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Netanyahu apologizes three years after Shin Bet clears Arab-Israeli of terrorism

Arab-Israelis say that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s apology for calling Yakub Abu al-Kiyan a terrorist is clearly politically motivated.
Israeli left-wing activists attend a protest against the killing of Iyad Hallak, a disabled Palestinian man shot dead by Israeli police, in Jerusalem on June 9, 2020. (Photo by Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP) (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images)

"This is the second ramming attack in the last few days," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in January 2017. "We are fighting this murderous phenomenon, which has struck both Israel and the world.” It was just hours after a huge police force evacuated the unrecognized Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran in the Negev. During the eviction, which involved the destruction of residents’ homes and other buildings, a car belonging to a local math teacher, Yakub Abu al-Kiyan, struck  police officer Erez Amadi Levy. Abu al-Kiyan was shot by the police. No one provided Abu al-Kiyan with first aid and he bled to death on the spot.

Though the police described the incident as an intentional vehicular attack, the circumstances behind it were controversial from the beginning. Former Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh and former Minister of Internal Security Gilad Erdan immediately identified it as a terror attack. They claimed that there was evidence that Abu al-Kiyan had identified with the Islamic State. The prime minister later joined the chorus, repeating that it was an intentional attack. Others, however, argued that Abu al-Kiyan had been shot by police, lost control of his car and hit the officer as a result. The incident was investigated by the police's department of internal affairs. The Shin Bet determined that it was an operational failure by the police and not a terrorist attack. Nevertheless, former State Attorney Shai Nitzan closed the case without conclusively determining whether it was an attack after all.

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