New evidence backs Arab MK’s claims that police shot him

MK Ayman Odeh lies wounded from sponge-tipped bullets next to Israeli police in the Bedouin village of Umm el-Hiran, Negev, January 18, 2017

Oren Ziv writes in +972, “New evidence suggests Israeli police shot Palestinian Member of Knesset Ayman Odeh in the head with a sponge-tipped bullet during a home demolition in the unrecognized Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran in 2017, according to a final investigation report published earlier this week by the London-based Forensic Architecture research center. According to a digital analysis based on footage provided by the police, Israeli journalists, and left-wing activists, Odeh was hit just moments after police shot Umm al-Hiran resident Yacoub Abu al-Qi’an on January 18, 2017. According to the Forensic Architecture investigation, Abu al-Qi’an lost control of his vehicle after police shot him and subsequently careened into Israeli police officer Erez Levy, killing him.”

“The police immediately labeled the incident an ISIS-inspired “terror attack,” while simultaneously claiming that Odeh had been hit in the head by a stone thrown by one of the Bedouin youth at the police officers. A video leaked to Israeli Channel 10 News over a year and a half ago allegedly included evidence showing that Odeh was in fact hit by a stone. Yet an analysis of footage filmed by Israeli police, Activestills photographer Keren Manor, and a police drone suggests that the video that was leaked to Channel 10 had been cut and did not include the moment in which the MK was shot. In the full version, one of the police officers can be heard telling another officer to “give them the sponge.” (more…)