AN American-Palestinian journalist who was shot dead last week during an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank had family living in Bahrain, it is learnt.
Shireen Abu Akleh’s grandfather and his brother arrived in Bahrain in 1948 to conduct business, according to Palestinian Ambassador Taha Mohammad Abdul Qadir.
He told the GDN exclusively that after extensive research it was found that the family had a shop in Adliya called “Leena Shoes”.
However, the 51-year-old journalist for the Arabic-language Al Jazeera television and her parents never lived in Bahrain.
“It has been clearly established that her grandfather and his brother lived here and operated a shoe shop, but left in the 1980s or thereabouts, according to people who knew them,” said Mr Abdul Qadir.
“We have also been told that some relatives, particularly two doctors currently working at Salmaniya Medical Complex, were related to the killed journalist.”
Palestinian community co-ordinator Rami Rasheed also confirmed that Ms Abu Akleh’s relatives lived in Bahrain.
“The family members, believed to be grand cousins, stayed near the current Ahmadi Industries in Salmaniya and worked in Adliya, but the exact link is not clear,” he told the GDN.
“It’s true that the journalist never set foot in Bahrain, but that doesn’t mean she has no relatives still living here.”
Ms Abu Akleh, who had been working as a reporter for Al Jazeera for 25 years when she was killed, was a leading journalist in the Arab world.
She was one of the most prominent names across the Middle East for her decades of reporting in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.
Last Wednesday while wearing a blue vest with “PRESS” written on it she was shot and killed while covering an Israeli military raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank.
The television channel, an AFP photojournalist and the Palestinian Healthy Ministry reported that the Israeli Defence Forces killed her.
Bahrain strongly condemned the killing, calling it a violation of the rules and principles of international humanitarian law.
The Foreign Ministry also demanded an immediate, comprehensive investigation of the crime and to bring perpetrators to justice.
Israeli police said yesterday that they would hold an investigation “into the events that ensued during the funeral” procession of the journalist.
Israeli police came under criticism following Friday’s procession, in which television footage showed officers striking mourners with batons, forcibly taking down Palestinian flags, and arresting individuals carrying the flag.
One video released by the Israeli police showed officers ripping Palestinian flags off the hearse carrying Ms Abu Akleh’s coffin.
Mourners carried Ms Abu Akleh’s coffin out of the St Joseph hospital in East Jerusalem, where her body remained until the burial, but were met with strong resistance from Israeli police who compelled them to transport the body by car.
mohammed@gdn.com.bh
&uuid=(email))