BICOM

Israel’s Public Security Minister has said he will apologise if an ongoing investigation concludes that a Bedouin man, killed by Israeli police during a protest against house demolitions last month, was not carrying out a terrorist attack.

Minister Gilad Erdan said: “If it turns out that this wasn’t an attack, then of course his family must be apologised to. If it turns out that there were errors here or that it wasn’t an attack, we must learn from it.”

Shortly after the incident a police statement said: “A vehicle driven by a terrorist from the Islamic Movement intended to strike a number of officers and carry out an attack”.

Erdan called the Bedouin man  “a terrorist” and  that “the picture arising from the police probe was very clear: This was an attack, a deliberate car-ramming”.

On 18 January, Israeli security forces arrived early in the morning in the southern Bedouin community of Umm al-Hiran to implement a court-ordered demolition of several homes. Officers opened fire and killed the driver of a car, Yacoub Abu al Kiyan, a 47-year-old teacher from the village, who they said drove into Israeli security personnel, killing 34-year-old policeman Erez Levi.

Israel police described the incident at the time as terrorist-related. Demonstrators at the scene said that al Kiyan was shot before losing control of the vehicle and his family insisted that he had no links to terror organisations.

An investigation into the incident was launched by the Justice Ministry’s Police Internal Investigations Department. Media reports this week claim that the investigation will conclude that the incident was not a terrorist attack and will criticise the actions of police officers involved.

Erdan yesterday continued to accuse Arab Knesset members of stoking tensions on the issue of home demolitions. He said: “Arab members of the Knesset, led by Ayman Odeh (Head of the Arab Joint List) incited the residents of the area months before the incident. They launched a full scale public media campaign with the aim of deterring the police and me from enforcing the law against illegal buildings.”