Adalah Demands Investigation into Killing of Palestinian Protester in Israel (VIDEO)

A Twitter photo from a social media campaign to stop Israel's demolition of Umm Al-Hiran village. (Photo: Social Media)

Adalah, The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel demanded that Israeli authorities to investigate “the suspicious circumstances that led to the death of a (Palestinian) Bedouin man during a violent home demolition operation in the village of Umm al-Hiran in the Naqab desert.”

Yacoub Abu al-Qeean, a 50-year-old math teacher from Atir-Umm al-Hiran, was killed after Israeli police opened fire on his vehicle as he was driving through the Bedouin village during state preparations for a large-scale home demolition.

According to Adalah, the parents of Abu al-Qeean have asked the center to represent the family and to demand that the Justice Ministry’s Police Investigations Division (Mahash) investigate the circumstances of their son’s death.

In the letter to Mahash, sent late Wednesday, Adalah attorneys Nadeem Shehadeh and Mohammad Bassam argued that police video footage of the incident and eyewitness testimony reveal that police opened fire on Abu al-Qeean’s vehicle before he accelerated in the direction of officers.

This totally contradicts police claims that Abu al Qeean sought to “ram” them with his vehicle, said Adalah in a statement.

Adalah demanded “immediate action to conduct an autopsy of the deceased without delay and before burial. We likewise request that an autopsy be conducted on the body of the police officer who was killed, apparently when he was hit by [Abu al-Qeean’s] vehicle.”

A large police forces arrived in Umm al-Hiran on Tuesday to carry out demolition orders on homes in a central section of the village.

During the operation, policemen shot and killed Abu al-Qeean while he was driving his car, which subsequently ran over a policeman during the incident. The police claim that Abu al-Qeean deliberately launched a car-ramming attack against the officers.

However, this claim was strongly refuted by villagers and activists who witnessed the incident, stating that Abu al-Qeean was trying to leave the village and lost control of his car only after police fired at him.

The police released aerial footage shot from a drone several hours later, which appeared to confirm the eyewitnesses’ account of events: the footage clearly shows officers shot at Abu al-Qeean’s vehicle multiple times as he was still driving slowly along a dirt road, far from any officers, and preceding any acceleration.

Bulldozers secured by Israeli police forces eventually leveled eight homes and seven agricultural buildings in Umm al-Hiran during the course of the morning.

(Adalah, WAFA, PC, Social Media)

(The Palestine Chronicle is a registered 501(c)3 organization, thus, all donations are tax deductible.)
Our Vision For Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders & Intellectuals Speak Out