Videos of the incident at Akleh’s funeral were quickly circulated on social networks and received widespread condemnation from a number of leaders and organizations from around the world.
Police acted with misconduct when beating the pallbearers at the funeral for Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed days earlier during an IDF operation in the West Bank city of Jenin.
Police had reportedly finished their investigation on Wednesday, examining the violence that erupted between Israeli police and participants at Abu Akleh’s funeral.
Nevertheless, police have not published the findings and only said that Public Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev has been updated on the matter, according to N12. Critics have questioned the decision by police to announce the investigation’s end and transfer the main findings to Bar-Lev without releasing the findings to the public.
“Under my guidance, police will investigate the conduct of forces on the ground.”
“A complex event”
Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai instructed a month ago to conduct an investigation into the incident at the funeral following the many worldwide condemnations that were heard about the police’s conduct.
“The funeral procession of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was a complex event,” Shabtai said, regarding the investigation. “It is impossible to remain indifferent to the hard images and we must investigate so that sensitive events such as these are not violently disturbed.”
“Under my guidance, police will investigate the conduct of forces on the ground,” he continued. “We will aim at improving the conduct of similar incidences in the future.”
The investigation
The investigation was conducted “with a clear understanding of the sensitivity and complexity of the incident,” said Bar-Lev, N12 reported.
Videos of the incident at Akleh’s funeral were quickly circulated on social media and received widespread condemnation from a number of leaders and organizations from around the world.
Meanwhile, two days after the clashes at the funeral, a video was apparently released from the security cameras of the French Hill hospital in Jerusalem, showing the police breaking into the hospital grounds before the journalist’s funeral.