Ramallah: An Israeli soldier shot and killed a Palestinian who was a Jordanian judge on the Allenby Crossing (King Hussain Crossing) on Monday.
The death was announced by the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) which stated that 38-year-old Ra’ed Alaa Al Deen Nae’ Zuaiter, originally from the city of Nablus but officially a Jordanian resident, was shot at the first Israeli military checkpoint which is less than 50 metres from the official gate and the Jordan River.
The killing followed an argument between the judge and an Israeli soldier at the military checkpoint.
Nazmi Muhana, who heads the Palestinian Crossings and Borders, said in an official statement released by the Palestinian News Agency (Wafa) that after the argument the Israeli soldier drew his weapon without hesitation and fatally shot Zuaiter.
Muhana denied the Israeli version of the story which stated that Zuaiter had tried to seize the weapon of the Israeli soldier.
The Palestinian Crossings and Borders head labelled that version fabricated and baseless. Muhana said that in response to the death the Israelis sealed off the crossing and declared it as a military zone.
At that location where the judge was shot, two Israeli soldiers are usually deployed to ask all passengers to step off their bus. Passengers are required to leave all their belongings inside the vehicle except their identity cards.
Typically, one soldier will have a quick look at the cards while the other gets into the bus to quickly inspect it. This procedure has long been criticised by Palestinian passengers who usually consider it needless and a waste of time whose only aim is to humiliate the passengers.
Ziad Othman, a senior official at the Nablus Governorate, confirmed that Zuaiter was a Jordanian resident who lived and worked as a judge in Jordan. He said that Zuaiter was on his way to Nablus to visit to his relatives in the city.
“The Israeli version of the killing is surely not true as the act of seizing the weapon of a soldier would never have been done by an educated judge,” he told Gulf News, adding that this story is a typical Israeli attempt to rid the soldier of responsibility for the killing.
“The Palestinian official of the Israeli-Palestinian security coordination office has announced they want to meet with the 50 other passengers on the bus when Zuaiter was shot so they can make a final decision about the killing,” he said.
“Israel has arrested those passengers and has not yet released them.”
Nablus Government is not sure whether the Israeli side will hand the judge’s body to his relatives in Nablus for burial or whether his family in Jordan will ask the Israelis to hand them the body for burial in Jordan.
Othman said that the victim’s wife, children and other first class relatives all live in Jordan and that the relatives in Nablus were only second and third class relatives.
