Edmonton mass honours journalist Shireen Abu Akleh

On Sunday, the Canada Palestine Cultural Association organized a service for Shireen Abu Akleh, a dual Palestinian-American national and Al Jazeera reporter who died May 11 while on assignment in Jenin, a northern city in the occupied West Bank.

Joe Hak, founder and former president of the World Lebanon Cultural Union, was one of the organizers of the mass at Our Lady of Good Help, a Maronite Catholic church in Edmonton’s Ritchie neighbourhood. While it was a sombre affair, he said, there was also a deep sense of pride for Abu Akleh and her work.

“She was a household name all over the world,” Hak said, “and particularly in the Arab world — carrying on her role as a journalist to report about the kinds of suffering, brutalities and atrocities committed against the Palestinians.”

Citing witnesses and the Palestinian health ministry, Al Jazeera reported that Abu Akleh, 51, was covering Israeli military raids in Jenin when she was shot dead by Israeli forces despite wearing a clearly marked “press” vest and standing among other journalists garbed in the same