Bulldozers in Umm al-Hiran. 'We guard them, and they kick us out'
Photo: AFP
Umm al-Hiran: The tragedy is just beginning
Op-ed: The haste in which all officials, from Prime Minister Netanyahu downwards, adopted the ISIS-inspired terror attack version in the Bedouin community’s violent evacuation is reminiscent of the haste in which they adopted the arson story in the recent fires. While these accusations sound good, they’re not necessarily true.
“You see the two Baggers up there?” Yasser Abu al-Qiyan asked. There were two yellow excavators parked peacefully at the top of the hill. They had been rented to prepare the area for a new Jewish community called Hiran, which would be built alongside the ruins of Bedouin community Umm al-Hiran.
“Tell me, my brother,” Yasser continued. “Who do you think guards them?”
Who? I asked. “My uncle,” Yasser replied. “We guard them, and they kick us out.”
Clashes in Umm al-Hiran, Wednesday. The circumstances, as well as the videos, leave room for two contradicting versions (Photo: Reuters))
We stood outside the community’s mosque, in the heart of a group of more than 20 men who had accumulated tons of rage. They had a hard time explaining what they were enraged by more: The death of Yacoub Abu al-Qiyan, a relative who was shot to death as he drove his car towards the police; the claim raised by the police and widely reported by the media that he had been an Islamic State supporter; the demolition of their homes; or the inability to prevent any of this.
“I want one thing,” a young man screamed in my ear, “Jewish blood. Bring me a Jew, I’ll kill a Jew.” The older men tried to calm him down. From time to time, he burst out again.
Yasser Abu al-Qiyan served in the IDF, in the Bedouin regiment. “Had their commander told them not to use live ammunition, what happened wouldn’t have happened,” he said. “There was an order from above. They wanted to see a lot of blood.”
“There is no justice in our country,” he said, with fire raging in his eyes. “The guy you murdered didn’t do anything. And three hours later, you bring bulldozers to demolish the homes here? Look,” he turned his hand towards the hill where the home of Yacoub al-Qiyan had stood just an hour earlier. At the bottom of the hill, there was a barrel of water for the sheep. The bulldozers that destroyed the house poured out the water and filled the barrel with earth. “Why do the sheep have to suffer?” he asked.
The fatal morning followed a night of negotiations that had reached a dead end. Yair Maayan, director of the Bedouin Development and Settlement Authority in the Negev, blames the Bedouin and external elements that helped them; the Bedouin blame the government.
What happened in Umm al-Hiran on Wednesday morning is a tragedy. An outstanding policeman, Erez (Amedi) Levi, a father to two small children, was killed on the job. He was killed in a terror attack inspired by ISIS, the police say. Their claim is based on an assessment made by someone in the Shin Bet. The circumstances, as well as the videos from the incident, leave room for two contradicting versions. The haste in which all officials, from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu downwards, adopted the ISIS version reminds me of the haste in which they adopted the arson story in the recent fires. These accusations sound good; they’re not necessarily true.
