Anton Abu Akleh ran from one Israeli police officer to another, begging them to stop beating the pallbearers carrying his sister’s coffin in East Jerusalem. But he was ignored—and “almost attacked,” he said—by police who had suddenly assaulted the crowd mourning his sister, Shireen Abu Akleh, the Palestinian American Al Jazeera journalist who was killed while covering an Israeli military raid in the West Bank city of Jenin.
Tens of thousands of people had gathered on May 13 to commemorate the veteran journalist, whose killing two days before led to an international outcry. A video of her body face down on the ground had gone viral the day of her death, and while eyewitnesses said she was killed by Israeli sniper fire, the Israeli government suggested she might have been hit by Palestinians during a gunfight. An Israeli human rights organization has found the Israeli government’s claims to be implausible, and the government quickly backtracked and said she could have been shot by an Israeli soldier, though it will not be launching a criminal investigation.
