Umm Al Hiran, Israel // Thousands of Arab citizens of Israel turned out on Tuesday for the funeral of Yacoub Abu Al Kaeean, a Bedouin schoolteacher killed by police during a house demolition operation in southern Israel.
Police said Abu Al Kaeean was shot dead as he carried out a deliberate car ramming attack that killed policeman Erez Levi during the demolition operation last Wednesday. But witnesses said his vehicle accelerated only after shots were fired at it by police. A video by a police drone appears to support that conclusion.
The shooting took place in the village of Umm Al Hiran as the Israeli authorities bulldozed ten houses, including Abu Al Kaeean’s, to make way for a new Jewish town.
His death in disputed circumstances along with the home demolitions have intensified anger among Bedouins long resentful of discriminatory Israeli policies.
On Tuesday, the well-liked maths teacher was elevated to the status of a symbol and a martyr for all of Israel’s Arab minority, which makes up a fifth of the country’s population.
“No one escapes death, but not everyone achieves martyrdom,” Mohammed Abu Dadis, a leader of the moderate branch of Israel’s Islamic Movement said during a charged eulogy at the graveside. “God chooses the martyrs among us.”
As young men shovelled dirt, mourners filed up to Abu Al Kaeean ’s brothers and comforted them.
People on the edge of the grave held their heads in their hands, weeping.
“Our message is hands off our houses and stop targeting us,” Mr Abu Dadis said.
After the incident police hurried to suggest Abu Al Kaeean belonged to ISIL. Those who knew him say this is ridiculous and accuse the police of murdering him and then framing him with the accusation.
Questions are mounting about many aspects of the Umm Al Hiran incident and left-wing Israeli politicians are calling for a state commission of inquiry into government and police actions.
At the funeral, mourners chanted “with spirit and blood we will redeem you the martyr” but contrary to police forecast, there were no instances of violence during the proceedings.
The police had refused to relinquish the body to the family since Abu Al Kaeean’s death, setting as a condition that the funeral be at night and have a limited number of participants. But the supreme court on Monday ordered the police to hand over the body for burial, without its conditions being met.
“I came here because I’m angry. This shouldn’t have happened to him,” said Zaina Jafra, an environmental teacher who travelled from Nazareth to be at the funeral. “I came to sound my voice that this racism should stop.”
“He’s a father and a teacher and what happened to him could happen to any of us,” she said. “For me, he is a symbol of the Palestinian who did not accept the unfairness of the state.
The very fact that he lived in Umm Al Hiran, that he stayed with his family there and did not let the demolition orders force him to leave was resistance against the unfair.”
Musa Al Tihaya, a construction worker from the nearby city of Rahat, said: “I came to show the establishment that we identify with Yacoub and his struggle against demolitions. He has become a symbol of just struggle against the brutality of the establishment.
“He was killed because of the policy of home demolitions. The shooting at him was unjustified. We want to know the whole truth. If there is justice, they will make a commission of inquiry.”
Ibrahim Al Amour, a lecturer in education who knew Abu Al Kaeean said: “He’s a lovely man, generous, his wife is a college lecturer. If there is a good person in this country it is him. How can the head of the police say he’s Islamic State. He has no shame.”
It is the second time Umm Al Hiran families are being displaced by Israel.
In 1956, the army forced them to relocate from the Wadi Zbala area of the Negev desert to their current location. But the state never recognised their ownership of the land and refused to hook the village up to water and electricity.
In 2015, Israel’s supreme court ruled that the land on which Umm Al Hiran’s houses are built belongs to the state, paving the way for its demolition and replacement by the Jewish town of Hiran.
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