For a lot of, Shireen Abu Akleh was the voice of Palestine – outrage at her killing has introduced collectively Palestinians from throughout religions and sects.
Occupied East Jerusalem – As birds sat on the headstone of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and chirped a cheerful morning tune, Mohammed Shennawy, a Palestinian Muslim from Nazareth walked by way of the cemetery gates.
The 71-year-old retired instructor, who had travelled from the northern metropolis, greeted the guards on the cemetery entrance after which requested for the placement of the veteran Al Jazeera journalist’s grave.
“I’ve come to learn the Fatiha on her pure soul,” stated Shennawy in reference to the opening chapter of the Quran, the recital of which is a ritual Muslims observe when grieving the loss of life of a cherished one.
“I by no means knew that Shireen was Christian, and it by no means mattered. She was a logo of Palestinian unity in her lifetime and in her loss of life,” he added earlier than making his strategy to the headstone, reciting verses from the holy e-book of Islam.
Shireen was killed by Israeli forces in Jenin, within the north of the occupied West Financial institution, as she coated an Israeli raid on the town’s refugee camp on Might 11. Al Jazeera stated she was “assassinated in chilly blood”.
After three days of processions that began in Jenin and handed by way of the occupied West Financial institution cities of Nablus and Ramallah, her physique reached Jerusalem, the place it was laid to relaxation.
Though a Greek Melkite herself, Shireen was buried at a Greek Orthodox cemetery on Mount Zion, simply exterior the Outdated Metropolis in occupied East Jerusalem. Her physique was laid to relaxation subsequent to these of her Greek Orthodox mom and grandfather, and her Greek Melkite father.
For Abu Khaled, a Palestinian Christian who has served Jerusalem’s Christian cemeteries for 40 years, Shireen’s burial was like no different he had witnessed.
“I’ve been on this enterprise for many years. By no means had I seen such a drive … such disappointment and energy in a single go,” he informed Al Jazeera.
Past spiritual divides
Forward of the arrival of her casket to the Christian quarter in Jerusalem’s Outdated Metropolis, hundreds of Palestinians, Christian and Muslim, gathered to obtain it.
Posters of Shireen have been seen paired with the cross and different Christian symbols, whereas others have been superimposed on constructing tops overlooking the Dome of the Rock within the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, Islam’s third-holiest website.
Muslims and Christians stood facet by facet as pallbearers carried Shireen’s casket by way of the gates of the St Joseph Hospital, the place her physique was stored, earlier than they moved in direction of the cemetery. They prayed collectively, every in their very own means, to bid Shireen farewell.
“Shireen was the daughter of Jerusalem, all of it, Muslims and Christians,” stated Laila Mohammed, a Muslim resident of Jerusalem, who took half within the funeral prayers that day.
“Shireen all the time coated information developments from Damascus Gate,” added the 55-year-old, referring to one of many essential entrances to the Muslim Quarter within the Outdated Metropolis, and some extent of ongoing confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli police.
“In her life and in her loss of life, she was a drive that united us across the Palestinian trigger. It by no means was, nor will probably be, necessary whether or not she was Muslim or Christian,” she added.
Increasing on the identical level, Archbishop Atallah Hanna, head of the Greek Orthodox Church in Jerusalem stated: “Shireen was a Christian, however she fought for the liberty of Christian holy websites the identical means she did for these of Muslims.”
“We all the time noticed her report from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the identical means we noticed her report from the grounds of the Aqsa Mosque compound,” defined the archbishop.
“She was a logo of our nation, our individuals, our trigger and oneness as Palestinians,” he added. “We, each Muslims and Christians, will stay eternally happy with her.”
Uniting Palestinian Christians
As Shireen’s casket made its means out of the hospital, Israeli police attacked the mourners and pallbearers, inflicting them to just about drop the coffin on the bottom.
However whereas Israeli forces attacked the procession, the sound of bells from the church buildings of Jerusalem’s varied Christian sects rose in unison.
“All of the church buildings in Jerusalem, from throughout the varied Christian sects, united of their resolution to ring their bells collectively in her reminiscence,” stated Garo Sandrouni, a store proprietor within the Outdated Metropolis in Jerusalem and a member of the Armenian Orthodox neighborhood.
He defined that the Christian neighborhood in Jerusalem was deeply divided, making it exceptional for Jerusalem’s church buildings to come back collectively in any occasion. But they did, for Shireen.
A mirrored image of intra-Christian division in Jerusalem exhibits in one in all Christianity’s holiest websites, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre – the place the place Christ is believed to have died, been buried, and was resurrected.
The church is shared by six Christian claimant communities which have defended their rights over varied elements of the advanced and proceed to problem each other.
“Everybody is aware of that the Christian sects can’t stand one another. Now we have a number of divisions and variations amongst us,” stated Sandrouni.
“The truth that they [the churches] all united so rapidly to have a good time her legacy and bid her farewell, exhibits how large of a logo and which means Shireen was for all Palestinian Christians,” he added.
Abd Shaheen, a guard on the graveyard the place Shireen’s physique was laid to relaxation, and a member of the Greek Orthodox neighborhood, agreed.
“As Palestinian Christians, we by no means celebrated nor grieved collectively,” stated Shaheen as he lit a cigarette and sat on a bench close to Shireen’s grave.
“Even Jesus couldn’t unite us the way in which Shireen did,” stated Shaheen. “And so, regardless of the disappointment, there was magnificence amid this devastating occasion.”
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