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A human tide participated this Friday in the funeral of the Al-Jezira reporter killed on Wednesday in the West Bank. The Israeli police violently attacked those carrying Palestinian flags.
Sometimes war continues even after death. The body of Shireen Abu Akleh rested this Friday in the funeral parlor of the so-called “French” hospital of Saint-Joseph, in Jerusalem. The entire courtyard was decked out in Palestinian flags. Enough to arouse the ire of the Israeli security forces who came to snatch them the day before from the home of the deceased, hung up by bereaved compatriots. In the holy city, the police take care to confiscate the slightest pennant of Palestine, according to a directive from the attorney general considering “that waving flags can lead to serious disturbances of public order” – although the government, then the Supreme Court, recalled in September that it was not illegal.
So, around noon, when the coffin appeared entirely draped in black, white, green and red, the authorities prohibited its release until this emblem was removed. The Palestinians did not give in. Shireen Abu Akleh was their voice, for more than twenty years, following the slightest jolt of an endless conflict. For them, this Wednesday morning, at the gates of Jenin, she was killed by the shooting of an Israeli soldier. It doesn’t matter if the conclusion of the army’s preliminary report considers ‘that it is not possible to determine the source of the ti…