MIDEAST-ISRAEL/PALESTINIANS-STILLS/REAX Senior Palestinian official condemns death of Palestinian minister

Record ID: 398840

  • Title: MIDEAST-ISRAEL/PALESTINIANS-STILLS/REAX Senior Palestinian official condemns death of Palestinian minister
  • Date: 10th December 2014
  • Summary: RAMALLAH, WEST BANK (DECEMBER 10, 2014) (REUTERS) WIDE OF HANAN ASHRAWI AN OFFICIAL IN THE PALESTINE LIBERATION ORGANISATION, SEATED IN OFFICE ASHRAWI'S HANDS (SOUNDBITE) (English) HANAN ASHRAWI AN OFFICIAL IN THE PALESTINE LIBERATION ORGANISATION, SAYING: "Well first of all it's extremely sad that a colleague and an old friend who has been killed in such a cruel way. But
  • Embargoed: 25th December 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAACQ5T3I220I6P8EGOBSSSCRTS
  • Story Text: Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi accused Israel of murdering a Palestinian minister who died shortly after an altercation with Israeli border police in the West Bank on Wednesday (December 10) and called for an investigation into the incident.
    Ziad Abu Ein, 55, a minister without portfolio, was taking part in a protest against Israeli settlements when he was involved in clashes with around 30 Israeli troops and border police, a Reuters witness said. He was confronted by a border policemen who grasped him by the neck and briefly held him with one hand. Minutes later the minister began to look faint and fell to the ground clasping his chest. He died on his way to hospital. It was not clear what caused his death.
    "Ziad was guilty of nothing more than planting olive trees where Israel would uproot trees; was guilty of nothing more than ensuring that we remain on the land where Israel was trying to expel people; that we save the land where Israel was attempting to still the land." Ashrawi told Reuters from her office in Ramallah.
    "This is murder, this is a crime. It is part of a long series in which Israel has killed thousands of Palestinians in cold blood and has enjoyed full impunity. It is time that Israel is held to account. I believe we do need an immediate, impartial investigation into this incident and into Israel's whole policy of targeting Palestinians," she said.
    Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas described the attack as "a barbaric act which we cannot be silent about or accept". Abbas announced three days of national mourning and said he would take "necessary steps" after an investigation.
    The Israeli army said it was looking into the incident. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Arabic language spokesman said the circumstances leading to the death of the minister were being investigated.
    The incident comes at a time of heightened tension between Israel and the Palestinians, following months of violent unrest in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
    Ten Israelis and a foreign visitor have been killed by Palestinian assailants over the past three months, while more than a dozen Palestinians have also been killed, including most of those who carried out the attacks.
    Abu Ein, who was convicted of killing two young Israelis in a bomb attack in 1979 and released as part of a prisoner swap in 1985, was a vocal opponent of Israel's settlement building in the West Bank, which Palestinians want as part of an independent state together with Gaza and East Jerusalem.
    On Wednesday, he and around 100 foreign and Palestinian activists were on their way to plant trees near a Jewish settlement as part of a protest by a group called the Committee to Resist Settlements and the Wall and Israeli human rights group Yesh Din
    Michael Sfard, human rights attorney, legal advisor and co-founder of Yesh Din, which says it is dedicated to defending human rights in territory occupied by Israel, said the Israeli army was confronting the Palestinians without being provoked.
    "As soon as the people approached their land, on the site of two-three kilometers from the outpost, the army vehicles blocked their way and a group of let's say around 50 or 40 soldiers blocked the way and aggressively denied people from getting into their land. There were several people who were evacuated due to injuries that they suffered of these clashes between the army and people of Turmusiya, most of them are elder people who did not use any act of violence, and I can say that from what I saw on the ground. And later on we saw the minister, the Palestinian minister, being evacuated by an ambulance after he was collapsing," Sfard told Reuters.
    Palestinians in Ramallah closed shops in protest at the minister's death and youths threw stones at Israeli soldiers guarding a Jewish settlement outside the city, Palestinian security sources said.
    Palestinian officials indicated that cooperation between Palestinian and Israeli security forces in the West Bank could be suspended as a result of Abu Ein's death.
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