PLO official condemns killing of alleged Palestinian ramming terrorist
Erekat was killed after trying to ram a Border Police checkpoint in Abu Dis near the settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim on Tuesday.
By ZACHARY KEYSERAttempted ramming attack at the Kiosk Checkpoint near Ma'aleh Adumim, June 23, 2020(photo credit: ISRAEL POLICE)
In response to the shooting of Ahmed Mustafa Erekat, 27, a top Palestinian official for the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, made a public statement in which she condemned Israel for its "trigger-happy" nature and "shoot first ask questions later" approach to security situations involving Palestinians.Erekat was killed after trying to ram a Border Police checkpoint in Abu Dis near the settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim on Tuesday.According to the Border Police, the Palestinian driver, Erekat, was moving at high-speeds toward the Abu Dis checkpoint when an Israeli officer signaled the driver to stop.However, the driver pushed forward, veered off the road and collided into the checkpoint, injuring the female officer.After which, it was reported that the driver exited the vehicle and started making his way towards the Border Police officers surrounding the scene - he was shot then and there on site.In contrast, however, Palestinian reports state Erekat was on his way to pick up his mother and sister, who were preparing to attend his sister's wedding in Bethlehem."On that fateful trip, he was executed by Israeli occupation forces and denied medical help," Ashrawi said.She added in response to the conflicting Israeli and Palestinian reports that "Israel also attempted to slander Ahmad and excuse his murder. It is part of a tragically familiar pattern, where Israel habitually uses false pretexts that are all too familiar now to justify the murder of Palestinians by trigger-happy soldiers."Ashrawi then connected Erekat's death with another incident involving Border Police, that occurred just weeks prior, in which officers station at the Lion's Gate shot and killed 32-year-old special needs student Iyad al-Halak, a resident of Wadi al-Joz in east Jerusalem diagnosed with autism.Al-Halak was approached by Jerusalem police while passing by the Lion's Gate on his way to school."This is what Israel did when it shot and killed Iyad al-Halak, an autistic man shot dead by Israeli soldiers in Jerusalem on 30 May, and Fadi Samara, father of 5, who was killed in cold blood on 29 May near Ramallah," Ashrawi said.According to an official police statement, officers stationed at the gate noticed al-Halak holding a "suspicious object" that resembled a pistol. The Jerusalem police officers then ordered al-Halak to stop, after which he began to flee.Border Police were then called in to help the Jerusalem police chase the man on foot. After a lengthy pursuit, which came to a close in a dead-end alley, Border Police opened fire on al-Halak, killing him in the process. The "suspicious object" that sparked the episode was never found."Israel continues its policy of shoot first and ask questions later, with full impunity and in the absence of accountability from a dysfunctional international community. This shooting is symptomatic of a brutal and racist system of structural violence that treats Palestinan lives and rights with abject disdain, considering the lives of our young men and women discardable.," Ashrawi continued.Ashrawi concluded her statement pleading with the international community to punish and condemn the killings, noting previously that these acts of violence normalize these crimes worldwide."Palestinian lives matter," she said, alluding to the most recent case of blue on black violence in the United States, where African American George Floyd was killed by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin."It is time for the world to hold Israel to account and ensure that justice is done by Palestinan victims. We renew our call on the international community to take concrete steps, beyond hollow statements, to hold Israel accountable for its heinous crimes,” Ashrawi concluded.
