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Palestinian Minister Dies After IDF Confrontation

Ziad abu Ein collapsed during West Bank protest, died en route to hospital

by
Liel Leibovitz
December 10, 2014
Palestinian official Ziad Abu Ein clashes with Israeli soldiers during a demonstration near Ramallah on December 10, 2014. (ABBAS MOMANI/AFP/Getty Images)
Palestinian official Ziad Abu Ein clashes with Israeli soldiers during a demonstration near Ramallah on December 10, 2014. (ABBAS MOMANI/AFP/Getty Images)

The Palestinian Authority’s minister in charge of anti-settlement activities, Ziad abu Ein, died this morning after collapsing during a demonstration against a Jewish outpost north of Ramallah. According to initial reports, abu Ein and the other protesters marched towards the outpost, Adi Ad, and were met by Israeli border police, who deployed tear gas canisters. The protesters and the Israeli police officers then got into a physical altercation, shoving and cursing at each other. Photos show abu Ein involved in the clash, and an officer appearing to shove him. Shortly thereafter, abu Ein stepped aside and sat down on a nearby rock. About a minute later, he asked for help, and when an Israeli Defense Forces paramedic approached him he requested to be taken to a hospital in Ramallah. Abu Ein then lost consciousness, and was pronounced dead on arrival at the Ramallah hospital to which he was taken.

Abu Ein’s death is regrettable, but it is not, in all likelihood, Israel’s doing. Palestinian officials are claiming abu Ein was hurt by inhaling tear gas—a video shows him unharmed well after the tear gas cannisters were fired in his direction—or that he was badly beaten by one of the Israeli border police officers, a claim for which no physical evidence currently exists. (We’ll hopefully know more after his autopsy, at which Israeli and Jordanian pathologists will be present.) Even more troubling, Mahmoud Abbas himself has seized on abu Ein’s death, calling it “a barbaric act impossible to accept or ignore,” and announcing that he’ll take further actions against Israel as a result. Which, in most likelihood, means more Palestinian rage, more violence, and one more time in which the facts on the ground—which aren’t even conclusively known yet—matter not at all.

Liel Leibovitz is editor-at-large for Tablet Magazine and a host of its weekly culture podcast Unorthodox and daily Talmud podcast Take One. He is the editor of Zionism: The Tablet Guide.