Bennett on Thursday accused the PA of preventing Israel from accessing “the basic intelligence that would be necessary to learn the truth” and warned against “interfering with the investigative process.”
Wrapped in a Palestinian shawl, mourner Tariq Ahmed, 45, described the death as a “tragedy for the whole nation” and compared his grief to that felt at the funeral of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
“I haven’t felt that pain since Arafat died,” Ahmed said.
Another mourner, 45-year-old Hadil Hamdan, said that “Shireen was a part of our lives,” adding that “her voice penetrated every home and her loss is a wound in our hearts.”
Ibrahim Abu Allan, 52, attended the memorial service in his wheelchair after traveling from the southern West Bank. “The road has been difficult, but Shireen deserves a farewell,” he said.
NO COMMON PROBE
Abu Akleh, a Palestinian Christian who was born in Israel-annexed East Jerusalem, is scheduled to be buried with her parents on Friday in a cemetery near Jerusalem’s Old City.
As her coffin made its way to Jerusalem to the beat of drums from a brass band, the crowd chanted slogans calling for an end to Palestinian security cooperation with Israel.
Israel had publicly called for a joint investigation and stressed that the Palestinian authorities must hand over the fatal bullet for forensic examination.
The European Union has called for an “independent” inquiry, while the United States has called for a “transparent investigation” into the killing, demands echoed by UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet.
PA official Hussein Al-Sheikh, a close associate of Abbas, said the Palestinian “investigation will be independently concluded.”
Hours after her death, an initial autopsy and forensic examination was conducted in Nablus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
NEW JEWISH SETTLEMENTS
In a move likely to further fuel tensions in the West Bank, Israel on Thursday put forward plans for 4,427 Jewish settler homes.
In the West Bank, around 475,000 settlers already live alongside around 2.7 million Palestinians in communities widely considered illegal under international law.
Settlement observer Peace Now warned that the announcement “deepens the occupation,” while right-wing Home Secretary Ayelet Shaked, a member of Bennett’s religious-nationalist Yamina party, hailed a “day of celebration for the settler movement.”
Tensions had already risen with a wave of attacks that have killed at least 18 people in Israel since March 22, including an Arab Israeli police officer and two Ukrainians.
A total of 31 Palestinians and three Israeli Arabs died in the same period, according to the AFP count, including perpetrators of attacks and those killed by Israeli security forces in operations in the West Bank.
Read Also :