![](https://i.imgur.com/CLvY2jA.png")
05-02-2022, 01:31 PM
Andrew Mitrovica
Published On 4 Feb 2022
Omar Abdulmajeed Asaad was the inconvenient Palestinian.
Like so many other Palestinians, Asaad was, in effect, killed by Israeli soldiers because he was a Palestinian. Young or old. Women, men or children. It does not matter. Asaad’s life was snuffed out because, it bears repeating, he was a Palestinian.
As it happens, Asaad was old. He was 78 years old. For much of his life he lived in Jiljilya, a town a little northeast of Ramallah in the West Bank. That is where he died.
Asaad was married. He had a family whom he loved and who loved him in equal measure. He spent his work life selling groceries. Retired, he liked to play cards with friends.
That is what he was doing with his cousins in the early hours of January 12 less than a mile from his home. He lived a quiet life enjoying simple things that gave him peace and pleasure.
On his drive home, Asaad was stopped by Israeli soldiers at a “checkpoint” because he was a Palestinian. The Israeli soldiers had no cause or right to stop Asaad. They did because they had guns.
Asaad insisted that he was not a troublemaker. He was, of course, telling the truth. He was an old man just trying to get home after a late night of playing cards with friends.
Predictably, the Israeli soldiers did not believe him because he was a Palestinian with no ID. So, they dragged Asaad from his car, blindfolded him, put a gag over his mouth and tied his hands tight with plastic zip ties.
Then, Israeli soldiers marched Asaad – bound, gagged and blindfolded – to a nearby construction site and dumped him on the cold stone pavers.
......
Soon, Asaad was still. One Israeli soldier squatted to check on Asaad. The soldier got up, spoke to the other soldiers. They left. Quickly.
Asaad was dead.
There was an Israeli medic close by. But the Israeli soldiers who had bound, gagged and blindfolded Asaad and left him to die did not call for help because he was a Palestinian.
......
Asaad’s foul death would be a scarcely noticed footnote amid the outrageous inventory of death and despair Palestinians have had to endure for generations because they are Palestinians if not for one detail: he was an American.
That is what made Asaad and the brutish manner of his death so inconvenient to a few powerful people and governments.
......
That Asaad carried an American passport could mean trouble: trouble for the Israeli soldiers who bound, gagged and blindfolded Asaad and left him dead for no other reason than he was a Palestinian; trouble for the Israeli government that relies on the US to have its back whenever it steals the homes and land of Palestinians or jails, tortures, bombs and kills them with impunity; trouble for the US government that had to account, finally and grudgingly, for the death of an American while in its special ally’s sullied “hands”.
......
for once, the ugly death of a Palestinian got big play in some US media only because he was an American. Usually, dead Palestinians do not, as you and I know, merit that kind of attention.
......
Two Israeli soldiers responsible for Asaad’s death have lost their “commands” – temporarily. Another has been “reprimanded”.
So what?
You and I know that once the how, where and why of Asaad’s death is forgotten by powerful people and governments, the “disciplined” Israeli soldiers will likely get their commands back. They may even, in time, be promoted.
......
The Israeli soldiers “acted” as they did not only because they could, but because they saw Asaad as a worthless, disposable Palestinian. A nobody whose life and death did not matter to them or the government or people they serve.
For too many Israelis – in and out of uniforms – Palestinians’ lives have never mattered and they never will.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/...alestinian
Published On 4 Feb 2022
Omar Abdulmajeed Asaad was the inconvenient Palestinian.
Like so many other Palestinians, Asaad was, in effect, killed by Israeli soldiers because he was a Palestinian. Young or old. Women, men or children. It does not matter. Asaad’s life was snuffed out because, it bears repeating, he was a Palestinian.
As it happens, Asaad was old. He was 78 years old. For much of his life he lived in Jiljilya, a town a little northeast of Ramallah in the West Bank. That is where he died.
Asaad was married. He had a family whom he loved and who loved him in equal measure. He spent his work life selling groceries. Retired, he liked to play cards with friends.
That is what he was doing with his cousins in the early hours of January 12 less than a mile from his home. He lived a quiet life enjoying simple things that gave him peace and pleasure.
On his drive home, Asaad was stopped by Israeli soldiers at a “checkpoint” because he was a Palestinian. The Israeli soldiers had no cause or right to stop Asaad. They did because they had guns.
Asaad insisted that he was not a troublemaker. He was, of course, telling the truth. He was an old man just trying to get home after a late night of playing cards with friends.
Predictably, the Israeli soldiers did not believe him because he was a Palestinian with no ID. So, they dragged Asaad from his car, blindfolded him, put a gag over his mouth and tied his hands tight with plastic zip ties.
Then, Israeli soldiers marched Asaad – bound, gagged and blindfolded – to a nearby construction site and dumped him on the cold stone pavers.
......
Soon, Asaad was still. One Israeli soldier squatted to check on Asaad. The soldier got up, spoke to the other soldiers. They left. Quickly.
Asaad was dead.
There was an Israeli medic close by. But the Israeli soldiers who had bound, gagged and blindfolded Asaad and left him to die did not call for help because he was a Palestinian.
......
Asaad’s foul death would be a scarcely noticed footnote amid the outrageous inventory of death and despair Palestinians have had to endure for generations because they are Palestinians if not for one detail: he was an American.
That is what made Asaad and the brutish manner of his death so inconvenient to a few powerful people and governments.
......
That Asaad carried an American passport could mean trouble: trouble for the Israeli soldiers who bound, gagged and blindfolded Asaad and left him dead for no other reason than he was a Palestinian; trouble for the Israeli government that relies on the US to have its back whenever it steals the homes and land of Palestinians or jails, tortures, bombs and kills them with impunity; trouble for the US government that had to account, finally and grudgingly, for the death of an American while in its special ally’s sullied “hands”.
......
for once, the ugly death of a Palestinian got big play in some US media only because he was an American. Usually, dead Palestinians do not, as you and I know, merit that kind of attention.
......
Two Israeli soldiers responsible for Asaad’s death have lost their “commands” – temporarily. Another has been “reprimanded”.
So what?
You and I know that once the how, where and why of Asaad’s death is forgotten by powerful people and governments, the “disciplined” Israeli soldiers will likely get their commands back. They may even, in time, be promoted.
......
The Israeli soldiers “acted” as they did not only because they could, but because they saw Asaad as a worthless, disposable Palestinian. A nobody whose life and death did not matter to them or the government or people they serve.
For too many Israelis – in and out of uniforms – Palestinians’ lives have never mattered and they never will.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/...alestinian
