HAIFA, January 18, 2017 (WAFA) – Adalah, a Haifa-based rights group, Wednesday held the Israeli courts and government responsible for the violence that broke out earlier in the Arab village of Umm al-Hiran in the Naqab desert that left a Palestinian resident and an Israeli policeman dead.
Israeli police shot and killed Yacoub Abu al-Qeean, a 50-year-old local teacher, and wounded local residents, including the head of the Joint Arab List, lawmaker Ayman Odeh, during a violent incursion into Umm al-Hiran aimed at demolishing a central section of the Naqab Bedouin village.
One police officer was also killed during the incident, reportedly after he was hit by a car driven by Abu al-Qeean at the entrance to the village. Police claimed Abu al-Qeean ran them over before he was shot dead.
Adalah said eyewitnesses refuted police claims of attack and confirmed that Abu al-Qeean was trying to leave the village and lost control of the car after police fired at him.
The rights group, which represented the Bedouin residents of Atir Umm al-Hiran in legal proceedings over the past 13 years to stop the village‘s demolition, said the Israeli judiciary and the government were responsible for the events that unfolded in the village.
“The Israeli Supreme Court‘s decision to allow the state to proceed with its plan to demolish the village, which has existed for 60 years, in order to establish a Jewish town called ‘Hiran‘ over its ruins, is one of the most racist judgments that the Court has ever issued,” said Adalah.
“The Israeli government and its leaders then took advantage of this court decision to continue its home demolition policy against Arab communities,” it added, accusing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials of regularly praising “the use of state violence against Arab citizens, such as that used today in Atir–Umm al-Hiran and in Qalansawa last week, where demolitions also took place.”
Adalah said the killing of Abu al-Qeean proved yet again that the Israeli police “perceive Arab citizens as an enemy.”
It said: “The police are light on the trigger when it comes to Arab citizens, and too many times the police who have fired weapons and killed have received immunity from Mahash (the Police Investigation Unit)."
In response to the police statement regarding the car incident, Adalah emphasized: "This statement reflects the Israeli police‘s culture of lying. A few weeks ago, the Israeli police also accused Arab citizens of the state of launching arson attacks, which has not been proven at all. Not one person has been convicted based on these accusations. The Or Commission of Inquiry condemned this culture of lying in 2003, when they stated that the Israeli police regard Arab citizens as an enemy and that they were trigger-prone towards Arab citizens."
The families of the Abu al-Qeean tribe, who currently live in Atir-Umm al-Hiran, were initially expelled from their lands in Khirbet Zubaleh in 1948, which they had cultivated for generations.
Eventually during the 1950s, the Israeli military governor ordered them to move to their current lands to establish their village. Despite this, the state has not legally recognized the village to this day.
As a result of the decision to establish the Israeli Jewish town of Hiran over the Bedouin village, the Israel Land Authority demanded to expel them again, to the government-planned town of Hura.
M.K.
