Articles - Others - Date: 2022-05-14
Source: Erem News

By: Oraib Al Rantawi

Sooner rather than later, Israel will discover that its decision to liquidate Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh was one of the most foolish it ever made,the spilled blood of an expert journalist who scaled the walls of Jenin refugee camp has generated a wave of sadness and anger that will never be extinguished, and the image of Israel as an enemy of the free press and a killer of journalists can no longer be concealed or erased. Abu Aqleh was one of a host of Palestinian journalists who cover the news from the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Jerusalem, and who follow the chapters of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict spanning over a century.

 

True, the dear departed is universally recognized for her personal qualities and characteristics, like her gentleness, her dedication to her work, her good manners, and her principled tongue, but the question of why her death sparked a deluge of outrage and rancor in the hearts of millions of Palestinians nevertheless remains. She is not the first martyr and will certainly not be the last. The sacrifices of Palestinian writers and journalists are innumerable, and the scene is encapsulated by the longstanding slogan of the Palestinian press syndicate: 'With blood, we write for Palestine.' But Shireen Abu 'Aqleh's martyrdom will enter the annals of the Palestinians' struggle through yawning doors in words and images, with pens and camera lenses, engraved as a watershed moment in the records of this glorious struggle.

 

The official and popular coverage of the martyr-witness' solemn funeral rites nationally and internationally collectively tells us that we are before an unprecedented event in the history of the occupied territories. No political leader, author, or intellectual has been afforded the same treatment as Abu Aqleh in her journey from life to death. This phenomenon transcends Abu Aqleh and her qualities personally, and requires examining the moment of her martyrdom, how it was received by the Palestinians, and how their reactions unfolded to the heinous crime.

 

It is a moment that highlights the oppression that the Palestinians endure under prolonged, bitter occupation. It is a moment of despair towards all initiatives and movements. It is a moment marked by the deepest sense that their land, rights, and holy sites are the final stretch away from being swallowed up by the annexation, Judaization, Israelization, displacement, and deportation machine. It is a moment of anger mixed with revolution, uprising, rebellion and sacrifice, as manifested in the streets of Jerusalem and the arenas of Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan, and especially in Jenin province, city, and camp.

 

It is a moment of anger stemming from the deep realization that the Palestinian people, especially the younger generations, must seize the initiative for themselves from the clutches of debility, infirmity, and division that characterize their political system and national movement, from the depths of abandonment, oblivion, and complicity to which their brothers' positions have fallen, and from the jaws of hypocrisy and double standards that characterize international conduct towards their cause. Shireen Abu Aqleh's spirit stirred all of these jumbled, overlapping feelings in their hearts, unleashing the genie of defiance, resistance and revolt.

 

It is no coincidence for mosques to hold prayers for the soul of the departed and for all the churches to ring in their bells on the occasion of her solemn funeral. All Palestinians marched behind the casket of this daughter of Jerusalem and Palestine, forgetting their differences and divisions, if only for a few hours or days. In history, major events and turning points occur at moments when a trigger meets an environment primed for explosion.

 

Abu Aqleh's martyrdom was the spark that detonated a ticking timebomb in the face of an occupation equipped with weapons, hatred and racism, as well as a considerable amount of folly. If those who decided to silence the voice of righteousness and truth had known the dangerous consequences it would bring, they would not have so easily pulled the trigger. Fragility and lack of confidence in themselves and the future drove them to take the decision to execute Abu Aqleh, and the same reasons will drive them to crack down on Palestinian flags raised by Palestinian young men and boys in Jerusalem's streets and alleys. Jerusalem, which Israel has sought diligently to Judaize, Israelize, and unite as its 'eternal capital' has bounced back thanks to the mass funeral processions of the martyr of the press and free speech.