Sky News footage of the confrontation between the IDF and the Palestinian Authority minister who eventually died shows that Arabs may have prevented his life from being saved because they refused the help of an IDF medic.
Ziad Abu Ein, the “Minister for Settlements,” which actually means the “Minister against Settlements,” was leading a protest march towards the Jewish community of Adei Ad when soldiers blocked the protesters from continuing.
Abu Ein refused to accept the orders from soldiers and yelled at them “dog” as well other expletives. At one point a soldier briefly grabbed him by the neck.
Abu Ein , who had a heart condition and suffered from high blood pressure, then sat down, short of breath.
Previous video footage, almost always taken by Arab photojournalists who more frequently than not edit their work to frame Israel and make the Palestinian Authority as the victim, did not show the women soldier trying to administer aid to Abu Ein.
Arabs on the scene refused to let her help, and the Sky News commentator who broadcast the video footage, which can be seen here, said that it raises a question, “Had he been left there with the treatment of the Israeli medic, he may have survived.”
He also noted that there is not video footage to substantiate claims that soldier hit Abu Ein in his chest with his helmet or with a rifle butt.
Evidence form the autopsy showed that Abu Ein was a prime candidate for death. Evidence from the autopsy showed that more than 80 percent of his blood vessels were blogged, and the refusal to accept immediate help from a Jew from ”occupation army” instead of wasting precious time and hauling him off to a hospital could have led to his death.
The Palestinian Authority has claimed that the autopsy conducted by an Israel, Jordanian and PA doctor prove “without a doubt” that Abu Ein was beaten, while the official autopsy report states that he died of a heart attack which likely was brought on by stress.
Soldiers stopped the protest march to prevent certain violence that would have occurred had Abu Ein’s group reached Adei Ad.
They used tear gas, a standard riot dispersal method, to turn back the rioters, and Abu Ein very likely may have been short of breath from inhaling the gas.
Almost unmentioned in the news report of the clash and the minister’s death is that he has been using his position of minister to incite riots and that in 1979 he personally set off a bomb explosion that killed two Israelis and wounded 36 others during a Lag B’Omer celebration in Tiberias.
He fled to the United States, was extradited to the United States in 1981 and served three years in jail before Israel cut short his life sentence and released him along with 11,50 other terrorists and security prisoners in exchange for three Israeli prisoners held in Lebanon.
I would write that Abu Ein finally received justified punishment, but that would be considered incitement.