Raed Zeiter (c. 1976 – 10 March 2014) was a Jordanian judge who was shot dead by Israeli soldiers on 10 March 2014 at the

Allenby Bridge The Allenby Bridge (), known officially in Jordan as the King Hussein Bridge (), is a bridge that crosses the Jordan River near the city of Jericho in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the town of Al-Karameh in Jordan. The bridge is currently ...

border crossing Border control comprises measures taken by governments to monitor and regulate the movement of people, animals, and goods across land, air, and maritime borders. While border control is typically associated with international borders, it als ...

between the Israeli-occupied

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

and

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

. Involved Israeli soldiers claimed that Zeiter had tried to snatch a weapon from a soldier and had also attacked them with a metal pole, an account that was disputed by a witness speaking to the international news media as well as representatives of the

government of Jordan The politics of Jordan takes place in a framework of a parliamentary monarchy, whereby the Prime Minister of Jordan is head of government, and of a multi-party system. Jordan is a constitutional monarchy based on the constitution promulgated on ...

, among others. The event became an international incident, with Israel formally issuing a statement of regret.

Background and incident details

The 38-year-old Raed Zeiter worked as a judge at a magistrates court in Jordan while his hometown was

Nablus Nablus ( ; , ) is a State of Palestine, Palestinian city in the West Bank, located approximately north of Jerusalem, with a population of 156,906. Located between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it is the capital of the Nablus Governorate and a ...

. Israeli soldiers remarked that he had charged at them with a metal pole, which was disputed by a witness who stated that Zeiter and the soldiers had been arguing before Zeiter was shoved down and shot. The incident occurred at the

crossing between the

Palestinian territories The occupied Palestinian territories, also referred to as the Palestinian territories, consist of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip—two regions of the former Mandate for Palestine, British Mandate for Palestine ...

and the nation of Jordan. While the border crossing procedures there are usually recorded, the army later said that the cameras on site had malfunctioned. According to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', the crossing had very rarely seen acts of violence before. The bridge area is jointly administered by both Jordan and Israel.

Reactions

Zeiter's father and Jordanian government officials such as Information Minister Mohammad Momani called shortly after the incident for investigations and for the arrest of the border agents involved. "My son was unarmed, he wouldn't even know how to use a weapon," Ala Zeiter said. The Israeli military stated that it had conducted a "comprehensive investigation" to support their view of the incident, including the questioning of multiple witnesses. Jordan's principal Islamist party condemned what it viewed as Israeli "brutality". Murad Adaileh of the

Islamic Action Front The Islamic Action Front (IAF; ) is an Islamist political party in Jordan. It was the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan. Founded in 1992 with 350 members, Ahmed Azaida, Ishaq Al-Farhan and Abdul Latif Arabiyat were the main f ...

said in a statement that "the Zionist enemy does not respect any agreements" and that the "aggression against the Jordanian citizen shows the brutality of the Zionist occupation." Approximately 1000 protesters demonstrated outside the Israeli embassy in Amman, Jordan and called for expelling the Israeli ambassador. Many of them declared, "Down with the peace agreement!" The

Palestinian Authority The Palestinian Authority (PA), officially known as the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), is the Fatah-controlled government body that exercises partial civil control over the Palestinian enclaves in the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, ...

publicly advocated for an international investigation into the incident. "Israel regrets the death of Judge Raed Zeiter yesterday at the King Hussein (Allenby) bridge and expresses its sympathies to the people and government of Jordan,"

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Benjamin Netanyahu Benjamin Netanyahu (born 21 October 1949) is an Israeli politician who has served as the prime minister of Israel since 2022, having previously held the office from 1996 to 1999 and from 2009 to 2021. Netanyahu is the longest-serving prime min ...

’s office declared in a statement.

Funeral

Hundreds of Palestinians and Jordanians turned out for Zeiter's

funeral A funeral is a ceremony connected with the final disposition of a corpse, such as a burial or cremation, with the attendant observances. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember and respect th ...

. His casket wrapped in both a Jordanian flag and a Palestinian flag, his family buried him in their hometown of Nablus.

Compensation

Israel paid compensation for the killing of Zeiter in 2018, after another incident that saw an Israeli embassy guard killing two Jordanians at the Israeli embassy in Amman. The total compensation for the three victims was reported to be five million dollars.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zeiter, Raed Jordanian judges 1970s births 2014 deaths People from Nablus Palestinian murder victims 2014 crimes in Palestine Deaths by person in Palestine Jordan–West Bank border crossings March 2014 crimes in Asia 2014 in international relations Israel–Jordan relations Extrajudicial killings by the Israeli military International incidents Jordan in the Arab–Israeli conflict

Background and incident details

Reactions

Funeral

Compensation

See also

References