Renewed clashes erupt in Negev village as Israeli bulldozers begin demolitions

?id=774991

  • Palestinian shot dead ’in cold blood’ by Israeli police during Negev demolition raid
    Jan. 18, 2017 9:44 A.M. (Updated: Jan. 18, 2017 11:53 A.M.)
    http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?ID=774987

    MK Ayman Odeh, shot and injured in the head with a rubber-coated steel bullet fired by Israeli police

    NEGEV (Ma’an) — Two people were killed and several others were hospitalized Wednesday after a predawn demolition raid into the Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran in the Negev region erupted into clashes, as Israeli forces used rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas canisters, and stun grenades to violently suppress locals and supporters who had gathered to resist the demolitions.

    A Palestinian citizen of Israel was shot dead by Israeli forces after he allegedly carried out a car ramming attack on Israeli officers, leaving several injured, according to Israeli police. However, a numerous eyewitness accounts said that the driver lost control of his vehicle after he was shot, causing him to crash into Israeli police, one of whom was killed.

    Israeli Knesset member Taleb Abu Arar said that the police killed Abu Qian “in cold blood," Israeli news site Ynet quoted him as saying. “The police shot him for no reason. The claims that he tried to run over police are not true.”

    Locals identified the slain Palestinian citizen of Israel as 47-year-old Yaqoub Moussa Abu al-Qian , a math teacher at al-Salam High School in the nearby town of Hura.

    Israeli police later confirmed that a policeman succumbed to injuries he sustained by being hit by the car. The slain officer was identified as 34-year-old Erez Levi.

    Knesset member Ayman Odeh and head of the Joint List, which represents parties led by Palestinian citizens of Israel, was injured in the head and back with rubber-coated steel bullets, locals said, and taken to Soroka Hospital in Beersheba.

    Odeh wrote in a statement on his Facebook page saying that “a crime was committed in Umm al-Hiran as hundreds of police members violently raided the village firing tear-gas bombs, stun grenades, and rubber-coated steel bullets. Villagers, women, men, and children stood with their bare hands against the brutality and violence of the police.”

    Hundreds of Israeli police arrived to Umm al-Hiran at around 5 a.m. to secure the area for Israeli authorities to carry out a demolition campaign in the village.

    Israeli news blog 972 Magazine quoted witness and activist Kobi Snitz as saying that police began pulling drivers out of vehicles, and attacking and threatening others.

    A short while later, Snitz said he heard gunfire and saw a white pickup truck about 30 meters from police, telling 972: “They started shooting at the car in bursts from all directions.”

    According to the report, it was only after the driver appeared to have been wounded and lost control of his vehicle that it crashed into the police officers, contradiction Israeli police reports.

    #Palestine_assassinée

    • Une opération de démolition tourne mal en Israël : un policier et un villageois tués
      AFP / 18 janvier 2017 09h18
      http://www.romandie.com/news/Une-operation-de-demolition-tourne-mal-en-Israel-un-policier-et-un-villageois-tues/768760.rom

      Umm al-Hiran (Israël) - Une opération de démolition dans un village bédouin a très mal tourné mercredi dans une communauté emblématique du sud d’Israël, où un policier israélien et un villageois arabe ont été tués dans des circonstances différentes selon les versions de la police et des villageois.

      Le policier Erez Levi, 34 ans, est mort dans une attaque à la voiture bélier dont l’auteur a ensuite été abattu, a indiqué la police qui a décrit le conducteur comme un « terroriste ».

      Plusieurs villageois et l’assistant d’un député arabe présent sur place ont contesté cette version des faits.

      Les policiers avaient été dépêchés dans le village bédouin d’Umm al-Hiran pour sécuriser la démolition de plusieurs maisons de bédouins, dépourvues selon les autorités israéliennes des permis nécessaires.

      « A l’arrivée des unités de police sur la zone, un véhicule conduit par un terroriste du Mouvement islamique a tenté d’attaquer un groupe de policiers en les percutant. Les policiers ont riposté et le terroriste a été neutralisé », a dit un porte-parole de la police, Micky Rosenfeld. Une autre porte-parole de la police a confirmé la mort du conducteur.

      Plusieurs policiers ont été blessés, a dit M. Rosenfeld.

      Raed Abou al-Qiyan, responsable d’un comité prodiguant des services aux villageois, a contesté cette version.

      « La version israélienne est un mensonge. Il (le conducteur) était un enseignant respecté. Ils (les policiers) sont arrivés et ont commencé à tirer sans discrimination des balles en caoutchouc, visant les gens, allant jusqu’à blesser le député (arabe israélien) Ayman Odeh qui essayait de leur parler », a déclaré à l’AFP Raed Abou al-Qiyan, qui dit avoir été témoin direct des faits.

    • Renewed clashes erupt in Negev village as Israeli bulldozers begin demolitions
      Jan. 18, 2017 12:38 P.M. (Updated: Jan. 18, 2017 12:38 P.M.)
      http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=774991

      (...) At around noon, renewed clashes erupted as Israeli bulldozers began razing the homes to the ground.

      Residents crowded and hurled stones at Israeli police officers who showered the demonstrators with tear gas to disperse them.

      Palestinian MK Osama Saadi was lightly injured in the leg and was taken to Soroka hospital in Beersheva for treatment, according to Israeli news website Walla.

      In addition, Israeli police officers denied a number of Palestinian Knesset members entry into the village. Among them were MK Ahmad Tibi and Hanin Zoubi. Israeli police prevented hundreds of vehicles from entering the village as residents were seen evacuating belongings from their homes ahead of the demolitions.

      Palestinian MK Jamal Zahalqa urged the Israeli government to pull out police and avoid using force. A solution could be reached, he told reporters, by dialogue in a way that shows respect to the residents of Umm al-Hiran.

    • Umm al-Hiran man killed after police open fire during violent demolition operation in Bedouin village
      18/01/2017
      https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/9001

      Adalah: Israeli courts, gov’t responsible for death of 50 year old; residents refute police claims of attack; eyewitnesses confirm Ya’akub Musa Abu Al-Qi’an lost control of car after police fired at him.

      Israeli police killed a 50-year-old local teacher this morning (Wed. 18 January 2017) and wounded local residents and a Knesset member during a violent incursion into Atir-Umm al-Hiran aimed at demolishing a central section of the Naqab (Negev) Bedouin village. One police officer was also killed during the incident.

      Adalah, which represented the Bedouin residents of Atir–Umm al-Hiran in legal proceedings over the past 13 years to stop the village’s demolition responded to the events of this morning that: "The Israeli judiciary and the government are responsible for the killing in the village today. 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. (...)

    • Israeli police accused of cover-up over killing during Negev demolition raid
      Jan. 18, 2017 2:16 P.M. (Updated: Jan. 18, 2017 2:16 P.M.)
      http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=774990

      NEGEV (Ma’an) — The Joint List, which represents parties led by Palestinian citizens of Israel in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, accused Israeli police of spreading misinformation to Israeli media regarding an alleged vehicle attack Wednesday morning in the Negev, in order to distract from Israel’s campaign to establish Jewish-only towns “on the ruins of Bedouin villages.”

      The statement warned the Israeli government of the dangerous consequences of the “bloody” escalation, after Israeli police raided the unrecognized Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran to evacuate residents in order to demolish their homes.

      The raid turned deadly, when a 47-year-old Palestinian with Israeli citizenship was shot and killed by police “in cold blood,” according to witnesses. However, Israeli police claimed the man deliberately rammed his car into officers.

      Hours later, as Israeli bulldozers began razing the homes to the ground, renewed clashes erupted in the village.

      Umm al-Hiran is one of 35 Bedouin villages considered “unrecognized” by the Israeli state, and more than half of the approximately 160,000 Negev Bedouins reside in unrecognized villages.

      The unrecognized Bedouin villages were established in the Negev soon after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war following the creation of the state of Israel.

      Now more than 60 years later, the villages have yet to be recognized by Israel and live under constant threats of demolition and forcible removal.

    • Palestinian, Israeli leadership react to deadly police raid of Bedouin village
      Jan. 18, 2017 6:12 P.M. (Updated: Jan. 18, 2017 6:12 P.M.)
      http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=774995

      RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — Secretary-General of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Saeb Erekat condemned Israeli authorities for the “crime” committed Wednesday during a demolition campaign in the Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran, during which a Palestinian citizen of Israel was shot dead by Israeli police and an Israeli policeman was killed, and numerous Palestinians were injured.

      Erekat accused the Israeli government of reacting to attempts by the international community to achieve peace between Palestinians and Israelis by escalating a policy of “racism, ethnic cleansing, and the evacuation of indigenous Palestinians from their lands, in a desperate attempt to Judaize the country.”

      He called attention to the estimated 1.7 million Palestinians with Israeli citizenship who “are living amid the racist system of Israel,” adding that the demolition Palestinian homes in the Israeli city of Qalansawe had “continued in Qalandiya refugee camp yesterday and in Umm al-Hiran today.”

      Erekat stressed that the international community’s silence towards Israeli actions only bought time and immunity for Israel to commit more crimes, adding that the situation “requires an immediate and urgent international intervention to stop this chaos before it’s too late.”

      Meanwhile, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that not holding Israel accountable regarding its role as an occupying power “lessens the credibility of countries who demand reviving and realizing the two-state solution.”

      The ministry argued that Israel’s belligerence in the face of international conventions “calls for an international ethical wakening to punish Israel for its violations, and to end its occupation of Palestine.” (...)

    • Umm al-Hiran : Odeh accuse Netanyahu d’avoir refusé un accord et déclenché les affrontements
      Le député arabe affirme que les habitants du village bédouin avaient accepté un compromis quelques heures avant l’explosion des violences mortelles
      Stuart Winer 18 janvier 2017, 17:33
      http://fr.timesofisrael.com/odeh-accuse-netanyahu-davoir-refuse-un-accord-et-declenche-les-aff

      Le dirigeant de la Liste arabe unie a accusé mercredi le Premier ministre Benjamin Netanyahu d’avoir causé un violent affrontement dans un village bédouin, au cours duquel un policier et un habitant ont été tués. Il a affirmé que Netanyahu avait manqué à sa parole à propos d’un accord concernant les démolitions de maisons du village.

      S’adressant aux journalistes devant le centre médical Soroka de Beer Sheva, le député Ayman Odeh, qui portait un bandage sur la tête après avoir été blessé pendant les manifestations, a réclamé une enquête gouvernementale sur les événements.

      Des démolitions de maisons du village bédouin non autorisé d’Umm al-Hiran, dans le Néguev, ont été perturbées mercredi matin quand une voiture, conduite par l’instituteur du village, Yaqoub Mousa Abu Al-Qian, est entrée dans la ligne formée par les policiers. Un policier, Erez Levi, 34 ans, a été tué, et un autre a été blessé.

      « Nous étions en négociations jusque tard dans la nuit », a déclaré Odeh, sans préciser les responsables présents pour représenter l’Etat.

      « Je participais aux négociations. Nous avions presque terminé. Nous avions atteint un compromis, que les habitants d’Umm al-Hiran ont accepté. Mais le Premier ministre Benjamin Netanyahu, qui a déjà identifié la population arabe comme l’ennemi public numéro un, a cruellement décidé de détruire un village entier, de tirer et de frapper des hommes, des femmes, et des enfants. »(...)

    • Israeli police video reveals cops opened fire on Bedouin man before his car accelerated, contradicting police claims
      19/01/2017
      https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/9002

      Ya’akub Musa Abu Al-Qi’an (Photo courtesy of Mossawa Center)

      Adalah demands criminal investigation; police in Umm al-Hiran violated open-fire regulations, and prevented ambulance crew from treating Abu Al-Qi’an for three hours after shooting.

      Hours after Israeli police gunfire led to the death of a Bedouin man during a violent home demolition operation, Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel is demanding that Israeli authorities investigate the suspicious circumstances of his death.

      Mr. Ya’akub Musa Abu Al-Qi’an, a 50-year-old math teacher from Atir-Umm al-Hiran in the Naqab (Negev), Israel’s southern desert region, 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-Qi’an 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 last night (18 January 2017), Adalah Attorneys Nadeem Shehadeh and Mohammad Bassam argue that police video footage of the incident and eyewitness testimony reveal that police opened fire on Abu Al-Qi’an’s vehicle before he accelerated in the direction of officers. This totally contradicts police claims that Abu Al Qi’an sought to “ram” them with his vehicle.(...)

    • Israeli police close probe into January killing of Palestinian teacher
      Dec. 30, 2017 3:40 P.M. (Updated: Dec. 30, 2017 3:40 P.M.)
      http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=779708

      BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The Israeli Police Investigations Division (PID) has decided to close its probe into the January police killing of Palestinian math teacher Yaqoub Abu al-Qian, and to not hold any officers responsible for his death, Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, said in a statement on Thursday.

      Abu al-Qian, a 50-year-old math teacher from the Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran in southern Israel’s Negev desert, was shot dead by Israeli police in January while he was driving at night, causing him to spin out of control and crash into Israeli officers, killing one policeman.

      Abu al-Qian was driving through the village as dozens of Israeli forces were preparing for a large-scale home demolition in Umm al-Hiran. Israeli forces at the time claimed he was attempted to carry out a vehicular attack, though witness testimonies and video footage of the incident proved contradictory to police accusations.

      Israeli police footage appeared to show police officers shooting at al-Qian as he was driving at a very slow pace, and only several seconds after the gunfire does his car appear to speed up, eventfully plowing through police officers.

      The killing of Abu al-Qian sparked widespread outrage amongst Palestinian civilians and politicians, who claimed he was “extrajudicially executed.

      After demands from his family and the community for police to conduct a probe into his killing, Adalah filed a request demanding the PID open an investigation into the death of Abu al-Qian.

      “The closure of this investigation means the PID continues to grant legitimacy to deadly police violence against Arab citizens of Israel,” Adalah said in it’s statement.

    • Une terrible injustice, reconnue sur le tard, et pour les mauvaises raisons
      Un civil et un policier ont perdu la vie en 2017 dans ce village, et les autorités ont tiré une mauvaise conclusion – la vérité est désormais connue, et les dégâts considérables
      Par David Horovitz 10 septembre 2020,
      https://fr.timesofisrael.com/une-terrible-injustice-reconnue-sur-le-tard-et-pour-les-mauvaises-

      (...) Cependant, près de quatre ans après l’incident, le Premier ministre Benjamin Netanyahu a reconnu ce que ces vidéos de drones avaient indiqué dès le départ – que le récit officiel était faux – et il a présenté des excuses à la famille d’Abou Al-Qia’an : « Ils [la police] ont dit que c’était un terroriste. Hier, il s’est avéré qu’il n’était pas un terroriste », a déclaré le Premier ministre mardi soir. La police, pour sa part, a exprimé ses regrets, bien qu’elle n’ait pas présenté d’excuses ni rétracté l’accusation de terrorisme.
      L’ancien procureur général Shai Nitzan. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

      La vérité n’a été officiellement reconnue qu’à la suite d’un reportage télévisé cette semaine mettant en évidence la dissimulation officielle – un reportage télévisé qui s’imbrique, comme tant d’autres affaires courantes israéliennes de nos jours, dans les embrouilles juridiques de Netanyahu. C’est l’ancien procureur général Shai Nitzan qui a supervisé l’enquête de 2018 et qui aurait supprimé des preuves – le même Shai Nitzan fréquemment fustigé par Netanyahu en tant que figure clé dans la prétendue tentative de coup d’Etat politique dans laquelle le Premier ministre est jugé dans trois affaires de corruption. (...)