Justice Ministry’s Police Investigation Unit closes investigation into Israeli police killing of Arab youth Kheir El-Din Hamdan without indictment against officers involved
“The persistent failure in Israel to hold police and other state actors accountable for the killings of Palestinians rings all too familiar with similar state practices against members of minority and marginalized communities around the world. It is the expected result of any system of entrenched supremacy and discrimination.”
Yesterday, 5 May 2015, the Justice Ministry’s Police Investigation Unit (“Mahash”) announced that it has closed its investigation into the police shooting and killing of Kheir el-Din Hamdan, a Palestinian Arab citizen of Israel from the town of Kufr Kanna, in the Galilee in the north of Israel. Hamdan was killed by an Israeli police unit in a point blank shooting on the evening of 7 November 2014; the shooting was captured on video by a nearby CCTV camera. Mahash also announced that it did not intend to pursue criminal charges against any of the police officers involved in the incident.
In response to the closing of the case, Adalah stated: "The decision to close the investigation into the killing of Kheir el-Din Hamdan gives Israeli police a virtual green light to commit its next crime against Palestinian citizens of Israel. Despite this serious case that was caught on video, Mahash, instead of conducting a professional and independent investigation, still found a way to protect the police officers who carried out the crime. Mahash, the same body that closed the investigations into the October 2000 killings in which 13 Palestinian citizens of Israel were killed by police, has once again demonstrated its careless approach with the lives of Palestinian citizens."
Adalah further stated that: "With the decision, Mahash accepted the fabricated version of the events, as told by the police in their false preliminary account of the shooting of Hamdan; this story was later disproven by video footage of the incident. This case raises very grave concerns about the culture of lying and the seemingly coordinated efforts to shield the police officers involved in the event from accountability."
In a study based on official statistics, Adalah found that more than 93% of complaints of police violence and misconduct that were filed to Mahash between 2011 and 2013 were closed without any action taken against police officers; 72% of the files were closed without an investigation being opened at all.
Kheir Hamdan’s father speaks at UN event to end police violence and impunity
Rafat Amara, the father of the late Kheir el-Din Hamdan, joined advocates from Israel and the United States at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva to share his son’s story and to call on the international community to hold those responsible for the killing of his son accountable. The event, organized by Adalah in cooperation with Meezaan for Human Rights (Nazareth), the US Human Rights Network (USHRN), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), was entitled “From the Galilee to Ferguson: The Emerging Global Movement to End Police Violence Against Minorities.”
Attorney Sohail Mahameed of Meezaan raised additional instances of Israeli police killings of Palestinians in the months since Kheir el-Din’s death, and Adalah’s former Media Director, Salah Mohsen characterized the killings as symptoms of entrenched discrimination against Palestinians and impunity in Israel, including for the deaths of 13 Palestinian citizens of Israel who were killed in October 2000. US advocates positioned the events in Ferguson as stemming from institutionalized racism in the US, and shared the efforts of the International Network of Civil Liberties Organization (INCLO) to document violent police suppression of protests. The participants highlighted the similarities of state violence throughout the world, and discussed the needs and methods for transnational efforts to protect the rights of minority and marginalized communities and demand attention to root causes of discrimination and inequality.
Adalah’s USA Representative Nadia Ben-Youssef noted “The tragic death of Kheir el-Din Hamdan, shot in the back as he was walking away from the officer, his continued ill-treatment in the back of a police car, and the seeming fabrication of events by authorities, recalls the brutality and killing of young Black Americans at the hands of police. Similarly, the decision to close Kheir el-Din’s case and the persistent failure in Israel to hold police and other state actors accountable for the deaths of Palestinians rings all too familiar for members of minority and marginalized communities around the world, and is the expected result of any system of entrenched supremacy and discrimination.”
Read more:
See Adalah's report and infographic on Mahash and police brutality in Israel
Jack Khoury and Yaniv Kubovich, “Police officers won't be charged in November death of Israeli Arab,” Haaretz, 5 May 2015
