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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 via the cemetery gates.
The 71-year-old retired trainer, 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,” mentioned 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 beloved 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 guide of Islam.
Shireen was killed by Israeli forces in Jenin, within the north of the occupied West Financial institution, as she lined an Israeli raid on the town’s refugee camp on Could 11. Al Jazeera mentioned she was “assassinated in chilly blood”.
After three days of processions that began in Jenin and handed via 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Though a Greek Melkite herself, Shireen was buried at a Greek Orthodox cemetery on Mount Zion, simply outdoors the Outdated Metropolis in occupied East Jerusalem.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 power … such unhappiness 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Forward of the arrival of her casket to the Christian quarter in Jerusalem’s Outdated Metropolis, hundreds of Palestinians, Christian and Muslim, gathered to obtain it.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 web site.
Muslims and Christians stood aspect by aspect as pallbearers carried Shireen’s casket via the gates of the St Joseph Hospital, the place her physique was stored, earlier than they moved in the direction of the cemetery. They prayed collectively, every in their very own manner, to bid Shireen farewell.
“Shireen was the daughter of Jerusalem, all of it, Muslims and Christians,” mentioned Laila Mohammed, a Muslim resident of Jerusalem, who took half within the funeral prayers that day.
“Shireen all the time lined information developments from Damascus Gate,” added the 55-year-old, referring to one of many predominant entrances to the Muslim Quarter within the Outdated Metropolis, and a degree of ongoing confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli police.
“In her life and in her loss of life, she was a power that united us across the Palestinian trigger. It by no means was, nor shall 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 mentioned: “Shireen was a Christian, however she fought for the liberty of Christian holy websites the identical manner she did for these of Muslims.”
“We all the time noticed her report from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the identical manner 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 ceaselessly happy with her.”
Uniting Palestinian Christians
As Shireen’s casket made its manner 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 numerous Christian sects rose in unison.
“All of the church buildings in Jerusalem, from throughout the varied Christian sects, united of their choice to ring their bells collectively in her reminiscence,” mentioned 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 remarkable 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 reveals in considered one of 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 numerous components of the complicated and proceed to problem each other.
“Everybody is aware of that the Christian sects can’t stand one another. We’ve got numerous divisions and variations amongst us,” mentioned Sandrouni.
“The truth that they [the churches] all united so rapidly to have fun her legacy and bid her farewell, reveals how large of a logo and that 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,” mentioned 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,” mentioned Shaheen. “And so, regardless of the unhappiness, there was magnificence amid this devastating occasion.”
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