Mass protest at police killing of Bedouin

Bedouin mourners pray near the body of Sami Ziadna, 43, during his funeral in the southern Bedouin city of Rahat, January 19, 2015. Sami died a day earlier following clashes with Israeli police during the funeral of another Bedouin man who was killed a week earlier by Israeli policemen in the city.

Bedouin protest deadly police shootings in Israel

Police shoot and kill a Bedouin man during an arrest raid, later killing another man at his funeral. A general strike is called and protests take place across Israel.

Text by Yael Marom and Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man, +972
Photos and reporting by Activestills.org

Protests took place across Israel on Tuesday following the police shooting death of Bedouin citizen of Israel Sami Ja’ar last week and the death of another man, Sami Ziadna, during clashes that took place at his funeral in the desert city of Rahat.

The Arab Higher Monitoring Committee declared a general strike on Tuesday and protests were held against police violence against Palestinian citizens of Israel, Arab-Israelis.

Roughly 1,000 people marched between the homes of the two men who were killed in Rahat Tuesday afternoon, after which they gathered at mourning tents set up by their families.

Following the protest, clashes broke out between demonstrators and police. One protester was struck by a police vehicle chasing stone-throwers and was evacuated to a hospital where he was arrested.

Bedouin mourners participate in a rally in the southern Israeli Bedouin city of Rahat to condemn the death of Sami Ja’ar, 22, who died of a gunshot wound last week during a police raid in the Negev Bedouin town, and of Sami Ziadna, who was killed during clashes with Israeli police following the funeral of Ja’ar. The protesters march from the house of Ja’ar family to Ziadna family home, January 20, 2015.

Bedouin mourners participate in a rally in the southern Israeli Bedouin city of Rahat to condemn the death of Sami Ja’ar, 22, who died of a gunshot wound last week during a police raid in the Negev Bedouin town, and of Sami Ziadna, who was killed during clashes with Israeli police following the funeral of Ja’ar. The protesters march from the house of Ja’ar family to Ziadna family home, January 20, 2015.

Clashes between Bedouin youth and Israeli police break out following the funeral of Sami Ziadna, who was killed during clashes that followed the funeral of another Bedouin man killed by Israeli police, January 20, 2015.

Also Tuesday, a court extended the remand of seven protesters who were arrested at Ja’ar’s funeral on Sunday.

Ja’ar, a Bedouin resident of Rahat, was shot to death during a police raid last Wednesday night. Police are investigating the shooting. Local Bedouin officials and Israeli police agreed that officers would not be present during his funeral on Sunday. When a police car showed up, mourners began throwing stones and clashes began, during which one protester died.

Following the clashes and arrests at the funeral, MK Haneen Zoabi said she was “shocked from the accounts I heard this morning about police abusing handcuffed protesters.”

“This protest is of a population that is struggling for its rights and it won’t give up,” she continued, “it’s the abuse of an entire population.”

Other protests on Tuesday took place in Arava, Umm al-Fahm and Kafr Kara. Palestinian students at Tel Aviv University, the University of Haifa, the Hebrew University and Ben-Gurion University all held protests over the past 24 hours against police brutality toward Arab citizens.

Palestinian citizens of Israel demonstrate at the entrance of Tel Aviv University against Israeli police violence toward Arab citizens, January 20, 2015.

The two killings come on the heels of another high-profile police shooting of a Palestinian citizen of Israel, in Kafr Kanna, a case that involved a police raid gone wrong.

In early November, following a police arrest raid in Kafr Kanna, 22-year-old Kheir Hamdan attacked the outside of a police van with an object officers said was a knife. When they exited the vehicle Hamdan fled, and officers shot him in the back.

That killing sparked days of large protests across the country. It came during a wave of vehicular and stabbing terrorist attacks, after which Israeli politicians gave what some interpreted as a green light for police to use deadly force.

Rights groups say that Israeli police have killed 50 Arab citizens in the past 15 years compared to far fewer Jewish Israelis. According to civil rights group Adalah, 93 percent of complaints filed against police in recent years have been closed.

Below: Talal Al-Krenawi, the mayor of Bedouin city of Rahat, displays ammunition used by the Israeli police during the clashes a day earlier at the funeral of Sami Ja’ar, who was killed during a police raid in the city, January 19, 2015.

Palestinian Israelis declare national strike after Bedouin deaths

By AFP / The National
January 20, 2015

RAHAT // Palestinian Israelis closed shops and schools from the northern Galilee to the southern Negev desert on Tuesday in a day-long strike to protest the deaths of two Bedouin men in incidents involving Israeli police.

Palestinian students at Tel Aviv University also staged a protest outside the campus fence, drawing jeers and angry retorts from Jewish passers-by, according to Israeli public radio.

“The general strike today is to send a strong message that the entire Arab community … strongly protests the murders of two citizens of the state of Israel whose only crime is being Arab,” said Taleb Al Sana, a former member of the Israeli parliament and chairman of an umbrella organisation of Palestinian Israeli groups. Mr Al Sana is himself Bedouin.

Sami Al Jaar, 22, died of a gunshot wound last week during a police drug raid on the Negev Bedouin town of Rahat.

Police have opened an inquiry to determine if the shot was fired by officers or townspeople.

During Al Jaar’s funeral on Sunday, Sami Al Zayadna, 47, died of a heart attack during clashes in which police fired tear gas.

Following Al Zayadna’s burial on Monday, angry protesters – some of them masked – hurled stones at the Rahat police station, police said, adding that five suspected stone-throwers were detained and more arrests were expected.

Residents of Rahat have been on strike since Sunday.