Police said to close file on Arab man’s shooting

The Police Investigations Unit intends to close an investigation into an incident that saw an officer shoot dead an Israeli Arab man who had menaced a police cruiser with a knife, Channel 10 reported.

The killing of Kheir Hamdan, 22, in the northern town of Kafr Kanna in November set off days of rioting.

A man who was detained in the back of the squad car at the time of the incident man backed up police’s claim that they felt their lives were in danger.

Footage of the incident showed Hamdan approaching the car and tapping on the window repeatedly with what appeared to be a knife. An officer then stepped out and shot Hamdan, who was walking away from the car, fatally wounding him.

Although the file has, for all intents and purposes, been closed, the report said, police have postponed the formal announcement until after next month’s Nakba Day — which commemorates the Palestinian displacement following the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 — so as not to stoke tensions, which typically run high this time of year.

According to the report, the policeman who pulled the trigger was never questioned under caution and has continued in his job since the shooting.

On Monday, residents of Kafr Kanna, located in the northern Galilee, clashed with police as municipal workers arrived to destroy a building that was constructed without permits. Police used stun grenades to disperse the crowds and there were no reports of injuries.

MK Dov Khenin of the Joint (Arab) List condemned the reported closing of the shooting case and the clashes over the building demolition, saying in a statement Tuesday that they were manifestations of an unacceptable attitude toward Israel’s Arab population.

“There is a common denominator in the incidents in Kafr Kanna: A government that continues to not take Arab citizens into account,” Khenin said.

“It is time to put an end to it,” he added. “This policy is destructive. It is a problem for the Jews and the Arabs — anyone with a moral compass.”

MK Ayman Odeh, the leader of the Joint List, spent Monday night in a protest tent set up at the site of the demolished home, which had belonged to local resident Tariq Khatib.

Odeh said that the demolition was “typical of the situation facing our Arab society and shows the extent of racism in the provision of housing for Arab citizens.”