Calls mount for minister to apologize for Umm al-Hiran terror claim

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan came under fire from fellow lawmakers and others Wednesday after a Justice Ministry report reportedly found that a Bedouin man who was shot dead as his car struck and killed a police officer was not a terrorist, as claimed by officials.

Erdan (Likud) and Israel Police Chief Roni Alsheich initially asserted that Yaqoub Mousa Abu Al-Qia’an was a nationalistically motivated terrorist, and said he was inspired by the Islamic State group. They said he was shot after accelerating the vehicle with its lights off in the direction of the officers.

A police investigation, however, has reportedly found that the January incident in the Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran was not terrorism.

“The truth is starting to become clear, we have all waited for this,” Amal Abu Sa’ed, the widow of Abu Al-Qia’an, told Army Radio Tuesday. “Erdan made a mistake and we are requesting an apology. Only strong people can apologize.”

Joint (Arab) List MK Taleb Abu Arar said in a statement that Erdan must publicly apologize to the Arab-Israeli community, “in light of the fact that the police killed the innocent Abu Al-Qia’an and lied and incited hatred based on the incident.”

Zionist Union MK Zouheir Bahloul wrote on Facebook that Erdan must “take responsibility and resign” for inciting against Arab Israeli citizens.

Right-wing MK Yehudah Glick (Likud) also called for an apology to the Abu Al-Qia’an family, writing on Twitter: “We need to say the truth, that as time passes since the evacuation incident at Umm al-Hiran, it becomes more and more clear that the residents’ version [of events] is preferable to that of the police. An apology is the minimum.”

On Tuesday, Erdan appeared to walk back his previous claim that the “unequivocal conclusion” was that the incident was an act of terror, saying “we had a rough and regrettable incident a few weeks ago at Umm al-Hiran,” while adding that “we must not let anyone try to take a local event, during which, sadly, both a police officer and a citizen were killed, and project from it on the relations between the Bedouin population and the Israel Police.”

According to reports Tuesday in Hebrew-language media, the Justice Ministry’s Police Internal Investigations Department found no evidence to support the claim that the incident in Umm al-Hiran was a terror attack, and also determined that police officers did not act according to protocol. One report on the right-wing Channel 20 said that officers shot at one another and almost caused a friendly fire accident.

But police said the Internal Investigations Department had yet to complete its investigation. “The information given to the public includes disinformation and many inaccuracies, something that has happened, unfortunately, many times since the incident,” police said in a statement. “We recommend waiting for the release of the official investigation’s findings and not to be moved by these statements or any others.”

A police spokesperson could not confirm when the investigation would end.

The incident took place in the early morning of January 18, when police arrived to demolish houses in the unrecognized village, which the state was seeking to remove in order to clear the way for a new Jewish town.

As officers converged on Umm al-Hiran, Abu Al-Qia’an, 47, a teacher and father of 12, packed a few belongings into his SUV and drove from his house, telling friends that he did not wish to witness its destruction. Soon afterward, the vehicle rammed into a group of officers, killing 1st Sgt. Erez Levi, 34. Abu Al-Qia’an was fatally shot by police.

But video footage that emerged in the hours after the incident showed the officers fired before Abu Al-Qia’an accelerated, and that, contrary to police assertions, the car’s lights were on. In addition, Channel 10 reported last month that a police autopsy indicated that a police bullet hit him in the right knee, smashing it. The bullet wound may have caused Abu Al-Qia’an to lose control of his car, the TV report said.

Judicial sources were quoted by Haaretz Tuesday as saying the findings would “not be good for police.” According to the report, Abu Al-Qia’an’s speed at no point exceeded 20 kilometers per hour. It quoted professional estimates as saying such a speed does not indicate an attempt to carry out a ramming attack.