The French newspaper Le Monde said that the funeral of Al-Jazeera journalist Sherine Abu Akleh was marred by violence by the Israeli police, in a desperate attempt to prevent Palestinians from escorting the funeral procession through the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood while carrying Palestinian flags in a solemn procession reminding that Jerusalem is the capital of the Palestinian state. .
The reporter described how the police pushed those who carried the coffin of the late journalist towards the gates towards the street, chased them and beat them, until one of them received at least 10 blows with batons in the ribs and shoulder with a kick in the buttocks, causing the coffin to collapse and tilt the coffin at a 45-degree angle without falling.
An Israeli officer had earlier warned the French consul and heir to the legacy of the Ottoman era, Rene Trokaz, and said that he did not want to see Palestinian flags or hear patriotic chants, "but no one can control that," and indicated that Paris is still the symbolic protector of a hospital. Saint Joseph, in which was the body of Abu Aqila.
The reporter cautioned that the Jerusalem police have been actively working for a decade to remove Palestinian flags from the city, even though Israeli law does not prevent their hoisting or singing, and this obsession reached its climax in the past three days, but to no avail.
He stressed that the Palestinians have been waving Palestinian flags throughout the burial ceremony of Shireen Abu Aqila, while they are waiting on the roadsides for the convoy to pass.
When the body finally arrived at the Melkite Roman Catholic cathedral near the Jaffa Gate, a song was sung in the alley of the Old City, honoring Muhammad Deif, the military commander of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the Gaza Strip, and the mass sounded "confused and tense, because everyone wants to be near Shirin." Bishop Yasser Ayyash says that he has not seen his city gather in this way around a funeral since the funeral of Faisal Husseini, representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Jerusalem in 2001.
Under the windows of the Petra Hotel, Catholic scouts descended on Patriarch Street in front of the sarcophagus that floats above the heads, and they led the crowd to an old national tune "I write my country's name on the sun", and others followed them in an impressive procession - according to the reporter - extending south along the old city wall, but Israeli police stormed it to seize the Palestinian flag.
This procession is a reminder of the reality - as the reporter says - because Israel considers Jerusalem its "unified" capital, but the number of Palestinian residents in it since the occupation of the eastern part of the city in 1967 has been steadily increasing, to the extent that this holy city has become Arab now by 40% after that percentage was It does not exceed 25% in 1967. As for the old city, the proportion of Arabs is 90%.
The reporter concluded that it is difficult to predict what could move this city and what could unite its people outside the “defense” of the Islamic holy sites in Al-Aqsa, but this Friday it gathered around the remains of a 51-year-old Christian woman who did not play any political or military role. For two decades, it has been chronicling the misery of the occupation.