Palestinian Protester Jawaher Abu Rahmah Dies From Tear Gas Inhalation

BIL'IN, West Bank -- Friday was supposed to be a special day for Jawaher Abu Rahmah. Her cousin was having an engagement party that night and she had brought a case of Coke as a special gift. Standing outside her small cinder-block home in this village near the West Bank town of Ramallah, she saw the weekly demonstration against the Israeli "wall" pass by.

Jawaher and her mother, Subhiyeh, decided to join them.

"We weren't even very close to them and the soldiers fired tear gas at us," said Subhiyeh, sitting on a bed in her small home, the room packed with women sitting on plastic chairs who had come to console her. "(Jawaher) told me that her chest hurt and she couldn't breathe. Then she fell down and started vomiting."

Tovah Lazaroff

Subhiyeh Abu Rahmah mourns her daughter, Jawaher, who died after inhaling tear gas fired on Palestinian protesters in the West Bank village of Bil'in by Israeli soldiers.

Subhiyeh stayed with her daughter in the ambulance, where she lost consciousness. Jawaher, 35, died the next morning. Subhiyeh told AOL News the tear gas was especially strong and was fired in large quantities.

"The cause of death was cardiac arrest after inhalation of gas," Dr. Mohammed Aideh, the general director of emergency medical services of the Palestinian Ministry of Health, told AOL News. "According to the family, there was no history of any illness, and I have no doubt she died from tear gas. She was connected to a respirator as soon as she arrived at the hospital but never regained consciousness."

An Israeli army spokesman said it has opened an investigation.

"Our request to the Palestinians to review the medical report has not been granted," the spokesman said in a statement. "The circumstances surrounding the Palestinian woman's death are still being examined."

Jawaher was single, rare for a Palestinian woman, and was buried next to her brother Bassem, killed in April 2009 at a similar demonstration. Another brother, Ashraf, was filmed being shot by Israeli soldiers in 2008 with a rubber bullet while he was bound and blindfolded. He survived.

Friends in the village say Jawaher had been depressed since Bassem was killed. Last week she told a friend she had dreamed that she saw Bassem in heaven and he opened his arms to her.

This village has become an international symbol of Palestinian resistance against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. For five years, every Friday dozens of Palestinians from the village, often accompanied by pro-Palestinian international activists, have demonstrated against what they call the "wall," the controversial barrier that Israel is building in and around the West Bank. The protests have often turned violent, with demonstrators throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers who respond with tear gas.