Police arrest 4 suspected of torching reporter’s car during protests last month

The Shin Bet internal security agency and the Israel Police said Thursday they have arrested four people from the southern Bedouin town of Segev Shalom on suspicion of assaulting a reporter in early January and burning his car during protests.

The incident was probed as a terror attack, involving several suspects attacking an Israeli journalist from the Haaretz newspaper during mass Bedouin protests against a forestation project in southern Israel.

According to the Shin Bet, four residents of Segev Shalom, referred to in Arabic as Shaqib al-Salam, were arrested and interrogated about their alleged involvement in the attack and in violent riots that included burning police checkpoints and vehicles.

The suspects, all aged 18-19, were identified as Mahran Abu Adrah, Bilal Abu Adrah, Kerem Al-Qadi, and Ismayil Al-Qadi.

The investigation found that they were directly involved in attacking the journalist, stealing equipment from his car and eventually burning it, after realizing he was Jewish.

The four suspects also participated in other violent riots in Segev Shalom in the days that led up to the attack and were involved in attacking police officers and blocking access roads, the Shin Bet said.

“The Shin Bet and the Israel Police view any involvement of Israeli citizens in terror activities in a serious manner, and will continue to work to bring to justice those seeking to harm the safety of Israeli citizens and security forces,” the Shin Bet statement read.

January’s mass protests in southern Israel came following a Jewish National Fund tree-planting program in the region, seen by Bedouin communities as a government effort to expel them from their unrecognized hamlets.

The planting and the ensuing violent clashes with police threatened Israel’s motley coalition, with the Islamist Ra’am party vowing to boycott plenum votes in the Knesset as long as JNF work continued in the Negev, where the party enjoys its largest bloc of support.

Following three days of violent protests, JNF eventually stopped the planting operation, though JNF chairman Avraham Duvdevani vowed to continue. “We will continue planting in the entire Negev. This is part of the Zionist vision,” he said.

Negev Bedouin have a contentious relationship with the state. For decades, the government has sought to move them into recognized, planned cities, but many still live in a constellation of illegal hamlets that sprawl across Israel’s southern desert.

Bedouins accuse JNF of seeking to displace them, but the organization said it was merely fulfilling a request by other government bodies, on public land. JNF works across Israel on nature and conservation projects, but some charge the organization has a political agenda.