[Id: a video of an Al Jazeera live feed, showing Shireen Abu Akleh’s funeral procession. Hundreds of Palestinians stand, waving Palestinian flags and at the forefront, a group carries Shireen’s casket. A line of IOF soldiers, wearing helmets and batons, blocks their passage and soon descends on the Palestinians. The soldiers push against the people carrying the casket, that’s almost dropped. A journalist says “I’ve looked at news around the world through decades and I’ve never seen a scene like this. Look at this! Attacking innocent people carrying the casket. I don’t know what to say, I don’t know what to say anymore! What are they expecting now? This is unbelievable. Such disrespect for the dead and for those who are mourning the dead. How is that a security threat to anyone? How does it require this kind of repression, this kind of violence on the part of the Israelis?” / end id]
On 11/05, Shireen Abu Akleh, a beloved Palestinian journalist, was shot dead by Israeli Occupation Forces.
They still covered her casket with the Palestinian flag. The IOF descended on the crowd gathered for the funeral procession and targetting the pallbearers, almost dropping the coffin. The video is harrowing and painful to watch. They didn’t want Palestinians to mourn over her casket so they only allowed her to leave the hospital in a closed car, and still ripped the Palestinian flag from the car,while arresting several others for simply raising the flag.
It’s our job to give dignity to Shireen’s memory, that the Israeli government is trying so hard to slander. She put herself in the line of fire of her colonizers to amplify the plight of her people. The least we can do is follow journalists and activists and organize, as Al Jazeera has broadcast:
Israel will not hold itself to account, just like its apartheid regime won’t dismantle itself. International stakeholders who do not call this out simply cast themselves as a cog in Israel’s whitewashing machine.
It’s the time to take Palestinians side. It’s not the time to dispute BDS guidelines, with basic stuff like supporting Eurovision.
This is the time to act on your anger and support the armed resistance. There’s a clear shift happening on the way the international community talks about Palestine. Within our lifetimes, Palestine will be free.
