Closure of probe into Umm al-Hiran killing: Green light to continued deadly police violence against Arab citizens

28/12/2017

Israel's Police Investigations Division won't hold any officers responsible for killing of Ya'akub Abu-Al-Qi'an, continues to whitewash most serious police violence.

Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel responded today, 28 December 2017, to the Israeli Justice Ministry's Police Investigations Division (PID)’s decision to close its probe into the police killing of Ya'akub Abu-Al-Qi'an in January 2017 and to not hold any officers responsible for his death.

Abu Al-Qi'an, a 50-year-old math teacher from Atir-Umm al-Hiran in the Naqab (Negev), Israel's southern desert region, was killed on 18 Janurary 2017 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. That same day, Adalah filed a request demanding the PID open an investigation into the killing.

Adalah issues the following statement regarding PID’s decision to close the investigation without bringing any officers to justice:

“The closure of this investigation means the PID continues to grant legitimacy to deadly police violence against Arab citizens of Israel. Though it was clear from day one that officers opened fire on a civilian without justification and in contravention of the police’s own open-fire regulations, it appears as if the PID is again whitewashing the most serious incidents. Just as the PID failed to hold any officers responsible for the October 2000 killings and the subsequent police killings of more than 50 Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel, this latest decision is further indication of the systemic failure of the PID.

"The Israeli police and public security minister continue to propagate the same lie they initially promoted the day of the killing, according to which the incident was an intentional vehicular ramming attack against Israeli police officers. This lie was repeated refuted by multiple sources and video documentation of the incident.

“In addition, despite Adalah's repeated requests, the PID has yet to provide the widow of Abu Al-Qi'an with her late husband's autopsy report and ignored her requests to receive updates on developments in the investigation.

"We call on the Israeli state attorney to immediately bring to justice those responsible for the killing of Ya'akub Abu Al-Qi'an."