Facebook Memorial Page set up for Justice for Raed Zeiter
By Ray Hanania
A memorial page honoring Raed Zeiter, the Jordanian Judge who was murdered by Israeli soldiers on March 20, 2014 at the King Hussein/Allenby Bridge crossing between Jordan and the Israeli Occupied West Ban of Palestine, has been created to put pressure on Israel and Jordan to conduct an open, transparent and public investigation of the facts surrounding the murder.
Click here to visit the Facebook Fan Page and show your support.
The intent of the Fan Page is to build support to help show Israel and Jordan that the murder of Raed Zeiter cannot be covered up, as many murders of Palestinians and Arab civilians often wind up.
The public is demanding that Israel apologize for the murder and prosecute the soldier responsible for killing Zeiter, who witnesses claim got into an argument over a cigarette.
But Israeli authorities who control the “King Hussein/Allenby Bridge” insist that the video cameras at the crossing were not working, or were in operative. Many critics believe that video of the incident exists and Israel is merely trying to cover up its terrorist violence to protect the soldiers.
Israel’s soldiers have been accused over the years of committing war crimes, acts of terrorism and violence. In a recent report issued by the renown and highly respected international civil rights organization, Amnesty International, Israeli soldiers were described as being “trigger happy.”
Click here to read story on Amnesty International’s report on Israeli soldiers killing Arab children and civilians.
The tragedy of the Raed Zeiter murder is that it reflects the standard practices by the Israelis who are the first to scream about violence and terrorism, but engage in violence and terrorism themselves. Israel’s extensive public relations campaign however is geared strategically to undermine criticism. The manipulation of the video cameras would be something the Israelis would do to mute criticism and seek to minimize the negative impact of criticism.
An Israeli soldier buys from Palestinian children selling drinks near a checkpoint (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
There needs to be a transparent and complete investigation of the killing.
The truth needs to come out about what happened to Raed Zeiter.
Raed Zeiter was a human being. He had a family. He had a successful professional career as a respected judge in Jordan. He was only 38 years old.
What happened to Raed Zeiter?
That question goes way beyond just Raed Zeiter and cuts to the core of Israel’s conduct in this conflict and the hypocrisy that allows Israel to kill an innocent man, but heaps exaggerated and excessive condemnation on Arabs when an act of violence is caused by Arab suspects.
(Ray Hanania is an award winning former Chicago City Hall reporter and columnist. He is the managing editor of the Arab Daily News online www.TheArabDailyNews.com.)
(Some photos courtesy of Maan News Network www.MaanNews.net)
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Ray Hanania is an award winning political and humor columnist who analyzes American and Middle East politics, and life in general. He is an author of several books.
Hanania covered Chicago Politics and Chicago City Hall from 1976 through 1992 at the Daily Southtown and the Chicago Sun-Times. He began writing in 1975 publishing The Middle Eastern Voice newspaper in Chicago (1975-1977). He later published “The National Arab American Times” newspaper (2004-2007).
Hanania writes weekly columns on Middle East and American Arab issues as Special US Correspondent for the Arab News ArabNews.com, at TheArabDailyNews.com, and at SuburbanChicagoland.com. He has published weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post newspaper, YNetNews.com, Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, Houston Chronical, and Arlington Heights Daily Herald.
Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media. In 2009, Hanania received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the recipient of the MT Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award. He was honored for his writing skills with two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild. In 1990, Hanania was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times editors for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.
His writings have also been honored by two national Awards from ADC for his writing, and from the National Arab American Journalists Association.
Hanania is the US Special Correspondent for the Arab News Newspaper, covering Middle East and Arab American issues. He writes for the Southwest News newspaper group writing on mainstream American issues.
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