By Turgut Alp Boyraz
JERUSALEM
Hundreds of Palestinians on Tuesday took part in a funeral for a Palestinian man who finally succumbed to his injuries on Tuesday after being shot by Israeli troops in Jerusalem some four months ago.
Mourners who participated in the funeral of Mohamed Hashimi, 63, performed prayers at the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque before carrying the coffin to a Jerusalem cemetery.
Representatives of certain Palestinian political factions also took part in the funeral procession.
"He was a kind of leader in his community and the father of four children," Osman Hashimi, a relative of the slain man, told The Anadolu Agency during the funeral.
"He was a good Palestinian who loved his country," he said.
Hashimi's brother, Osama, said the family had not lodged an official complaint with the Israeli court system, from which, he lamented, they had little hope of attaining justice.
"Israel killed hundreds of Palestinians last summer in Gaza and got away with it," Osama said. "There's no point in seeking justice in the Israeli courts."
He urged the Israeli authorities to leave Palestinians alone.
"We aren't against Jews – we're against Israeli occupation," he added.
Mourners called on the Palestinian resistance to avenge the death of Hashimi, who was struck in the head by a rubber bullet in early September while taking part in the funeral of Mohamed Abdul-Majid Sinokrot.
Sinokrot, 16, was shot by Israeli troops during an East Jerusalem demonstration, eventually succumbing to his injuries on September 7.
Tension has run high in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since late October, when Israel briefly closed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound after an extremist rabbi was injured in a drive-by shooting.
Unrest mounted further in the occupied city when Israeli forces killed a young Palestinian man – in a raid on his East Jerusalem home – who had been suspected of shooting the rabbi.
The situation escalated further in December when Ziad Abu Ein, an official with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), died when Israeli troops dispersed a demonstration against ongoing Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the holy city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the self-proclaimed Jewish state in a move never recognized by the international community.
www.aa.com.tr/en
