Baby son who slain Judge Raed Zeiter tried to help dies in Amman hospital
By Ali Younes
Alaedinne Zeiter, the 5-year-old comatose son of Jordan’s magistrate judge who was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers on March 10, Raed Zeiter, was pronounced dead in a Jordanian hospital in Amman from brain injuries that he suffered few weeks before his father’s murder.
Alaedinne, suffered from a “bronchial asthma” and choked while drinking milk at home and was being aspirated. But the incident triggered a severe Asthma attack that dropped the oxygen levels going to his brain causing the infant child of Judge Reiz Zeiter to become comatose. The sever drop in oxygen levels resulted in an anoxic-brain injury.
Judge Zeiter was on his way to Nablus, Palestine, passing through the Israeli military checkpoint at the King Hussein/ALlenby Bridge on March 10, in order to secure more funds from family land owned there in order to help pay the hospital bills for the young child, when he was shot and killed at the checkpoint.
Israeli officials claim that Raed Zeiter, 38, a Jordanian Judge of Palestinian heritage, attacked an armed Israeli soldier who then allegedly defended himself against Zeiter. The Israelis accused Raed Zeiter of being a “terrorist,” and they said he tried to grab an Israeli soldier’s weapon when they got into an argument.
Israeli claims were questioned and disputed by the victim’s father and by numerous eyewitnesses who stated that the victim was “ killed in cold blood” and never posed any threat to Israeli soldiers.
The victim’s father, 80 year old, retired Jordanian Supreme Court Judge Alaedinne Zeiter told the Arab Daily News last week “My son was shot by a sniper, then shot five times at point blank range, execution style while laying on the ground,”
Samer Abdul Hadi, a long time Jordanian attorney and a close friend of Raed Zeiter, said he was shocked over the killing of his best friend of many years.
“Raed, was very civilized and very polite individual. I cannot believe that they murdered him in cold blood like that and then claim that he was threatening their lives,” Samer Abdul Hadi said during a a telephone interview from Amman. “It is obvious that Israeli soldiers can kill and shoot any Jordanian or Palestinian or Arab and they think they can get away with it.”The Jordanian government condemned the killing and demanded a joint investigation, which Israel agreed to, to look into the circumstances that resulted in killing of judge.
Israel also claimed that it’s sophisticated video surveillance system that monitors the crossing and all activities of the civilians at the Allenby Bridge were not operating at the time Raed Zeiter was killed.
King Abdullah II promised the family of Judge Raed Zeiter that a full investigation would be made, after saying that the Israelis had apologized for the killing. But Israelis insisted that they did not apologize but had offered “regrets.” Jordanian and Palestinian citizens of Jordan protested against the killing and demanded that Israel be punished for the crime, but no sanctions against Israel have been taken.
(Ali Younes is the editor of the Arab Daily News www.TheArabDailyNews.com.)
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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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