HAIFA, January 19, 2017 (WAFA) – Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel demanded on Thursday that Israeli authorities investigate what it described as “the suspicious circumstances” that led to the death of a Bedouin man during a violent home demolition operation in the Israeli-Arab village of Umm al-Hiran in the Naqab desert.
Yacoub Abu al-Qeean, a 50-year-old math teacher from Atir-Umm al-Hiran, was killed after Israeli police opened fire on his vehicle as he was driving through the Bedouin village during state preparations for a large-scale home demolition.
The parents of Abu al-Qeean have asked Adalah to represent the family and to demand that the Justice Ministry‘s Police Investigations Division (Mahash) investigate the circumstances of their son‘s death.
In the letter to Mahash, sent late Wednesday, Adalah attorneys Nadeem Shehadeh and Mohammad Bassam argued that police video footage of the incident and eyewitness testimony reveal that police opened fire on Abu al-Qeean‘s vehicle before he accelerated in the direction of officers.
This totally contradicts police claims that Abu al Qeean sought to "ram" them with his vehicle, said Adalah in a statement.
Adalah also emphasized that, according to witnesses, police officers prevented an ambulance from approaching the scene and paramedics from treating Abu al-Qeean for three hours following the shooting.
"This fact alone suggests police forces violated the law and raises questions about the credibility of police testimony regarding the unfolding of events during the course of the incident," Adalah asserted.
Attorneys Shehadeh and Bassam further stress that Israeli officers in Umm al-Hiran failed to act in accordance with police regulations governing the use of firearms, which state that officers may open fire only as a last resort, and in order to prevent immediate danger. Visual evidence and eyewitness testimony seem to indicate that officers violated this regulation in this case.
Adalah demanded "immediate action to conduct an autopsy of the deceased without delay and before burial. We likewise request that an autopsy be conducted on the body of the police officer who was killed, apparently when he was hit by [Abu al-Qeean‘s] vehicle."
A large police forces arrived in Umm al-Hiran on Tuesday to carry out demolition orders on homes in a central section of the village.
During the operation, policemen shot and killed Abu al-Qeean while he was driving his car, which subsequently ran over a policeman during the incident. The police claim that Abu al-Qeean deliberately launched a car-ramming attack against the officers.
However, this claim was strongly refuted by villagers and activists who witnessed the incident, stating that Abu al-Qeean was trying to leave the village and lost control of his car only after police fired at him.
The police released aerial footage shot from a drone several hours later, which appeared to confirm the eyewitnesses‘ account of events: the footage clearly shows officers shot at Abu al-Qeean‘s vehicle multiple times as he was still driving slowly along a dirt road, far from any officers, and preceding any acceleration.
Bulldozers secured by Israeli police forces eventually leveled eight homes and seven agricultural buildings in Umm al-Hiran during the course of the morning.
Umm al-Hiran residents have been fighting in court Israeli plans to evict them for the sole purpose of establishing a new Jewish town called ‘Hiran‘ over its ruins.
In 2015, the Israeli Supreme Court decided by a 2-1 majority to authorize the state‘s plan to demolish the village and to evict and displace its residents and ruled that because the village residents are on "state land," the state could retake it and do with it as they wished.
