Probe shows Bedouin man was shot by police in 2017 for no reason, left to die

vehicle that rammed into police officers in the Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran in the Negev desert, January 18, 2017

Michael Bachner writes in Times of Israel, “Newly published evidence from the investigation of a deadly January 2017 incident in the Bedouin town of Umm al-Hiran allegedly shows that a local man was unlawfully shot and then left to bleed to death, as police mistakenly accused him of committing a car-ramming attack.”

“The State Attorney’s Office in 2018 closed an investigation into the incident, saying it could not determine whether Yaqoub Mousa Abu Al-Qia’an had committed an act of terrorism, after reviewing the entire investigation material. The investigation, led by State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan, had determined at the time that officers who shot Abu Al-Qia’an moments before his car ran into officer Erez Levi were not suspected of a criminal offense, and had acted legally when they opened fire.”

“However, the Shin Bet was reported the following month to have ruled out terrorism in the incident. Both Abu Al-Qia’an and Levi died in the incident.”…”The conclusions are being used by two rights groups that are legally representing Abu Al-Qia’an’s family, Adalah and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), as the basis for a petition they say they will be filing this week to the High Court of Justice.”

Yaqoub Mousa Abu al-Qia’an

“The organizations said in a statement Saturday that they will demand that a criminal investigation be reopened into the conduct of the police officers and medics at the scene, and that Abu-Al Qia’an be formally cleared of the “terrorist” branding. The incident occurred when police arrived to oversee the demolition of homes in Umm al-Hiran, an unrecognized village that the state had been removing in order to clear the way for a new Jewish town.” (more…)