Shireen mourners ‘beaten’
ISRAELI police moved in on a crowd of mourners at the funeral of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh – beating demonstrators with batons and causing pall-bearers to drop her coffin.
The crackdown came during a rare show of Palestinian nationalism in east Jerusalem – the part of the holy city Israel captured in 1967 and Palestinians claim as their capital.
Israel says east Jerusalem is part of its capital and has annexed the area in a move not internationally recognised.
Israel routinely clamps down on any displays of support for Palestinian statehood there.
Thousands of mourners, some hoisting Palestinian flags and chanting “Palestine, Palestine”, attended the funeral of Ms Abu Akleh, who witnesses say was shot and killed by Israeli forces earlier this week while covering a military raid in the occupied West Bank.
“We die for Palestine to live,” the crowd chanted. “Our beloved home.” Dozens of mourners tried to march with the coffin on foot out of a hospital to a Catholic church in the nearby Old City.