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Church Leaders in Jerusalem Condemn Israeli Police Violence at St. Joseph Hospital during Abu Akleh’s Funeral

The funeral convoy of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. (Photo: via WAFA)

The top church leaders in Jerusalem condemned in a statement on Monday Israeli police brutality at St. Joseph’s hospital during the funeral of slain Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was shot and killed by Israeli forces in Jenin while covering an army raid into the northern West Bank city, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

“We, the Greek Patriarch of Jerusalem, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem and the Bishops and the faithful of the Christian Churches in the Holy Land, hereby condemn the violent intrusion of the Israeli Police into a funeral procession of the slain journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, as it was going from Saint Joseph Hospital to the Greek-Melkite Cathedral Church,” the church leaders said in a statement.

“The Police stormed into a Christian health institute, disrespecting the Church, disrespecting the health institute, disrespecting the memory of the deceased and forcing the pallbearers almost to drop the coffin,” they said.

“Israeli Police’s invasion and disproportionate use of force, attacking mourners, striking them with batons, using smoke grenades, shooting rubber bullets, frightening the hospital’s patients, is a severe violation of international norms and regulations, including the fundamental human right of freedom of religion, which must be observed also in a public space,” added the church leaders.

“The St. Joseph Hospital has always proudly been a place of encounter and healing for all, regardless of their religious or cultural belonging, and it intends to continue to be so. What happened last Friday deeply wounded not only the Christian community, the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Apparition, owner of the Hospital, and all the hospital staff, but also all peoples who in that place have found and still find peace and hospitality.

“The Sisters and the staff of St. Joseph Hospital will keep their commitment to be a place of healing.

“The tragic episode of last Friday makes this commitment even stronger than ever,” the leaders concluded their statement.

(WAFA, PC, Social Media)

3:12 pm | Posted in Blog | News | Read More »

Daoud Zubeidi, Brother of Zakaria, Succumbs to Wounds

Daoud Zubeidi, the brother of Palestinian prisoner Zakaria, succumbed on Sunday to the injuries he sustained at the hands of the Israeli forces- (Photo: via Social Media)

Daoud Zubeidi, the brother of Palestinian prisoner Zakaria, succumbed on Sunday to the injuries he sustained at the hands of the Israeli forces in the Jenin refugee camp, in the occupied West Bank, Al Mayadeen reported.

The Israeli forces had informed Zubeidi’s family that he had been detained and was in a critical condition.

“Daoud was transported from the Jenin Camp to a hospital in the ’48 territories due to the deterioration of his health condition, which was caused by the Israeli occupation assaulting him while storming Jenin Camp. He was detained today,” the family reported late Saturday.

On Friday morning, Al Mayadeen correspondent in Jenin reported that Israeli forces stormed the refugee camp and the town of Burqin. Daoud Zubeidi was shot in the abdomen and was later transferred to the Rambam Hospital in Haifa.

Daoud is the brother of renowned Palestinian prisoner Zakaria Zubeidi, one of six Palestinian prisoners who, on September 6, tunneled their way out of Gilboa prison.

(The Palestine Chronicle, Al Mayadeen, Social Media)

9:31 am | Posted in Blog | News | Read More »

Palestinians Urge Al Jazeera to Boycott Israelis after Abu Akleh’s Murder

Palestinians in Gaza mobilize following the murder of Shireen Abu Akleh. (Photo: Mahmoud Ajjour, The Palestine Chronicle)

Hundreds of Palestinians, including journalists and intellectuals, have signed a petition calling on Al Jazeera to stop hosting Israeli officials on the channel after veteran correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh was killed by Israeli troops, The New Arab reported.

“We appeal to the administration of Al Jazeera to stop hosting representatives of the criminal, racist, colonial Zionist entity who assassinated Shireen as part of an attempt to silence the voice of truth,” read the petition, published on Wednesday by the Palestine Forum – a Palestinian online platform hosting contributions from intellectuals across the Palestinian territories and the diaspora.

The letter was supported by several journalists working for Al Jazeera, including Ahmad Mansour (Egypt), Khadija Benguenna (Algeria) and Ghada Oueiss (Lebanon).

“And I add my voice today. There is no point in interviewing a lying criminal,” Oueiss wrote on Twitter after sharing the call to boycott.

Abu Akleh, a US-Palestinian dual national, had been reporting for Al Jazeera on an Israeli security raid in Jenin city while wearing a jacket that clearly identified her as ‘press’, when she was shot by an Israeli sniper.

She was laid to rest in Jerusalem on Friday amid brutal Israeli police violence at her funeral. The police attacked her funeral procession in occupied East Jerusalem, assaulted mourners and fired teargas and rubber-coated bullets, injuring at least fourteen people.

(The New Arab, PC, Social Media)

3:25 pm | Posted in Blog | News | Videos | Read More »

Thousands of Palestinians Mark 74th Anniversary of the Nakba

Thousands of Palestinians march in Ramallah to commemorate the 74th anniversary of the 1948 Nakba. (Photo: via WAFA)

Thousands of Palestinians marked today the 74thanniversary of the Nakba of 1948 when approximately 800,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed from their homes in historic Palestine by invading Zionist militias.

In Ramallah, in the center of the occupied West Bank, hundreds gathered outside President Yasser Arafat Mausoleum and waved flags of Palestine, black banners, and keys of return to affirm the right of return of the Palestinian refugees and their offspring to their pre-1948 homes.

The participants then marched to Manara Square in downtown Ramallah where a central rally was held commemorating the event.

The Nakba anniversary events this year are organized under the slogan “Enough with 74 years of injustice and double standards”, which embodies the continuing injustice inflicted upon the Palestinian people to date by the Israeli occupation and the failure of the international community to implement its resolution.

The word “Nakba” means “catastrophe” in Arabic, and refers to the systematic ethnic cleansing of two-thirds of the Palestinian population at the time by Zionist paramilitaries between 1947-1949 and the near-total destruction of Palestinian society.

This year marks 74 years of Al-Nakba or the Palestinian experience of dispossession and loss of a homeland.

The anniversary comes at a time when many are angered by the killing of the cold-blooded murder of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by Israeli occupation forces last week in Jenin.

(WAFA, PC, Social Media)

2:46 pm | Posted in Blog | News | Read More »

‘Culture of Impunity Must End’: UN Demands Investigation into Israeli Attack on Funeral Procession

Michelle Bachelet, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. (Photo: File)

United Nations High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet condemned the Israeli police attack on Palestinian mourners in a statement issued on Saturday. 

Palestinians were attacked as they were attempting to carry the coffin of iconic journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was murdered by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank city of Jenin on May 11.

“Footage of Israeli police attacking mourners at the funeral procession of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in East Jerusalem on Friday 13 May was shocking,” Bachelet said.

“The Israeli use of force, which was being filmed and broadcast live,” Bachelet added, “must be promptly and transparently investigated.”

Bachelet went on to say that “there must be accountability for the terrible killing not just of Shireen Abu Akleh but for all the killings and serious injuries in the occupied Palestinian territory”.

“The culture of impunity must end now”, Bachelet concluded.

(The Palestine Chronicle)

3:46 pm | Posted in Blog | News | Read More »

US Senator Sanders: “Israeli Attack on Abu Akleh’s Funeral is Outrageous”

Israeli forces attack Palestinian mourners carrying the coffin casket containing the body of Shireen Abu Akleh. (Photo: Oren Ziv, via Twitter)

US Senator Bernie Sanders strongly condemned in a tweet on Friday the attack on the funeral of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh carried out by Israeli forces, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

Abu Akleh was killed by Israeli occupation forces in Jenin earlier this week.

“The attack by Israeli forces against mourners at the funeral of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh is an outrage,” said Sanders in a tweet.

“The United States must condemn this, and demand an independent investigation into her killing.”

A sizable Israeli police force cordoned off Friday the Saint Joseph Hospital, where the body of Shireen Abu Akleh is kept, setting up barricades at the hospital entrances and along the roads where her funeral procession is pass, not allowing Palestinian vehicles or pedestrians to pass.

Mounted police on horseback and scores of heavily-armed police afterward stormed the hospital and attacked dozens of mourners who were shouting slogans condemning the Israeli occupation and raising Palestinian flags.

Israeli police attacked the youth mourners insisting on carrying the coffin in their hands to the church before ultimately allowing a funeral vehicle to carry the coffin without being accompanied by the extraordinary number of mourners.

(The Palestine Chronicle, WAFA, Social Media)

2:46 pm | Posted in Blog | News | Read More »

German Police Block Vigil to Commemorate Palestinian Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh

A vigil to commemorate Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in Gaza. (Photo: Mahmoud Ajjour, The Palestine Chronicle)

German police blocked a vigil meant to take place in Berlin on Friday to commemorate Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed by Israeli forces in Jenin, The New Arab reported.

Pro-Palestine Jewish organization Jüdische Stimme arranged the Friday vigil for Abu Akleh, only to be informed by police that their commemoration was prohibited.

It comes amid a ban by German local police on several other pro-Palestine demonstrations leading up to May 15, when Palestinians commemorate Nakba Day to remember the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians forcibly displaced from their homes for the creation of the Israeli state in 1948.

In addition to Friday’s vigil for Abu Akleh, five pro-Palestine demonstrations that were supposed to take place in Berlin this weekend have also been blocked.

In response to questions about the ban, Berlin police referred The New Arab to a statement it released on May 12.

“After evaluating all circumstances and findings and weighing up all interests… the Berlin police today banned several assemblies reported for the coming days, as well as the holding of any replacement event in Berlin until May 15, 2022,” the statement read.

Many Palestinians and supporters of Palestine have long complained Germany’s institutional and media climate is hostile to them and their activism.

(The New Arab, PC, Social Media)

2:22 pm | Posted in Blog | News | Read More »

Palestinian Youth Succumbs to Wounds Sustained by Israeli Gunfire in Jerusalem

Walid al-Sharif was killed by Israeli forces in Jerusalem. (Photo: via Social Media)

A 23-year-old Palestinian succumbed to his wounds on Saturday, after being shot in the head by a rubber-coated metal bullet fired by Israeli occupation forces at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on April 22, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

Walid al-Sharif, a resident of the Beit Hanina neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem, has died in the hospital after being in a coma since his injury, according to his brother Abdul Rahman.

Israeli forces arrested al-Sharif after shooting him, exacerbating his injury before he was taken to hospital.

Al-Sharif was injured on the third Friday of Ramadan when Israeli occupation forces attacked the Palestinian worshippers injuring 152 people and detaining more than 500 others.

(WAFA, PC, Social Media)

6:50 am | Posted in Blog | News | Read More »

China Supports Transparent, Independent Investigation into Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh

Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was killed by Israeli forces in Jenin. (Photo. Abu Akleh FB Page)

China expressed on Thursday its support for a transparent and independent inquiry into the killing of veteran Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

Speaking at a regular press conference in Beijing, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian said:

“China consistently rejects and strongly condemns violence against journalists doing their job. We hope the incident will be handled in a just manner according to law.”

With regards to opening a transparent and independent investigation into Abu Akleh’s killing, he said that “China supports it in principle. We think the incident should be handled in a just manner.”

Abu Akleh, 51, was fatally shot by Israeli military gunfire during an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank early Wednesday morning. She was wearing a press vest and a helmet when she was killed.

A second journalist, Ali Samoudi, was shot in the back during the same incident and was reported to be in stable condition.

(WAFA, PC, Social Media)

12:12 pm | Posted in Blog | News | Read More »

WATCH: Israeli Forces Attack Mourners Carrying Body of Iconic Palestinian Journalist

Israeli forces attack Palestinian mourners carrying the coffin casket containing the body of Shireen Abu Akleh. (Photo: Oren Ziv, via Twitter)

Israeli police attacked on Friday the mourners carrying the coffin casket containing the body of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

A sizable Israeli police force cordoned off Saint Joseph Hospital, where the body of Shireen Abu Akleh is kept, setting up barricades at the hospital entrances and along the roads where her funeral procession is pass, not allowing Palestinian vehicles or pedestrians to pass.

Mounted police on horseback and scores of heavily-armed police afterward stormed the hospital and attacked dozens of mourners who were shouting slogans condemning the Israeli occupation and raising Palestinian flags.

Israeli police attacked the youth mourners insisting on carrying the coffin on their hands to the church before ultimately allowing a funeral vehicle to carry the coffin without being accompanied by the extraordinary number of mourners.

(WAFA, PC, Social Media)

11:31 am | Posted in Blog | News | Videos | Read More »
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