The death of Asel Asleh occurred on 2 October 2000 when an Arab citizen of Israel

Arab citizens of Israel

Arab citizens of Israel refers to citizens of Israel who are not Jewish, and whose cultural and linguistic heritage or ethnic identity is Arab....

 and peace activist was killed at the onset of the Second Intifada by the Israel security forces. Asleh was 17 years old at the time of his death.

Background

Asel Asleh (6 May 1983 – 2 October 2000) was from the village of Arraba

Arraba

Arraba is Israel's fourth largest local council and largest Israeli Arab local council. It is located in the Lower Galilee in the North District, to the north of Nazareth and adjacent to Sakhnin and Deir Hanna...

 in the Lower Galilee. He had been a member of the international conflict resolution organization Seeds of Peace

Seeds of Peace

Seeds of Peace is a peacebuilding youth organization based in New York City. It was founded in 1993. As its main program, the organization brings youth from areas of conflict to its international camp in Maine. It also provides regional programming to support Seeds of Peace graduates, known as...

 since 1997. Prior to his death, Asleh described himself as a "an ex-Palestinian, currently an Arab Israeli". He had many Jewish

Judaism

Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...

 friends and was killed while wearing the Seeds of Peace t-shirt.

Killing

Asleh attended a protest in his village on 2 October. Trying to disperse the protest, an Israeli Security Forces

Israeli Security Forces

Security forces in Israel include a variety of organizations, including law enforcement, military, paramilitary, governmental, and intelligence agencies.-Military:...

 unit shot tear-gas

Lachrymatory agent

Tear gas, formally known as a lachrymatory agent or lachrymator , is a non-lethal chemical weapon that stimulates the corneal nerves in the eyes to cause tears, pain, and even blindness...

 and live ammunition at the protesters. The precise actions which led to the death of Asleh were unclear; the police officers stated that they did not know how he was killed, while his cousin said that he had seen a gun pointed at Asleh and then he heard three shots. A physician who treated the youth commented that Asleh was shot in the neck at point-blank range, and that crucial time had been lost when the police delayed the arrival of an ambulance. Officers said he was shot when they found him lying in the oil grove. Eventually, Asleh died at Nahariya Hospital. The examination by the Or Commission reached a very advanced stage but ended when the Asleh family refused to allow the exhumation of Asel's body to extract the bullets which killed Asleh for tests.

Or Commission, the October 2000 events and further investigations

Including Asleh, 13 Arab citizens of Israels were killed. Asel's father successfully led a campaign to investigate the death of his son and others killed in October 2000. Subsequently, the October 2000 events

October 2000 events

The October 2000 events were a series of protests in Arab villages in northern Israel in October 2000 that turned violent, escalating into clashes between Israeli Arabs and the Israel Police and ending in the deaths of demonstrators.The Or Commission was established to investigate the police...

 were investigated by the Israeli-government appointed Or Commission

Or Commission

The Or Commission was a panel of inquiry appointed by the Israeli government to investigate the events of October 2000 at the beginning of the Second Intifada in which 12 Arab citizens of Israel and one Palestinian were killed by Israeli police amidst several demonstrations...

. The Or Commission heavily condemned Israeli police for being unprepared for the protests and possibly using excessive force to disperse the protesters. Asel's father, Hassan, is head of the Committee of the Victims’ Families, which has sought to keep pressure on the official responsible for the death of Asleh and the other twelve killed in October 2000. In October 2006, Israeli newspaper Haaretz

Haaretz

Haaretz is Israel's oldest daily newspaper. It was founded in 1918 and is now published in both Hebrew and English in Berliner format. The English edition is published and sold together with the International Herald Tribune. Both Hebrew and English editions can be read on the Internet...

 reported that the main suspect in Asleh's killing refused a lie detector test six times. On October 24, 2000, three weeks after Asleh's death, United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 MP

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 Richard Burden

Richard Burden

Richard Burden is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Birmingham Northfield since 1992. Together with close friend and fellow ex-Young Liberal Peter Hain M.P., he was an enthusiastic supporter of the ill-fated Alternative Vote system in the May 2011...

 opened a debate on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Israeli-Palestinian conflict

The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The conflict is wide-ranging, and the term is also used in reference to the earlier phases of the same conflict, between Jewish and Zionist yishuv and the Arab population living in Palestine under Ottoman or...

 by noting Asleh's recent death and the lack of autopsy and investigation to that point.

Further protests

In February 2008, members of Seeds of Peace

Seeds of Peace

Seeds of Peace is a peacebuilding youth organization based in New York City. It was founded in 1993. As its main program, the organization brings youth from areas of conflict to its international camp in Maine. It also provides regional programming to support Seeds of Peace graduates, known as...

 led a protest in front of Israel's Ministry of Justice demanding that it reopen the investigation into the October 2000 events, specifically the death of former Seed Asleh. The protesters also sent letters to Attorney General Menahem Mazuz and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert

Ehud Olmert

Ehud Olmert is an Israeli politician and lawyer. He served as Prime Minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009, as a Cabinet Minister from 1988 to 1992 and from 2003 to 2006, and as Mayor of Jerusalem from 1993 to 2003....

 asking if the victims had been Jews if the case would be reopened.

On September 30, 2010, 6,000 Arab citizens of Israel and supporters led a procession marking the 10 year anniversary of Asleh and the 12 other Arabs killed in October 2000. The protesters called officials to try the police officers allegedly responsible for the killings. MK

Mk

mk is the build tool replacing make in Version 10 Unix, Plan 9 from Bell Labs, and Inferno. It improves upon its predecessor by introducing a completely new syntax that is both easier to read and more powerful...

 Ahmad Tibi

Ahmad Tibi

Ahmad Tibi is an Arab-Israeli politician and leader of Ta'al , an Arab party in Israel. He currently serves as Deputy Speaker of the Knesset. He was elected on a joint ticket with the United Arab List to serve in Israel's parliament, the Knesset...

 said "These past 10 years have been filled with anger and pain for the victims' families, and for the general Arab public. They represent a black mark on the history of the State of Israel," On 1 October, the Arab Higher Monitoring Committee declared a one day strike to commemorate the youth.

External links

• Israeli bullet ends a life in two worlds The Washington Post, October 5, 2000
• Asel is gone Salon.com, 7 October 2000
• 'And then the night came down' Al Jazeera International, 6 October 2010
• A Jewish American's Friendship With A Young Palestinian: Tragedy And Peace KUOW-FM
  KUOW-FM
  KUOW-FM 94.9 is a National Public Radio affiliate radio station in Seattle, Washington. It is a top-ranked radio station in the Seattle/Tacoma media market...
  
  , 21 May 2011