Kfar Qasim Mayor Adel Badir and dozens others Saturday night attended the funeral of a suspected terrorist who carried out a mixed car-ramming and shooting attack against police officers days earlier.
In footage released by police, Naim Badir, 23, is seen charging police with a brandished firearm and trying to open fire, but the weapon malfunctioned. Cops said Badir also lobbed Molotov cocktails at them before he was seen getting in his car and slamming into another vehicle next to the police, injuring three officers, before being shot dead.
Funeral procession of suspected terrorist Naim Badir, Saturday night, in Kafr Qasim
Police said the incident was a terror attack, a claim which Badir’s relatives flatly denied and said police should have shot him in the leg and not killed him.
Mayor Badir also voiced doubts about it being a nationalistic attack and instead tied the incident to the Arab sector’s pervasive gun violence problem.
“It was a very tough night in Kafr Qasim, policemen were hurt, and a resident of the village was also killed,” said the mayor of the Arab city east of Tel Aviv.
Police body cam and CCTV footage from the Kafr Qasim attack
(Video: Israel Police)
“The event and its results are very tragic. The police in Kafr Qasim are doing a great job. We count on the experts to investigate what led to this tragic event during which attempted shooting or violence targeted the police.
We have to wait for a motive, we’ll wait for the experts. The kid had no connection to people who could be involved. The weapons in the Arab sector are directed against everyone, we saw this week also against a two-year-old boy. In the past, it also targeted elders aged 80-90 and pregnant women. The weapons aimed at the Arab sector are a problem and it is my personal responsibility as mayor, of the police and the district commander. We work in full cooperation with the police.”
The mayor later told Ynet on Sunday that he attended the event to maintain public order.
"The residents and his family do not sympathize with what he did. I came to the funeral in coordination with the police, and my job was to maintain public order and make sure that outsiders did not take advantage of the event to create disturbances," he told Ynet.
Badir’s cousin Rani denied it being a deliberate attack despite the footage.
“He’s a normative person,” he told Hebrew-language Ynet Radio Sunday morning.
"I don't know what went over him that night. It does not reflect the vision of the Arab sector and Kfar Qasim."
According to the cousin, Badir may have been threatened and did not intend to harm the police.
Adir Yanko and Attila Somfalvi contributed to this report.
First published: 09:26, 12.25.22