Brother of Bedouin killed in 2017 questions authenticity of Netanyahu’s apology

The brother of Yaqoub Abu Al-Qia’an comments on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s apology for calling his brother a terrorist over a 2017 incident that resulted in his death and the death of a policeman, in what police still insist was a terror attack.

“I hope the apology is honest and genuine, and that it isn’t because of the cases against him,” says Jabar Abu Al-Qia’an.

Whereas police have continued to claim that Abu Al-Qia’an was killed while carrying out a car-ramming attack during a pre-dawn police operation to raze part of his village of Umm al-Hiran in 2017, investigations by the Shin Bet security organization and the Police Internal Investigations Department (PIID) have cast doubt on that allegation, finding indications that he lost control of the vehicle after being mistakenly shot.

Netanyahu and his allies have been seizing on a television news report yesterday that raised questions about police handling of the affair, using it as a tool to question the charges against the premier.

The report alleged that then-state prosecutor Shai Nitzan closed probes into alleged police wrongdoing, including in this case, out of fears it could tarnish the image of law enforcement as it was investigating Netanyahu for corruption, in cases that have now become a trial against the prime minister.