TEHRAN — On Thursday afternoon, a group of journalists and political activists staged a demonstration in front of the Palestinian embassy in Tehran to express sympathy for Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian journalist who was brutally shot in the head by the Israeli snipers.

In the gathering, also attended by several university students, the participants carried posters condemning the Israeli regime’s aggressions in various parts of the occupied Palestine, such as Sheikh Jarrah, Negev or Jenin. 

Abu Akleh, a Palestinian Christian working for Al Jazeera, was martyred while wearing a press uniform and a helmet.  The veteran journalist was shot on Wednesday morning while she was reporting on Israeli troops’ raids on Jenin.

Marz Prado, a Native American from San Diego, California who is currently studying in Tehran University told the Tehran Times that he strongly condemns the systemic killing of the journalists in the occupied Palestine by the Israeli regime. 

“You know, we need to point out that this isn’t the first incident of this kind where the Zionist regime targets journalists. This is one of dozens of journalists that they have targeted over the last two years. At least two dozen journalists have been killed by Israel. Two, this is very systematic. The interesting thing is that (the killing is) not only systematic, but it’s systematically silencing voices, voices that have something to do with the truth of what’s going on in Palestine. Adding salt to the wound. This is what is going on. They are silencing voices.” 

He said Israel not only has stolen the Palestinians’ lands it is also silencing them.

“What the people are asking isn’t it enough that they are taking their land, ethnically cleansing Palestinians off their land, now they have to silence their voices as well? This is not fair, obviously. Palestinians have had to put up with ethnic cleansing, racism, discrimination for over 70 years. This has to end. The least we could do with our privilege is to voice our opinion, is to raise our voice and how to uplift the voices of those who can’t speak, or those voices that are not heard.”

In response to the question posed by the Tehran Times correspondent about a failure by Saudi Arabia and the UAE to condemn the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, Prado said, “Well, what can you say to them? They don’t speak for Arabs. We know that. Everybody knows that these dictators that have been put there by the U.S. and propped by the U.S., they don’t speak for Arabs. I have been all over the Middle East, and most of the people, if not all of the people, are in solidarity with the Palestinians. The fact that they are monarchs, the fact that they are entities that are propped up by the U.S. and Europe, it does not say anything about what Arabs think about the situation in Palestine.” 
Marz was very vocal in voicing his opinions and concerns, as were others chanting anti-Israeli slogans. 

After the Maghrib call for prayer, the demonstrators lit candles to commemorate the seasoned correspondent. At around 9:00 pm, the demonstration ended with the marchers calling on international organizations to hold the Israeli regime accountable.