullet that mortally wounded Abu Akleh. The Palestinian Authority, however, has rejected the initiative.
On Friday, the Israeli military released an interim report on the incident. The report, however, lacked any conclusions, merely stating it was impossible to determine whether the fatal bullet was fired by Israeli troops or some Palestinian militants.
While I am sympathetic to journalists in the conflict zone and there should not be any targetted killing of journalists, particularly female journalists, Al Jazeera is a highly biased news media.
There is a large religion element in what Al Jazeera airs as news. They do provide news space for Iran as well as Saudis but that does not mean they are unbiased. There is a strong poltical interest for Qatari to be the leader of the middle Eastern countries. There is also a huge business interest that biases Al Jazeera. They are the biggest gas producers, and so they have taken side with US & EU in the Ukaranian conflict. Unverified Ukranian propaganda is played on Al Jazeera all the time. There is little balance in what they report in this conflict. They never mention about the human shields or the placement of arms ammunition in civilian places including schools, hospitals and Malls by the Ukranian neonazis, and their army. There is hardly any mention that Russians are following the rules of engagement in the conflict. Ukraanian forces occupy apartments, break the intern walls so that they can run inside and fire on the Russian and DPR forces. What Al Jazeera does is to create a false image to the viewing public.
There are many isnrances in the past, Al Jazeera tried to defend terrorists; for example, the terrorist occupation of Mumbai hotels were organised by Pakistanis. Al Jazeera claimed for long that there is no evidence and Pakistanis wont do it and blamed on the terrorists within India. They do take sides and reports conflicts in a biased way.
Al Jazeera is just another MSM in which the American and British media has partnership. Many of the top Al Jazeera executives are ex-Brtish journalists. Hillay Clinton praised “Al Jazeera is the REAL news”. It says it all.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hillary-clinton-calls-al-_n_830890
It really is shocking when journalists are targeted. It feels appalling and shamefull. Be it women or men. There may be more targeted if they keep employing propaganda. It is just as easy for governments to make these kind of “mistakes” if journalists pedal a devious agenda but in the case of Isreal it feels entitled and enabled to get away with whatever it chooses to do. Something like this happens here and there. Recently in Mexico. But the MSM are against AMLO and they were promoting UN lies.
Thanks for you insightful comments smizingsue. I kinda don’t like to watch all Jazeera too but I do like to read the comments from people on these pages.
It really is lunatic to hear the rantings of Hilary Clinton so that was a good laugh.
Qatari corruption wont be reported by Al Jazeera
https://nypost.com/2022/06/08/fbi-seizes-electronic-data-of-former-general-john-r-allen-in-qatar-lobbying-investigation/