Beirut: The Palestinian Authority has suspended all security co-operation with Israel after a Palestinian government minister died following an altercation with Israeli soldiers at a protest in the occupied West Bank.
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News footage shows Ziad Abu Ein, who was head of the Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, being pushed and shoved by Israel Defence Forces and border police. At one stage a soldier is filmed with his hand around Mr Abu Ein's throat
Soldiers fired tear gas and stun grenades at the gathering of dozens of Palestinian and international activists led by the 55-year-old minister, who were carrying olive branches and flags as part of an International Human Rights Day protest against land confiscations on Wednesday.
They were attempting to walk from the Palestinian village of Turmusaiyya, north of Ramallah, towards the illegal Israeli outpost of Adei Ad that is built on the village's land, witnesses said.
International humanitarian law prohibits the transfer of an occupier's population to occupied territory, however there are an estimated 515,000 Israeli settlers living in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Formerly deputy minister of prisoners' affairs, Mr Abu Ein, a father of four, collapsed soon after the scuffle with Israeli forces – Israeli army medics attempted to revive him before he was evacuated to a hospital in Ramallah, however he reportedly died en route. There are reports that he suffered from a health condition that could have contributed to his death.
Just minutes before he collapsed, told local media: "We came to our Palestine land to plant olive trees, they [security forces] attacked us immediately without anyone throwing a stone or anything."
The Palestinian Authority condemned the killing of Mr Abu Ein and announced three days of mourning across the West Bank. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas announced security coordination with Israel had been halted. Palestinian officials said an autopsy would be performed, and Israeli officials said one of their pathologists would attend.
"Israel's use of excessive and indiscriminate violence constitutes war crimes under international law," PLO executive committee member Hanan Ashrawi said. "Israel habitually uses extreme violence, especially against non-violent resistance, and Ziad was guilty of nothing more insidious than planting olive trees on Palestinian land that Israel was attempting to steal."
The Israel Defence Forces described the protest as a gathering of "200 rioters" and said it was reviewing "the circumstances of the participation of Ziad Abu Ein, and his later death".
Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon confirmed the "event" in which Mr Abu Ein died is under investigation by the IDF.
"We express sorrow over his death. We have proposed ... that a joint autopsy be carried out on Abu Ein's body. Security stability is important to both sides and we will continue coordination with the [Palestinian Authority]," Mr Yaalon said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a statement released overnight, "pointed to the need to calm the situation and act responsibly".
Soon after Mr Abu Ein's death was reported, several Palestinian groups including Hamas and Islamic Jihad called for the PA to halt security coordination with Israeli forces, a policy already deeply unpopular with Palestinians.
A senior Fatah official, Jibril Rajoub, told the al-Jazeera news network that the Palestinian Authority would cease all security coordination with Israel in the West Bank in the wake of Mr Abu Ein's death.
Mr Abbas described the death of Mr Abu Ein as "a barbaric act that cannot be tolerated".
Mr Abu Ein was extradited from the United States in 1981 over the murder of two Israelis in Tiberias in 1979, and sentenced to life in prison, but released in 1985 in a prisoner exchange, the Palestinian Maan News Agency reported.
The protest – which participants described as peaceful – was timed to coincide with a petition filed in the Israeli High Court by four Palestinian villages and the human rights group Yesh Din that demands the army remove the Adei Ad outpost, the website +972 reported.
Mr Abu Ein's death will further inflame tensions across Jerusalem and the West Bank which have been running high for months following the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers, the retaliatory kidnapping of a Palestinian teenager who was burned alive, the Gaza war and a series of violent incidents in Jerusalem including an attack on a synagogue in which four rabbis and a security guard were killed.
