Some 19 Palestinians were injured on Thursday after Israeli Occupation Forces violently dispersed the funeral of Palestinian Minister Ziad Abu Ein, who was killed a day earlier by Israeli forces during a peaceful demonstration near Ramallah.
Meanwhile, France's upper house of parliament on Thursday urged the government to recognize Palestine as a state, following a similar and highly symbolic vote in the lower house.
Clashes broke out in the Jabal al-Tawil area after Israeli forces, who were heavily deployed inside the nearby illegal Israeli settlement of Psagot, attempted to disperse thousands of Palestinians taking part in Abu Ein’s funeral procession.
To the sounds of drums and bagpipes, Abu Ein's coffin was carried by pallbearers in military uniform along a red carpet at the presidential compound in the city of Ramallah.
The Palestinian flag-draped coffin was then carried into the courtyard of a nearby cemetery, as nationalist songs blared and mourners chanted "Revenge!" and "Your blood will not be spilled in vain!"
The coffin was lowered carefully into the ground at a cemetery in al-Bireh, on the outskirts of Ramallah.
Schools were closed in a day of mourning and posters of Abu Ein were plastered on walls throughout the West Bank city.
According to Ma’an news agency, 19 Palestinians were injured by so-called “sponge” bullets and dozens suffered excessive tear gas inhalation.
Israeli police claimed “minor” clashes took place in several places and Palestinians were dispersed by "riot dispersal means" in Psagot, as well as in the West Bank villages of Nabi Saleh and Qalandiya, and the city of Hebron.
Abu Ein, 55, died Wednesday after Israeli forces beat him in the chest with the butts of their rifles and their helmets in the village of Turmsayya in the Ramallah district.
Witnesses said troops fired tear gas, soldiers grabbed Abu Ein and he was struck in the chest. Videos circulating online showed the soldiers pushing Abu Ein firmly in the chest and neck.
An AFP photographer said three soldiers grabbed Abu Ein and hit him in the chest. He lost consciousness and was taken to Ramallah Public Hospital where he was later pronounced dead.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces dispersed a march in Jerusalem condemning the death of the Palestinian minister.
Israeli forces raided Salah al-Din Street as activists distributed black flags as a symbol of mourning for the senior official.
Witnesses said Israeli forces opened fire in the air and fired stun grenades to disperse the peaceful march.
Israeli police also confiscated the ID of a woman after a verbal dispute broke out between Palestinian youths and Israeli forces.
The widow, third left, and the daughter of senior Palestinian official Ziad Abu Ein attend his funeral in the West Bank city of Ramallah on December 11, 2014. AFP / Thomas Coex
Israel 'fully responsible'
"After hearing the results of the post-mortem, the Palestinian government holds Israel fully responsible for the killing of Ziad Abu Ein," government spokesman Ihab Bseiso told reporters in Ramallah on Thursday.
A Palestinian minister said the post-mortem, which was carried out by a Palestinian, Israeli and Jordanian doctors, had shown that Abu Ein was killed by the actions of Israeli troops.
"Abu Ein died after being hit by (Israeli) Occupation Forces and because of the heavy use of tear gas," Palestinian civil affairs minister Hussein al-Sheikh told AFP.
Sheikh said Israeli forces had prevented Abu Ein from getting to a hospital quickly enough to save his life.
The incident prompted Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas to threaten measures in response, saying "all options are open for discussion and implementation,” without specifying what those were.
Chief Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) negotiator Saeb Erekat told Ma'an Thursday that the Palestinian leadership decided to "limit" relations with Israel by halting security coordination.
"If (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu thinks a Palestinian Authority without any authority and an occupation at no cost is possible, he is mistaken,” Erekat said.
Besides his role in the PA monitoring illegal Israeli settlements and the separation barrier, Abu Ein was a member of the Fatah Revolutionary Council and previously served as deputy minister for prisoner affairs.
On Wednesday, a senior official, Jibril Rajoub, told the press that the PA will end "all forms of security coordination with Israel for deliberately killing Minister Ziad Abu Ein."
Abu Ein's death was condemned by Palestinian factions, with immediate calls to halt security coordination with Israeli forces, a policy already widely unpopular among Palestinians.
Both Hamas and Islamic Jihad called on the PA to halt all security coordination following news of Abu Ein's death, with Islamic Jihad leader Khaled al-Batsh saying Israel only understands the "language of force."
According to Erekat, the Palestinian leadership will meet again Friday evening to discuss and implement “the decisions” taken on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the Israeli authorities urged calm, with Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon expressing “regret” for the death and saying a military inquiry had been launched.
"Security stability is important for both sides," he claimed.
Netanyahu sent a message through one of his aides to Abbas in which he "pointed to the need to calm the situation and act responsibly," his office said.
Since September 2000, following the Second Intifada, at least 9,100 Palestinians have been killed by Israelis, including 2,053 children.
Over 7,000 Palestinians are currently languishing in 17 Israeli prisons and detention camps, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs.
Palestine as a state
Erekat Thursday asserted the PA’s unwavering stance regarding the need to recognize Palestine as a state by 2016.
In the absence of talks, the Palestinians are pushing a United Nations Security Council resolution, which they hope will pass by the end of the year, giving Israel two years to withdraw from the territories occupied by Israel during the Six-Day War in 1967 and establishing a two-state solution.
If the United States vetoes it as expected, Palestinian leadership says it will then move to sue Israel through the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes.
Erekat said Palestine would be joining the International Criminal Court, and called on the High Contracting Parties to the fourth Geneva convention to assist the Palestinian leadership in doing so.
Meanwhile, France's upper house of parliament on Thursday urged the government to recognize Palestine as a state, following a similar and highly symbolic vote in the lower house.
The Senate resolution, calling for French recognition of Palestine and an "immediate restarting" of peace talks between the Palestinians and the Israelis, passed narrowly, with 153 votes in favor and 146 against.
The vote came as European countries seek alternative ways to restart the stalled Middle East process and followed an unopposed motion in the Irish parliament to recognize Palestine – the fifth assembly in Europe to do so.
Lawmakers in Britain and Spain have already passed similar motions and Sweden has gone even further, officially recognizing Palestine as a state, in a move that prompted Israel to recall its ambassador.
Earlier this month, French MPs voted 339 to 151 in favor of a motion urging the government to recognize the state of Palestine as a way of achieving a "definitive resolution of the conflict."
Neither vote is binding on French government policy toward Palestine and the Middle East.
However, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has said Paris would recognize Palestine if diplomatic efforts failed again and urged a resolution to the Middle East conflict within two years.
According to PA estimations, around 135 countries have so far recognized the State of Palestine, although the number is disputed and several recognitions by what are now European Union member states date back to the Soviet era.
The roots of the Israel-Palestine conflict date back to 1917, when the British government, in the now-infamous "Balfour Declaration," called for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people."
Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the holy city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the self-proclaimed Zionist state – a move never recognized by the international community.
In 1988, Palestinian leaders led by Yasser Arafat declared the existence of a state of Palestine inside the 1967 borders and the state's belief "in the settlement of international and regional disputes by peaceful means in accordance with the charter and resolutions of the United Nations."
Heralded as a "historic compromise," the move implied that Palestinians would agree to accept only 22 percent of historic Palestine in exchange for peace with Israel. It is now believed that only 17 percent of historic Palestine is under Palestinian control following the continued expansion of illegal Israeli settlements.
It is worth noting that numerous pro-Palestine activists support a one-state solution in which Israelis and Palestinians would be treated equally, arguing that the creation of a Palestinian state beside Israel would not be sustainable. They also believe that the two-state solution, which is the only option considered by international actors, won't solve existing discrimination, nor erase economic and military tensions.
(AFP, Al-Akhbar, Ma'an)
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