Erdan. No one to hide behind and no one to blame
Photo: Alex Kolomoisky
Erdan’s alternative facts
Op-ed: It‘s shocking how a government minister can slander an Israeli citizen and drag his name through the mud without waiting for the investigation to be completed. Like several other ministers, he likely sees the Likud leadership race in the horizon and is taking populist steps to satisfy his voters.
It was hardly a surprise when the following details were revealed: That the “terrorist”
killed by police officers in the evacuation of the Bedouin community of Umm al-Hiran
was not a terrorist, that he and his family have nothing to do with ISIS, that Yaqoub Abu al-Qiyan did not intentionally run over the police officers in the incident which left policeman Erez Amedi Levi dead, and that basically all the things that Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan and Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh said about him were as correct as the fact that the newspaper clips found in Abu al-Qiyan’s home indicated that he had been affiliated with a radical Islamic organization. By the way, the newspapers were likely used by him to cover an avocado in order to make it ripen faster.
It‘s shocking to find out how a government minister can slander an Israeli citizen and drag his name through the mud without waiting for the investigation to be completed. But that’s what happened, and ignoring it would be another step up towards becoming a state that we don’t want to become. Imagine how Abu al-Qiyan’s family felt. Not only did an esteemed man of education lose his life, but his dignity and his family’s dignity were also crushed under the law enforcers’ shoes.
Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan and the Umm al-Hiran incident. There is no doubt that we are in the midst of the campaign to succeed Netanyahu (Photo: Motti Kimchi)
Minister Erdan has no one to hide behind. He has no one to blame. He can’t hide behind the statement that he is fed by reports he receives from the police, neither in the fires affair—which he defined as nationalistically-motivated arson—nor in the Umm al-Hiran fiasco.
Erdan had to know, like everyone who lives here knows, that the police’s automatic and immediate tendency in every case of a flop is to first of all to get in line and issue a version, even if it’s a false one. Whoever repeats these lies, claiming that he is backing his people, instead of stating the obvious and saying that the issue is being investigated and that no one should rush into any conclusions, is lying and inciting. And that’s just what Erdan did.
The Abu al-Qiyan family’s demand that the public security minister and the police commissioner resign is not groundless. Considering the failures which took place during and after the evacuation, that would have been required. The family members can only be informed that no one ever resign here, not over failures towards Jews and all the more so over failures related to Arabs. an apology from the minister and police commissioner—a sincere, real apology, and not just a rectification of the facts—is definitely a reasonable demand.
The minister’s new version when the facts became clear, changing Abu al-Qiyan’s status from a terrorist to a citizen, should embarrass every citizen in the country, both Jews and Arabs. This is not the way a minister should act, and definitely not the person who is responsible for the internal security and for the safety of all Israeli citizens, and who knows that every comment he makes could ignite a great fire.
What happened to Minister Erdan? Has he also adopted the culture of post-truth and alternative facts? Does he see before his eyes, like several other Likud ministers, the race for the Likud leadership, and is that the reason he is taking populist steps that will satisfy his voters?
“The incident at Umm al-Hiran was grave and unfortunate,” Erdan said on Thursday. “When I am informed in the morning that Erez Levi was murdered in a vehicular attack, and that it was unequivocally determined by the police investigations, it is my duty as a minister to back the police. As a minister, I have no objective information, and up to this moment there is no other ruling regarding the police officers being run down.
“As soon as the Police Investigations Unit launched a probe, I announced that I would wait for its conclusions and that if there were any lessons—they would be learned. But what exactly do people expect? That every time there is a claim against the police, we will question the police officers operating on the ground? Naturally, if there is an objective examination after an incident, which proves that the police were wrong, it is my responsibility as a minister to ensure that the failures are being fixed. It’s clear to me that if it is determined that Yaqoub Abu al-Qiyan did not intentionally run over Levi, then we must apologize to his family.
“But why are the police and the police commissioner being attacked? It’s their authority and it’s their job. They are the ones who were authorized by the state to conduct investigations and determine who murdered and who broke the law.
“One thing is clear: There is a campaign here waged by the Arab list to try to deter the police and myself from continuing to enforce the law against the illegal construction. It won’t help. I believe in coexistence and in equality, and I am the minister who invested the greatest amount of resources ever in improving the police services in the Arab communities. But I also believe that the law must be enforced in all parts of the country.”
It has to be mentioned that the Likud is in the middle of a leadership race. Anyone who has listened recently to Erdan, Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz, and even exiled minister Gideon Sa’ar, realizes that the race has already been kicked off. The number of interviews they are giving is insane.
Indeed, an examination reveals a dramatic rise in the Katz and Erdan’s appearances in the media. In December, Erdan gave 84 interviews. In January—117, and in mid-February the number already reached 67. Katz gave 23 interviews in December, 50 in January, and as many as 55 by mid-February.
There is no doubt that we are in the midst of the campaign to succeed Netanyahu.
