Burying cop, police chief accuses Arab leaders of inciting violence
At funeral of officer killed in Bedouin village car-ramming, Roni Alsheich slams community for not condemning incident, claims driver spread Islamist teachings in school
Police Chief Roni Alsheich on Wednesday leveled harsh criticism at leaders of the Arab community for their response to the death of an officer killed earlier during an operation to raze homes in the Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran.
Erez Levi was killed when local schoolteacher Yaqoub Mousa Abu al-Qia’an slammed his car into a group of police, as officers were policing the demolition of 15 illegally built homes in the unauthorized Negev village, which is home to some 400 Bedouin.
Police opened fire and killed Abu al-Qia’an, as a protest around them devolved into a violent riot.
“Unfortunately, specific leaders from within the [Arab] community have chosen to incite to violence instead of condemning the terror attack,” he said at the funeral for 1st Sgt. Levi at the Yavneh Military Cemetery.
Alsheich was one of several Israeli officials who were quick to label the early morning incident at Umm al-Hiran a terror attack, while witnesses and a video from the scene cast some doubts on whether the act was intentional.
Hundreds of people attended the funeral in his hometown of Yavneh on Wednesday afternoon, including Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan.
At his funeral, Levi was remembered as an outstanding officer who was awarded numerous commendations for excellence during his 15-year career in the Border Police.
The 34-year-old sergeant leaves behind a wife and two children aged 2 and 5.
At the funeral, Alsheich repeated the claim that the driver had been radicalized, accusing him of goading children into violence.
“[Abu al-Qia’an] spread incitement at a school where six other teachers have been arrested for they affiliation with the Islamic State,” Alsheich said. “The terrorist looked for a group of police officers, accelerated and then hit them.”
Activists at Umm al-Hiran claimed Abu al-Qia’an lost control of the car when he hit Levi, and aerial footage of the incident appears to show police shooting before the crash.
The footage also showed the car appearing to swerve after plowing through Levi. Police officials have maintained that the act was intentional.
The deputy commander of the police southern district, Peretz Amar, said the incident was “a deliberate attack. This is clear. This is a fact. There is no other explanation, and anyone who tries to offer an alternative explanation wasn’t here at the time and doesn’t understand.” Amar said there were two lines of officers either side of the road, and “no possible means to claim in this situation that he didn’t see them… He hit them. He killed.”
The home of Abu al-Qia’an, a 47-year-old father of 12, was one of the 15 destroyed, and some claimed he was simply trying to leave the area to avoid seeing his home razed.
Arab lawmakers and others have rejected the assessment that al-Qia’an was a terrorist, instead blaming police violence and state-sponsored discrimination against Israel’s Arab minority for the flare up that ensued after the incident.
Joint (Arab) List head MK Ayman Odeh, who was lightly wounded in the clashes, said that around 100 police officers “attacked the residents of Umm al-Hiran. They just fell on them, they hit me and shot at me with brutality.”
Another Arab Joint List MK, Taleb Abu Arar, said the morning of violence was “a war declared by the police and the state against the Arabs,” and that claimed police “sprayed the scene with live, indiscriminate fire, even hitting their own cars.”
The faction’s Hanin Zoabi accused police of “spreading lies to justify its extreme violence and the killing” of al-Qia’an, and accused Israel of “wild, racist incitement meant to justify the expulsion of the residents of Umm al-Hiran.
Other Arab lawmakers who weighed in, placed the blame for the morning violence squarely on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who they claimed was trying to distract the public from his ongoing corruption investigations.
After Netanyahu met with Alsheich and Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, his office released a statement saying Levi was “murdered,” grouping the car-ramming with terror attacks in Israel and abroad.
The prime minister also called for Knesset members to maintain calm, as protests were planned across Israel Wednesday evening and a general strike in the Arab community called for Thursday.
