“Shireen has become the icon of truth. A national hero for those whose voices have been silenced by Israel’s crimes.” Ryad al-Maliki, the Foreign Minister of the Palestinian Authority, could not better sum up the popular feeling after the death of the star journalist of the al-Jazeera channel, killed on May 11 in Jenin (West Bank) during a clash between the Israeli army and a Palestinian militia.
Since the tragedy, the Palestinian Authority has multiplied its tributes to the Palestinian-American victim. After a ceremony with great pomp on Thursday May 12 in the courtyard of the Moukata, the presidential palace in Ramallah, President Mahmoud Abbas honored Shireen Abou Akleh again on Saturday May 14 by posthumously presenting him with the “Star of Jerusalem”, the equivalent of the Legion of Honor, one of the highest Palestinian honors.
The birth of a myth
In the same movement, Mahmoud Abbas has promised to bring Israel before the International Court of Justice and refuses to associate the Israelis with the international investigation requested by the United States and the UN. “It is interesting to observe how the Palestinian Authority took hold of this affair, notes in an editorial Jacky Khoury, an Israeli Arab journalist specializing in Palestinian affairs. Immediately after the autopsy carried out in Nablus, Shireen was wrapped in the national flag and driving to Ramallah on the shoulders of her admirers. The Palestinian Authority immediately wanted to forge a myth: she is the journalist of all of us.”
Beyond the legitimate tribute to a figure of Arab journalism, the Palestinian Authority is using this tragedy to regain its legitimacy. Regularly accused of despotism and submission to Israel, she is barely recovering from a scandal of unprecedented magnitude. Last June, Nizar Banat, a well-respected Palestinian human rights defender, was beaten to death by members of the Palestinian security services. In videos posted a few hours before his death, Banat sharply denounced the corruption of the Palestinian Authority and said he feared for his life. The affair brought thousands of demonstrators to the streets of Ramallah with cries of “Abbas get out”. Pleading the blunder, the Palestinian Authority suppressed the demonstrations and sent 14 members of the security forces to court. They have still not been judged.
The Palestinian president must also justify security cooperation with Israel. Resulting from the Oslo agreements of 1995, this daily police collaboration allows the Jewish state to better fight against terrorism and the Palestinian Authority to contain the push of Hamas in the West Bank. Regularly, the Palestinian Islamist movement denounces this collusion. “This reveals the great decline of the Palestinian Authority and its compromise which is expressed in cooperation with the enemy and the repression of the resistance of our people,” Hamas recently railed in a press release.
Palestinians at an impasse over Israeli policy
The challenge to the Palestinian Authority is meeting with a growing echo in the West Bank. Because not only is no peaceful solution emerging, but Israeli colonization is spreading inexorably. Just this week, Israel announced the construction of more than 4,000 housing units in the West Bank, yet another snub for Abbas. The sanctification of the journalist killed in Jenin, a popular and unifying cause, gave her the opportunity to take the lead in the nationalist fight.
“The Palestinian Authority did not arouse national emotion, it accompanied it, specifies Jalal Abukhater, a young Palestinian essayist. Ramallah’s tribute was necessary but it was formal and quite cold. In Jerusalem, on the other hand , the people were able to express all their emotion and anger.” Friday, May 13, thousands of people accompanied the body of Shireen Abu Akleh from St. Joseph’s Hospital in East Jerusalem to Mount Zion Christian Cemetery in the Old City. The Israeli police brutally intervened to tear off the Palestinian flag wrapping the coffin, nearly knocking it down.
The international community condemned Israel for the incident and the United States supported the journalist’s family. A symbolic victory for the Palestinians. “For once we were all united: Muslims and Christians, secular Fatah and Islamist Hamas, young and old, rejoiced Yusef Daher, a friend of the deceased. The spirit of Shireen brought us together. The Palestinian Authority would be wise to take advantage of this momentum.”