Calls to create a committee of inquiry to investigate police conduct during the Jan. 18 eviction of the Bedouin residents of Umm al-Hiran in the south of Israel began even before the eviction of the settlers from the West Bank illegal outpost Amona on Feb. 1. The gentle handling of the settler evacuation further substantiated the need for such a committee. Bedouin leaders and Knesset members from the Joint List are demanding an investigation into two main aspects of the incident. The first is the violent eviction of the village, which was built without permits, under orders more befitting a military operation. The second is the case of Kiyan Abu al-Kiyan, who the police claim is guilty of a vehicular attack that led to the death of policeman Erez Levy.
“There is no effective, official way to clear his name and remove the stigma of 'terrorist' with which the police have branded him, except through a committee of inquiry,” Kiyan’s widow, Dr. Amal Abu al-Kiyan, told Al-Monitor in her first media interview. “We don’t understand how the police could determine immediately that he acted under the influence of the Islamic State and committed a terrorist attack without first investigating his background that of his family. We are convinced that he was not the kind of person who could even think of doing a thing like that.”
She described her husband as an introverted educator, saying that he was quiet, calm and optimistic. There was nothing about his behavior to indicate that he intended to engage in an act of violence. “He had just bought a new car and new clothes and was planning to build a house. He had his whole life ahead of him,” she said.
Kiyan had returned home to pick up his car, computer, television and any cash he had in the house. According to Kiyan’s cousin Salim, he left home before the police arrived in an attempt to evacuate himself quietly, without violence. While the police say that the headlights of his car were off, citing it as evidence that he planned to run people over, a video published by Al Jazeera shows that the headlights were actually on.
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