Indy corrects article on violence at Abu Akleh’s funeral

An article in the Independent (“Israel will not conduct criminal probe into killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, reports suggest”, May 20) by Rory Sullivan included four paragraphs about the violence at the funeral for Al Jazeera’s Shireen Abu Akleh:

Israel was also widely criticised for its police’s use of violence to disperse people who had gathered for Abu Akleh’s funeral in East Jerusalem last Friday. As they charged at the crowd, those carrying her coffin almost dropped it.

Her body was being brought from the town of Jenin to Jerusalem via Nablus and Ramallah, in a procession ahead of her funeral in the Old City of East Jerusalem.

But as mourners, many carrying Palestinian flags, transported the casket of the Palestinian-American journalist from the St Louis French Hospital in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood, they were attacked by Israeli security forces.

Footage shared by media networks and online showed armoured Israeli officers descend on those moving the casket with batons, before beating and kicking a number of the mourners. There were also reports of stun grenades being used.”

However, the piece didn’t include any information at all about the Palestinian violence that preceded the police use of force.

Every other outlet we reviewed which covered the incident – including even the Guardian – noted either the police statement about the initial Palestinian violence, or other information based on the multiple videos which clearly show Palestinians throwing rocks and bottles at police before the confrontation began.

We contacted Indy editors, who upheld our complaint and added the following sentence into the piece:

The police said their actions were provoked by people among the mourners disrupting public order and throwing stones.

Further, the following editor’s note was added, noting the correction:

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1 Comment

  1. says: Grimey

    Usual anti-Israel tactic by the antisemitic Press – Firstly accuse Israel with lies, then withtract or correct later after the intended damage has been done. High time for Israel to retaliate with the same tactic.

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