On Thursday, Israeli police announced the arrest of Amr Abu Khdeir, who was involved in carrying the coffin of Palestinian journalist Shirin Abu Akle, dismissing his lawyer’s claim that the operation was related to his role in the funeral.
Scenes in which Israeli police attacked a funeral procession in Jerusalem and beat Palestinians carrying a coffin covered with a Palestinian flag in order to force them to remove the flag drew widespread condemnation around the world. Abu Akleh, 51, was shot in the face last week while covering an Israeli army operation in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. The Palestinians claim that Israeli soldiers were the source of the bullet, while Israel says it is investigating the circumstances of the incident. While police batons were beating coffin bearers, Abu Khdeir appeared in photos and videos of the event, trying to protect his head from behind with one hand and holding the coffin, which nearly fell to the ground, with the other.
Lawyer Khaldun Najm said on behalf of his arrested client Amr Abu Khdeir: “He was interrogated about the funeral of Shereen Abu Akle, but the court extended his detention and said that they have a secret file about his belonging to a terrorist organization. Abu Khdeir was arrested on May 16 and the court extended his detention by seven days to complete the investigation. “We don’t know what the secret file is,” the lawyer said.
In a statement, the Israeli police denied “any connection between the funeral and the arrest of Abu Khdeir”, adding: “Unfortunately, we are witnessing an attempt to create an essentially wrong story.” He confirmed that Abu Khdeir had been arrested “as part of an ongoing investigation that contradicts the allegations and has nothing to do with his participation in the funeral. The court extended his detention.” On social media, some have referred to Abu Khdeir as the “keeper of the coffin”. He told reporters after the funeral, “We tried to bleed Shirin as she deserved despite the beatings we were subjected to.” Israel refuses to raise any official Palestinian symbols, such as flags, in Jerusalem, which it occupied and annexed in 1967, and considers it its capital, while the Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of their future state.
