THE DEATH
One year ago, on the night of 18 January 2017, heavily-armed Israeli paramilitary police forces entered the Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran in the country's southern desert region in order to demolish homes. Just before dawn broke, officers opened fire on 50-year-old math teacher Ya'akub Abu Al-Qi'an as he was driving his white jeep through the village. Ya'akub was seriously wounded by police gunfire and he lost control of his jeep, running over and killing police officer Erez Levy.
Israeli officers on the scene prevented paramedics from reaching Ya'akub and administering emergency medical treatment.
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CLICK FOR VIDEO: Israeli police shooting of Ya'akub Abu Al-Qi'an
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THE DISPLACEMENT
In 1948, the Israeli military forcibly displaced the Abu Al-Qi'an tribe from Khirbet Zubaleh – ancestral lands they had worked for generations – and moved them from place to place. Eventually, in the 1950s, the military ordered them to settle near Yattir. It was there that they established Umm al-Hiran, which is today one of 35 unrecognized Bedouin villages.
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THE DESTRUCTION
More than 50 years later, in 2003, Israel informed the 500 Umm al-Hiran residents that it intended to demolish their village and move them to a nearby town. In parallel, Israel began to plan a new town set to be built upon the ruins of Umm al-Hiran that - Adalah revealed last summer - would be for Jewish residents only.
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CLICK FOR VIDEO: Demolition of Ya'akub's home following his killing (Courtesy of All That's Left)
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This is one of the most blatant examples of racially-motivated displacement in Israeli history.
Adalah's legal battle against the demolition of Umm al-Hiran lasted for 13 years but, in the end, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that because the state is the landowner it has the legal authority to evict residents.
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FIGHT FOR JUSTICE
The same day that police killed Ya'akub, Israel's public security minister and police chief both announced that Ya'akub had intentionally attacked police – a claim that was repeatedly disproven.
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Israeli police subsequently refused to hand Ya'akub's body over for burial, only doing so once the Israeli Supreme Court ruled in favor of Adalah's petition and ordered them to.
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Adalah also demanded a probe of the killing and that those found responsible be prosecuted. More than a year later, Israeli media reported authorities have decided to close the investigation into the killing of Ya'akub Abu Al-Qi'an.
Adalah is continuing to fight against the forced eviction of the people of Umm al-Hiran and the destruction of their village, and for the prosecution of those officers responsible for the killing of Ya'akub.
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