Published today (updated) 10/12/2014 16:25
Ziad Abu Ein, 55, died after an Israeli soldier beat him on the chest with his helmet in the village of Turmsayya in the Ramallah district, the director of the committee’s information center, Jamil al-Barghouthi, told Ma’an.
Abu Ein also suffered severe tear gas inhalation as Israeli soldiers fired canisters in the area.
A Palestinian security source told AFP that Israeli forces beat Abu Ein with the butts of their rifles and their helmets during a protest march.
He lost consciousness and was taken to Ramallah Public Hospital where he was later pronounced dead.
Medical sources told Ma’an that Abu Ein lost consciousness and that his heart stopped after being beaten by Israeli soldiers and inhaling tear gas.
The Israeli army said in a statement that “approximately 200 rioters gathered in Turmus Ayya, near Ramallah. Forces halted the progress of the rioters into the civilian (Israeli settler outpost) community of Adei-Ad using riot dispersal means.”
It said it was “reviewing the circumstances of the participation of Ziad Abu Ein, and his later death.”
“The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Maj. Gen. Yoav (Poli) Mordechai, and his Palestinian counterpart, Hussein Al-Sheikh, have agreed that an Israeli pathologist will join a delegation of pathologists from Jordan, for a joint examination of the circumstances of Ziad Abu Ein’s death.
“Additionally, a proposal has been made to the Palestinians to establish a joint investigation team to review the incident.”
A Ma’an reporter said Abu Ein was taking part in a tree-planting project in an area of the village threatened with confiscation.
Dozens of other activists were also taking part in the project.
President Mahmoud Abbas said in a statement that the attack on Abu Ein was a “barbaric action that cannot be ignored or accepted,” adding that actions would be taken to hold Israel accountable.
Abbas condemned all Israeli assaults on Palestinians.
Ziad Abu Ein was a member of the Fatah movement’s Revolutionary Council, and served as undersecretary to the minister of prisoner affairs before Abbas appointed him head of the committee against the separation wall and settlements.
AFP contributed to this report.
| Profile: Ziad Abu Ein |
| – Born in 1959 and father of four.- Head of the Anti-wall and Settlement Commission in the Palestinian Territories.
– Previously held the position of deputy minister of prisoners’ affairs. – He was an administrative detainee in 2002 during the second Intifada. – Previously held the position of director of Fatah’s advisory board in the occupied West Bank in 1994. – Joined the Palestinian Federation of Industrialists in 1991. – Spent a total of 13 years in American and Israeli prisons. – Was the first Palestinian to be handed over by US authorities to Israel in 1981. … from http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/12/pa-minister-dies-clash-with-israeli-forces-20141210105143480119.html |
The shocking history of ALP support for Likud policies, including Gillard’s foolish intention to vote with Palau and Micronesia on the recognition of Palestine, has alienated many people from that party.
One of the major questions for the near future, particularly if a far right government is re-elected in Israel, will be how to deal with the inevitable implosion of that entity. It will be very important for the Muslim population to protect, as in the past, the Jewish people. The degree of alienation imposed by Israeli policies makes that a real problem for the future.
Yuri Avnery, Israeli peace activist wrote in “Muhammad’s sword” 23/09/06:
Hopefully that relationship can be re-established in the future.
https://newmatilda.com/2014/12/11/labor-palestine-its-about-time#comment-843
The votes, which were cast on 4 December by members of UAW Local 2865, resulted in 65 percent, or 1,411 members voting in support of a BDS resolution against 35 percent, or 749 members, voting against.
UAW Local 2865 has thus become the first labor union in the US to join the BDS movement.
The union represents 13,000 student workers in the University of California system. It joins a growing number of student governments, academic associations and activist organizations in the US which have pledged to hold Israel accountable for violations of human rights and to end the complicity by corporations and universities which profit from such violations.
The ballots asked union members to cast their vote to call on the University of California and UAW International to divest their holdings from Israeli state institutions and international companies “complicit in severe and ongoing human rights violations as part of the Israeli oppression of the Palestinian people.”
UAW International is the central body of the United Auto Workers union, to which UAW Local 2865 is affiliated.
Members were also able to tick a box saying that they would personally refuse to take part in any “research, conferences, events, exchange programs, or other activities that are sponsored” by Israeli institutions, a voluntary personal pledge.
Fifty-two percent of the voting members signed on to the personal academic boycott pledge, UAW Local 2865 states.
Tireless organizing
Student activists, faculty and workers in the University of California system organized tirelessly to educate their campus communities about the growing BDS movement and the important campaigns in solidarity with their Palestinian counterparts under Israeli occupation.
In the past two years, two-thirds of all University of California student governments have passed resolutions calling on the administration to divest from companies profiting from Israel’s violations of human rights.
In an open letter published a few weeks before the 4 December vote, 121 members of faculty around the world encouraged UAW Local 2865 to take a stand in solidarity with Palestinians.
“[F]aculty across the country have taken a position on the right side of history by supporting Palestinian self-determination and supporting BDS as a vehicle to challenge Israel’s violations of human rights,” the scholars wrote.
“Similar racism in apartheid South Africa led to students and professors in the US engaging in boycott and divestment; increasingly, they are doing the same to challenge bigoted Israeli policies and laws that are upheld by unconditional US support.”
Editor’s note: A previous version of this post indicated that 112 members of faculty signed a letter to UAW Local 2865. That number has been updated.
[PN: I am not a big fan of e-petitions but for this I make an exception]
The people of Gaza are imprisoned in the world’s biggest penitentiary where 1.8 million are crammed into the Gaza Strip which is only between 6 and 12 kms wide and 51kms long, just 360 sq.kms.
The jailer is Israel with Egypt its willing helper. Air, land and sea space is controlled to such an extent that only the bare necessities of life are allowed in. Gazan fishermen are restricted to a 3 nautical mile limit and are regularly shot up by the Israeli navy. Israeli dieticians have calculated what is the minimum level of food for the population to not starve and only that is allowed to be imported. In the last 7 years Israel has three times blasted schools, mosques, homes, hospitals and the only power station using the most sophisticated weapons.
Gaza is a pile of rubble inhabited by a deeply traumatised population and its children in particular need all the help they can get. Gaza City is a coastal town like Byron Bay and our tourist population swells to about 1.3 million a year.
By twinning with Gaza we send a message of hope, we let them know that they are not forgotten and that many of us will stand by them and lobby on their behalf. By signing this petition you add moral suasion to this cause which will hopefully result in Council voting in favour. … The petition is really important and could use our help. Click here to find out more and sign:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/Byron_Bay_Shire_Council_Twin_Byron_Bay_with_Gaza/?mMTrdab