One Year after Killing of Bedouin Man by Police in Umm al-Hiran, Still no Answers

On 6 February 2018, the Justice Ministry’s Police Investigations Department (PID or “Mahash” in Hebrew) published a summary report of its 2017 activities. The report includes a reference to the “Umm al-Hiran affair”, but provides no new information about the investigation, or about whether police officers will be prosecuted in connection to their role in the fatal incident of the killing of Ya’akub Abu Al-Qi’an by the police in January 2017.

In response to the PID’s assertions regarding the killing of Abu Al-Qi’an, Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, which submitted a complaint to the PID on behalf of his widow, stated:

“Today, more than a year after the [tragic] incident in Umm al-Hiran, a decision has not yet been made regarding the opening a criminal investigation and the bringing to justice of those responsible for the killing of Mr. Abu Al-Qi’an by police gunfire. The PID’s inquiry and its apparent conclusions, as published in the press, again prove the structural failures that exist in PID’s functioning regarding police violence against [Palestinian] Arab citizens of Israel. In light of the gravity of the incident and the serious defamation of the late Ya’akub Abu Al-Qi’an by the Police Commissioner and the Minister of Public Security [at the time of the killing], it would have been more appropriate to conduct a quicker and more efficient inquiry. Notably, despite our repeated requests, the PID has yet to provide the autopsy report to the deceased’s widow, and continues to disregard her requests to receive updates regarding developments in the investigation.”

Adalah continued: “At the same time, the Israel Police and the Minister of Public Security continue to propagate the same lie that they initially promoted the day of the event, according to which the incident was an intentional car ramming attack. This lie has since been refuted by multiple sources, video documentation of the incident, and more. It is our hope that the State Attorney’s Office will not repeat past failures – the failures to bring police officers to justice for the October 2000 killings and for the killing of more than 50 Arab citizens of Israel since 2000 – and will promptly order the prosecution of those responsible for the death case in Umm al-Hiran.”

Related

Adalah’s Newsletter: A Choronology of death, displacement, and destruction: The Israeli police killing of Ya’akub Abu Al-Qi’an, January 2018