Jerusalem
CNN
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The brother of slain Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh Monday blasted the violent intervention by Israeli police into her funeral as “unacceptable and unjustifiable.”
“They might have simply blocked the highway in the event that they didn’t need to see the funeral depart the hospital however the assault was intentional and brutal,” Tony Abu Akleh instructed CNN.
Talking at St. Joseph Hospital in East Jerusalem, the place Friday’s funeral procession started, he mentioned he had spoken to Israeli police earlier than the occasion.
“The police referred to as me and requested me to go to the police station they usually needed to know the route of the procession and the preparations taken for the funeral. They requested us to not have any Palestinian flags risen, any slogans or chanting. They didn’t need to hear that,” Abu Akleh mentioned.
“And so they needed to know the variety of taking part within the funeral procession. I instructed them I can’t offer you any guarantees, I don’t have the numbers and I can’t management the group. This funeral is a nationwide funeral for everybody to take part in. And that’s what we noticed,” he added.
The hospital condemned the “violent intrusion of the Israeli Police” in a press release on Monday.
St. Joseph Hospital referred to as the occasions a “extreme violation of worldwide norms and rules.”
“We, the Bishops and the devoted of the Christian Church buildings within the Holy Land, hereby condemn the violent intrusion of the Israeli Police right into a funeral procession of the slain journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, because it was going from St. Joseph Hospital to the Greek-Melkite Cathedral Church,” the assertion mentioned.
“Israeli Police’s invasion and disproportionate use of pressure, attacking mourners, putting them with batons, utilizing smoke grenades, taking pictures rubber bullets, scary the hospital’s sufferers is a extreme violation of worldwide norms and rules,” the assertion added.
“The police assaulted the holiness of the positioning and the campus of the hospital and the funeral with out consideration, figuring out that the St. Joseph Hospital is underneath the auspices of the Vatican and guarded by the French authorities,” it added.
In safety digicam footage shared by the hospital on Monday, greater than a dozen law enforcement officials are seen pouring into the hospital constructing with batons drawn and transferring aggressively by way of corridors. CNN has reached out to Israel Police for a response to the St. Joseph Hospital allegations.
Israeli Minister of Public Safety Omer Bar-Lev instructed CNN on Saturday the police “acted to permit the funeral procession for journalist Shireen Abu Akleh to proceed in an orderly style, in coordination together with her household and from a transparent understanding of sensitivity and complexity of the occasion.
He added that “in the course of the course of the funeral, extreme violent occasions unfolded on the a part of these taking part that worsened the scenario on the bottom.”
Israeli authorities have mentioned they are going to examine the incident, with the police tweeting: “Israel Police helps its law enforcement officials, however as an expert group that seeks to study and enhance, it’ll additionally draw classes from the incident.”
Abu Akleh, 51, was shot and killed in Jenin on Wednesday. Palestinian and Israeli authorities are individually investigating the killing. Al Jazeera has accused Israel of deliberately killing the veteran journalist.