Jenin -

However, the young Sharif Al-Azab was lifting stones and adjusting the wreaths and support cards scattered at the place of martyrdom of journalist Sherine Abu Akleh, and with another he removed the dust that hung over her pictures and the hanging condolence banners that she had accumulated 100 days since her departure.

Here, at the western entrance to the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank, or what has become known as the “Martyr Sherine Abu Aqleh Monument,” the 21-year-old bachelor came with his friend Sami Abu Obeid. - to do it all the time.

And 100 days ago, in a situation described as "heroic", Al-Azab ventured to reach the martyr Sherine, who was fighting her last moments, and was able to lift her with his slender arms and drag her to the ambulance about 15 meters away under the continuous showers of bullets, in an attempt to save her without knowing her.

The bachelor lived the entire scene of martyrdom with its weight and difficulty, and he did not forget the horror of what happened to her while she was covered with her blood that drowned his clothes, and as he said, he became connected in spirit and body to the place, and he visited it constantly.

Sharif Al-Azab, who ventured to reach Sherine Abu Aqleh after she was injured in an attempt to save her (Al-Jazeera)

Sherine.. the pulse of the place and its memory

"At home, I keep my clothes soaked in Shireen's blood in a glass box, and one of them paid me 50 grams of gold, so I refused to give it up," Al-Azab told Al Jazeera Net.

Singles do not stop visiting the place of the assassination, whether as a witness and narrator of what happened or by visiting and cleaning it, as is the case with many of the people of Jenin and its camp.

This is also the case for Sami Abu Obeid (Rafiq Al-Azab), who says that Shireen was engraved in their memory and lived in it since childhood and grew up on her voice and image, and for this he comes to the place of her martyrdom from time to time to remember the event.

Abu Obeid told Al Jazeera Net that Sherine revived the place with her martyrdom, and it started beating with her story to the near and far, "and it will remain so even if its features change after 100 years and not 100 days."

The place where Shirin was assassinated turned into a shrine (Al-Jazeera)

Like Abu Obaid, Maher Halassi stood in front of the carob tree, where Shireen was martyred, and he contemplated the entire scene, before engraving his name on its trunk.

Halsey and his friends traveled dozens of kilometers from Jerusalem to visit the site, and said that he engraved his name on the tree, "so that I will remember Shirin whenever I visit the place, and my name will remain here if I am gone."

For a while, Halsey and his Jerusalem friends recalled some of their childhood memories with Shirin, the daughter of their city, and said that "she had an innocent childish face and long hair...".


Shrine and witness to the crime

In the place, too, everything beats reminding two good news: the huge placards, memorial plaques, condolence cards, and the inscriptions on the tree trunk that bore the names of the cities and towns of those who visited the place from Palestine and the world as well.

To further consolidate the memory of the place, the plastic artist, Muhammad Al-Shalabi (son of Jenin camp), painted Shirin’s first mural shortly after her martyrdom on the wall near which her body fell.

Among the phrases written by the young before the adults in the place that has become a shrine, a charcoal board appears, on which the words "She died who did not deserve death at the hands of those who did not deserve to live" were written.

As for the wreaths, it is another story, as some of them hardly dry up until the place is filled with new ones, and some of them are scattered roses that the camp residents bring from their homes.

Artist Mohamed El Shalaby in front of a mural he painted by Sherine at the place of her martyrdom (Al Jazeera)

national teacher

The passers-by in front of the Sherine Monument do not get tired of standing there and contemplating the place. While some are satisfied with looking inside their vehicle and filming from afar, others get out and inspect the site, especially the location of the bullets that made an impact in the tree trunk, and others take pictures of them.

Although 100 days have passed since the assassination of Shirin Abu Aqleh, the visitors did not stop, individually and in groups, such as those who came with the young man Uday Ammar from the city of Tulkarm as part of an introductory activity in the city of Jenin and its most prominent landmarks. .

He added to Al Jazeera Net, "We brought more than 50 young men and women to see the crime scene that the occupation committed and is still against the Palestinian journalist."

As we were leaving, one of them told a group that came to visit him that this place is a symbol of Jenin and its camp, which Shireen Abu Aqleh loved, and he will remain the living witness who addresses the world in search of the truth of her assassination, which the occupation denies.