Bishop slams Israel ‘police raid’
THE Roman Catholic archbishop in Jerusalem yesterday strongly criticised Israel’s “police invasion” last week of a Christian hospital ahead of the funeral of slain Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh.
An organisation representing 12 Christian denominations also condemned the Israeli riot police charge, describing the actions as a violation of freedom of religion.
The veteran journalist was shot dead during an Israeli army raid in the West Bank. Palestinians and the TV network said Israeli troops killed her, while Israel said Palestinian gunfire may be to blame. Anger over her death was compounded on Friday when baton-wielding Israeli police in annexed east Jerusalem beat pallbearers carrying Abu Akleh’s coffin, covered by a Palestinian flag.
The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, yesterday condemned “Israel’s police invasion and disproportionate use of force” at St Joseph’s hospital, where her body was being held. At a press conference at the hospital, he criticised Israeli police for “attacking mourners, striking them with batons, using smoke grenades (and) shooting rubber bullets”.
Police had stormed the hospital, “disrespecting the church, disrespecting the health institute, disrespecting the memory of the deceased, and forcing the pallbearers to almost drop the coffin,” said Pizzaballa, speaking on behalf of the bishops of the Holy Land.
The hospital is owned by the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition, a French-founded congregation that has been in former Palestine and Israel for nearly 200 years.
Israeli police have vowed to investigate the chaotic incident, which was broadcast live worldwide and sparked widespread condemnation including from the US, EU and UN.
Those calls echoed global demands for an impartial probe into the death
of Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American, who Al Jazeera said was killed by Israel “deliberately” and “in cold blood”.
Israel’s army has said it was not yet clear if she was killed by stray Palestinian gunfire or by Israeli sniper fire aimed at nearby militants in the West Bank flashpoint district of Jenin.
Israeli police have meanwhile offered a series of explanations for the unrest on the day of her funeral. In a police video, an officer is seen telling the crowd the procession would not begin until the crowd stopped “nationalistic”, or Palestinian, chants. Israeli forces frequently crack down on individuals publicly expressing their Palestinian identity, including by waving the flag.