Blinken Enters into Furor Over Palestinian Reporter’s Death

By Hamodia Staff

YERUSHALAYIM – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken personally entered into the furor surrounding the death of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, criticizing Israel’s use of force at her funeral and speaking with her family in a condolence call on Sunday.

Blinken, while en route to Berlin for a meeting of NATO foreign ministers, offered “deep condolences” in a phone call with her family members, a State Department official said on Sunday.

He “noted Abu Akleh’s journalistic body of work and the importance of a free and independent press,” the official said, adding that he offered the support of U.S. diplomatic personnel in Yerushalayim to the family of Abu Akleh, who also held U.S. citizenship.

At her funeral on Friday, police officers charged Palestinians who were holding and surrounding the casket and beat them with batons, nearly toppling the coffin.

Police have claimed that the casket was seized by a mob, against the family’s wishes, outside a Yerushalayim Hospital, and that they were bombarded with rocks by the rioters, prompting the cops’ intervention.

Blinken earlier said he was “deeply troubled” by the actions of Israeli police, and the State Department again urged a transparent investigation into her killing.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority said it would welcome the involvement of international groups in the investigation into the death of the Al Jazeera journalist killed while reporting on an Israeli counter-terrorism raid in Jenin, a Palestinian official said on Saturday, according to Reuters.

The PA has claimed that Israeli forces were responsible for her death, calling it “an assassination”, but have continued to refuse any Israeli participation in the investigation and will not share evidence with Israeli forensic experts.

The Israeli army has been conducting its own probe, questioning soldiers who were at the scene, and inspecting their weapons for possible ballistic evidence. In the meantime, the IDF says that based on the available evidence it has not yet been possible to determine the origin of the bullet that killed her, which might have been fired by Palestinian gunmen at the scene.