Israel Observes Human Rights Day by Killing Palestinian Minister

On 10th December, Wednesday, Ziad Abu Ein, a senior minister in the Palestinian government, was killed in broad daylight by Israeli soldiers while staging a protest in Turmus Aya village in the occupied West Bank. Abu Ein was assaulted by three Israeli border policemen who dealt him severe blows on his throat and chest. He collapsed on the spot and was taken to a nearby hospital which declared him dead on arrival.

The protest was in observance of the International Human Rights Day. Around three hundred Palestinian activists had gathered in the village to plant olive saplings as a peaceful and symbolic protest against the impending confiscation of a part of the village land by the Israeli authorities. The protestors intended to register their opposition to the Israeli state’s project of land grab and construction of illegal settlements in occupied territory, which has intensified over the last few months. Before the demonstration could even begin, however, the activists were attacked by a contingent of Israeli soldiers with tear gas, stun grenades and direct physical assault.

Ziad Abu Ein was a senior official of the Palestinian Authority. He headed the Commission Against the Separation Wall and Settlements, and was a key member of the Fatah’s Revolutionary Council. He had earlier served as deputy minister for prisoner affairs for nine years. A prominent figure against the occupation, Abu Ein played an instrumental role in organizing and directing a range of movements for the rights of Palestinians. He had earlier been falsely implicated by the Israeli government in the case of the 1979 Tiberias attack which had led to the death of two Israeli boys. This fabricated charge had drawn condemnation from civil rights activists across the world, and since his release in 1985, Abu Ein emerged as a consistent voice against human rights violations perpetrated by the Israeli state.

Abu Ein’s killing has caused a wave of outrage across Palestine. Protests and clashes have broken out in Ramallah, East Jerusalem and other cities. Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the PA, has termed the killing “barbaric” and a “crime in all the meaning of the word”. Announcing a three day mourning period, he has indicated that all options would be debated to decide upon an appropriate response to the incident. In consonance with demands placed by the Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the PA has decided to halt the much-debated security coordination with Israel. The former groups have called for a revival of the Intifada in the West Bank region in the light of the killing. The PLO has characterized the incident as “another example of Israel’s vicious and arrogant actions committed against Palestinians”.

The killing has prompted swift responses from governments across the world. Jordan has strongly condemned the incident. The Arab League has denounced the killing as the latest episode of the terror continuously visited by the Israeli state upon the Palestinian people. The Bureau of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with the Palestinian Legislative Council has described the incident as a “disgrace and a crime”. EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, has called for an immediate and independent enquiry into the death. The US, characteristically, has expressed “deep concern”.

These reactions notwithstanding, Israel has been stubborn in its denial of guilt. While the Israeli defense minister, Moshe Yaalon, has issued a weakly worded “apology”, there has been a frantic effort to distort facts. The Israeli Defence Forces has issued statements calling the protest an unauthorized “riot”. Further, attempts are being made to portray the death as a result of “pre-existing” health conditions. The Israeli establishment has interpreted the autopsy report as evidence that the death was caused by a heart disease. This has been strongly challenged by Palestinian pathologists who insist that it was the acute stress caused by the assault that led to the death. The deep bruises on Abu Ein’s neck and the fact that his front teeth were knocked out are strong proof that it was the attack that killed him. This, of course, is apart from the mass of documentation (photographs and videos) and eye witness accounts which clearly testify that the minister’s death was not natural.

At the same time, protests against the killing are being met with characteristic brutality. Scores of demonstrators have been attacked with live ammunition and metal bullets. A fourteen-year-old boy was grievously injured in a protest in Ramallah. Aged protestors have been particularly targeted on a number of occasions. Several have been illegally arrested.

The killing of Ziad Abu Ein is a part of the ongoing escalation of violence by the Israeli state. Driven by growing internal political instability, on the one hand, and the increasing international acceptance of the cause of a free Palestinian nation on the other, the current Israeli regime has been desperately trying to intensify the occupation. The increased urgency of settlement construction, massive displacement of Palestinians from both Israel and the occupied territory, accelerated Judaisation of East Jerusalem, heightened religious provocation in the Holy City, the introduction of the nation-state bill, the resumption of punitive demolitions, and the large-scale eviction and segregation of Bedouins in Naqab, are all different aspects of this project. Ziad Abu Ein is its latest casualty.

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