This morning a beep on my telephone woke me up at 8am. It was an announcement from a Telegram channel known as “Palestinian Martyrs”. I’m not shocked. In spite of everything, it isn’t unusual for us Palestinians to get up to the information that a number of of us has been killed in an Israeli occupation forces raid – within the West Financial institution, Such assaults occurred nearly each evening, simply earlier than work. of daybreak.
However I used to be surprised once I really learn the brief message: “Shireen Abu Akleh – 51 years previous – 11/05/2022 – Jenin refugee camp”. I’m certain it was a mistake, a message despatched in error.
As I attempted to course of what I had simply learn, my WhatsApp and Twitter feeds have been flooded with information, photographs and movies about Shireen. It’s the reality. She was killed – murdered. I used to be very appalled. Tears began rolling down her cheeks. I can’t cease crying, hours later, as I write this.
Shireen Abu Akleh is an icon in Palestine and the Arab world. She was liked and revered by everybody. Her unparalleled journalistic status preceded hers. Her face and voice are current in our households every day. She spoke from Palestine, and was heard by the entire world. She spoke up for the unvoiced, and by no means backed down from her dedication to her work.
So many journalists from my era and even older have ready for the occupation by standing in entrance of their mirror, or a bunch of associates, and repeating her iconic signal: Shireen Abu Akleh, Aljazeeeera, Filasten”.
To me, she is greater than an expert function mannequin. As a baby, she was the primary, and for a really very long time, the one celeb whose title I knew and admired.
I used to be a child within the second Intifada. In 2002, once I was 7 years previous, I skilled large-scale Israeli army incursions into the West Financial institution. I heard tanks rolling down the road, assault helicopters firing from above, home windows shattered from air strikes.
I can’t go exterior most days, so the tv in the home is my solely window to the surface world. Shireen, together with a few of her colleagues, is continually on display screen. I puzzled: “Do they ever get drained? Do they ever really feel concern? “I like her and her crew a lot.
Round that point, I began making scrapbooks. Daily, I’d take the papers of the day from my dad when he completed studying and minimize out photos from them, sticking them in my scrapbook. As soon as, I discovered a really small image of Shireen in {a magazine}. I minimize out the small photograph and caught it on the within cowl of my scrapbook. I feel she ought to be on the primary web page. I’m a giant fan. She is a hero to me.
That very same 12 months, I additionally had the chance to fulfill Shireen for the primary time. In the future I insisted with my father, additionally a journalist, to go to al-Muqata’a, the headquarters of the late Palestinian Authority chief Yasser Arafat.
Al-Muqata’a was destroyed. Proof of shelling was throughout us, and smashed automobiles have been scattered throughout the yard. What I had seen on TV instantly lay at my toes. After they have been colleagues in journalism, my father knew Shireen. He requested her to fulfill me and inform her concerning the cutout that I had pasted in my scrapbook. I used to be shy and embarrassed, however I nonetheless bear in mind the best way she greeted me, speaking softly to a seven-year-old who wished to develop as much as be a courageous journalist like her and my father.
Because the years handed, instances modified, and tv screens grew to become saturated with Palestinian journalists, reporting courageously from the bottom up. However Shireen continues to be a revered veteran. She was one of many first to encourage a complete new era of journalists to inform the story of Palestine, and over time she has all the time been one of the crucial devoted to her work. Each budding TV journalist is aware of her and admires her. She already has an ideal status within the native press neighborhood.
Through the previous two years, I’ve been one of many journalists who had the privilege of reporting together with her in Jerusalem. Collectively we now have confronted the brutality of Israeli forces. I really feel protected in her presence. She is a towering determine and a mentor.
Shireen by no means wavered in her dedication to the press, to the town of Jerusalem, to all Palestine and to the Palestinian individuals right here and overseas. All who know her will converse of her fantastic spirit, open coronary heart, braveness and exemplary professionalism whereas on responsibility.
Final month, we marked 20 years since Israel carried out the bloodbath on the Jenin refugee camp. A younger Shireen was there, reporting on the Battle of Jenin. I bear in mind very nicely watching her stories on the TV display screen; Within the background are Israeli tanks and destroyed homes, in 2002.
Twenty years later, we misplaced Shireen, killed by the identical invading occupation pressure, in the identical refugee camp.
Right now, each Palestinian family mourns. All Palestinians are shocked, accepting this nice loss. We Palestinians know dying; We all know that nicely. However we aren’t numb to the ache of shedding our family members, our heroes, our icons, our future time and again to the Israeli occupation. Every time, we grieve. We mourn, however we’re additionally extra mature and extra steadfast.
Shireen as soon as mentioned, “It’s not straightforward for me to vary actuality, however the least I can do is let our voices attain the world.” In her life, Shireen has delivered her message and voiced the unvoiced in probably the most highly effective approach. We are going to proceed her mission. And shortly, Palestine shall be free.
The views expressed on this article are these of the creator alone and don’t essentially mirror the editorial stance of Al Jazeera.
