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Villager and Israeli Police Officer Die in Clash at Bedouin Hamlet Villager and Israeli Police Officer Die in Clash at Bedouin Hamlet
(about 9 hours later)
Two people were killed early Wednesday when the Israeli police shot a resident they said was about to ram them with his car during a demolition operation in a Bedouin hamlet, and the careering vehicle struck a police officer. JERUSALEM — The sun had not yet risen over the Bedouin hamlet early Wednesday as hundreds of Israeli police officers gathered at its edges. They had come to help demolish part of the village, but two people were dead before the forces had destroyed any houses.
The village, Umm al-Hiran, in the Negev in southern Israel, lost a long legal battle with the Israeli authorities and was slated for demolition to make way for the construction of a new community, Hiran, that is expected to be inhabited mostly by observant Jews. The police fatally shot a resident they said was about to ram them with his car. The vehicle struck one police officer, killing him.
The police version of the events that led to the deaths of the officer, Advanced Staff Sgt. Erez Levi, 34, and the resident, Yakub Musa Abu al-Qian, a teacher about age 50, was immediately disputed by his relatives in the village. The police version of the events was immediately disputed by the motorist’s relatives in the village in southern Israel’s Negev, as well as human rights activists who had come to support the villagers. They insisted that he had plowed into the officers only after he was shot and lost control of the car.
Ayman Odeh, a leading Arab member of the Israeli Parliament, was wounded in the ensuing clashes. He said he had been struck in the head and the back by sponge-tipped bullets fired by the police. The authorities said that it was not immediately clear if his head wound had been caused by the police dispersing the crowds or by a stone thrown by rioters. The residents’ anger was a reflection of a much deeper acrimony between the Bedouins and the Israeli authorities in a land dispute that in some ways parallels the battles over unauthorized Jewish settlement construction in occupied territory.
In a statement, the police said Mr. Qian, who was driving a white Jeep, “sped toward the security forces with the intention of carrying out a ramming attack” as units arrived to secure the area before the evictions and demolitions. With the Bedouins, however, the contested territory is within Israel’s original boundaries set in the 1948 war; Bedouins are also among Israel’s more than 1.7 million Arab citizens, and the dispute over Negev lands claimed by them is as old as the state of Israel.
Describing Mr. Qian as a “terrorist,” the police said he had been “neutralized” and had died. The ramshackle village, Umm al-Hiran, was scheduled for demolition after its residents lost a long legal battle against the government. Adding to the residents’ sense of affront, it is to be razed to make way for the construction of a new community, Hiran, planned mainly for observant Jewish inhabitants.
They added that Mr. Qian belonged to the southern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, a group that provides social services to Arab communities and that promotes its conservative interpretation of Islam. The southern branch is generally considered more moderate than the northern branch, and neither is usually associated with violent attacks. The dispute feeds into the broader frustrations of Israel’s Arab minority, which makes up about a fifth of the population of more than 8.5 million and has long complained of institutional discrimination. The Bedouin population of the Negev, which numbers about 200,000 people, is often counted as Israel’s fastest growing and poorest group.
The police released footage from a helicopter of what they described as the ramming attack. The images showed the vehicle first moving slowly, then speeding up and ramming into a group of people. It was not immediately clear from the video at what point the first shots were fired by the police. The police released footage from a helicopter of what they described as the ramming attack that killed the officer, Advanced Staff Sgt. Erez Levi, 34. The images showed the vehicle first moving slowly, then accelerating and ramming into a group of people. Footage seen from a different angle on Israeli television appeared to show an officer opening fire before it picked up speed.
Salim Abu al-Qian, 58, a relative of the driver, rejected the police account. “He did not ram them,” he said. Ayman Odeh, a leading Arab member of the Israeli Parliament, was wounded in the ensuing clashes. He said he had been struck in the head and the back by sponge-tipped bullets fired by the police. The authorities suggested that he may have been injured by stones thrown by rioters.
“They shot him when he was 200 meters away,” he added, a distance of about 650 feet. The police said in a statement that the fatally shot car driver, Yakub Musa Abu al-Qian, belonged to the southern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, a group that provides social services to Arab communities and that promotes its conservative interpretation of Islam. The southern branch is generally considered more moderate than the northern branch, and neither is usually associated with violent attacks.
Reached by telephone as bulldozers started demolishing homes, the relative, who said he was born in Umm al-Hiran, said he did not know where his household of about 30 people would go if his home were destroyed. He said about 400 people lived in the village. Shouting could be heard in the background as he spoke. Relatives of Mr. Qian, a math teacher about 50 years old, denied that he was an extremist.
Other relatives told Israel Radio that Mr. Qian, the driver, was not an extremist. When asked in the past what he would do when the police arrived to evict him, Mr. Qian had responded that he would drive to his mother’s home in a nearby town. Adalah, a group that campaigns for Arab-minority rights in Israel and that has provided legal representation for the residents of Umm al-Hiran over the past 13 years, said that the families of the Abu al-Qian tribe had been expelled from their lands with the establishment of the state in 1948 and, during the 1950s, had been ordered to move to Umm al-Hiran. The government never legally recognized the village and demanded that the people relocate to a nearby government-planned Bedouin town, called Houra.
Michal Haramati, a rights activist from Jerusalem, who was in the village at the time, told the Israeli news website Ynet that she had heard many shots and that the driver had suddenly lost control of the vehicle, which went down a slope and hit two or three police officers. Yair Maayan, of Israel’s official Bedouin Development and Settlement Authority, said the tribe had been allowed to settle in the 1950s about two miles north of the current site of the village. In 1980, Mr. Maayan told reporters, one of the sons of the chief “decided he wanted to have his own village, moved to the area of Umm al-Hiran and built an illegal house on land owned by the government.”
“Eyewitnesses have confirmed that Abu al-Qian was trying to leave the village and lost control of his car only after police fired at him,” said Adalah, a group that campaigns for Arab-minority rights in Israel and that has provided legal representation for the residents of Umm al-Hiran over the past 13 years, in a statement. Adalah accused the police of a “culture of lying.” The village has since grown, with clusters of houses, tin shacks and animal pens sprawling over the hills.
Adalah said that the families of the Abu al-Qian tribe had been expelled from their lands with the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 and, during the 1950s, had been ordered to move to the current site of Umm al-Hiran. The government never legally recognized the village and demanded that the people relocate to a nearby government-planned Bedouin town, called Houra. The courts finally decided in the government’s favor in May 2015. Since then, the authorities have been negotiating with the residents. So far, Mr. Maayan said, about 40 families have accepted a compensation deal, including alternative land and money, and moved to Houra over the years. About 400 people remained in the village.
The government said the residents could purchase some plots in the future town of Hiran. Residents were offered compensation to move and alternative land, but many said they wanted to stay together in their community. Negotiations with another few families collapsed shortly before midnight on Tuesday. Israel’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the families had come to sign on a voluntary evacuation-for-compensation agreement but “instead of signing the agreement, presented more and more demands until the negotiations blew up.”
Mr. Odeh, the legislator, said he had been in the village until late Tuesday and had taken part in negotiations between the residents and the authorities. An agreement had been reached on most issues, he said. The police and bulldozers arrived hours later.
Salim Abu al-Qian, 58, a village leader, said about 10 structures out of several dozen were destroyed on Wednesday. Asked about the negotiations with the government, he said, “They are liars. They promise things then go back on them.” He added, “It’s a criminal government. It has no limits.”
Speaking by telephone during, and again after the demolitions, Salim rejected the police account of the car ramming. He said that he had spoken by phone with the driver — a cousin who was married to Salim’s sister — five minutes before he was killed.
“I told him they were coming to destroy houses,” Salim said. “He said he did not want any violence. I told him to come to our place. He said he was just going to pick up a few belongings, like his computer and some money.” He said that the police had come “with hatred in their hearts.”
Mr. Odeh, the legislator, said he had been in the village until late Tuesday and had taken part in negotiations between the residents and the authorities.
“Let me be clear: It was possible to prevent the spilling of blood,” he said in a statement. But Mr. Odeh said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had “decided himself to cruelly destroy a whole village.”“Let me be clear: It was possible to prevent the spilling of blood,” he said in a statement. But Mr. Odeh said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had “decided himself to cruelly destroy a whole village.”
Mr. Odeh did not provide details about the emerging compromise. Israel Radio reported that 10 of the village’s homes were scheduled to be demolished on Wednesday after a late-night agreement was reached with some residents who agreed to leave. The Israeli government recently pledged to step up law enforcement against unauthorized Arab construction to placate right-wing Israelis who are protesting court-ordered government plans to destroy Amona, an illegally built Jewish outpost in the occupied West Bank.
Gilad Erdan, the public security minister, accused Mr. Odeh of obstructing police activity and inciting violence, saying that he had called on the Arab public to come out and block the police forces. “The state of Israel is, above all, a nation of law in which there will be equal enforcement,” Mr. Netanyahu said on Wednesday. Of the suspected car ramming, he said, “Not only will this incident not deter us, it will strengthen us. It will strengthen our determination to enforce the law everywhere.”
Such actions “may even have criminal implications for Odeh,” Mr. Erdan told Israel Radio. “I think an investigation should be opened.”
Mr. Odeh wrote a post on Twitter, apparently before being wounded, saying that hundreds of police officers had raided the village and that men, women and children were terrified. “It is hard to describe how hard the sights are here,” he said.
He returned to Umm al-Hiran after being treated in a hospital.