PM apologizes to family of Bedouin teacher shot dead by police during house demolition in Umm al-Hiran in January 2017 • "I was told he was a terrorist"
"Senior prosecutors and police turned him into a terrorist to harm me."
Benjamin Netanyahu
Photo:
Oren Ben Hakon
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today (Tuesday) at the end of a tour of Beit Shemesh that he apologizes to the family of Yaakov Abu-Alqian, the Bedouin teacher who was shot dead by police during an operation to demolish houses in Umm al-Hiran in the Negev in January 2017. " But he is not a terrorist, "Netanyahu said.
"Senior prosecutors and police turned him into a terrorist to harm me."
In a post posted on social media, the prime minister wrote: "I received a report from the commissioner's office that the incident in Umm al-Hiran was a terrorist attack. So first of all I want to apologize to the al-Qiaan family, whose father, an Israeli citizen, was killed. "Yesterday it became clear that he was not a terrorist."
"Yesterday it became clear that senior prosecutors and police had turned him into a terrorist to protect themselves and only to harm me. I said at the time that there were very serious failures in police work, and they said God forbid the media would expose those failures because then Netanyahu's claims were backed up."
"But it's much worse than I said, because the police investigation department wanted to investigate the incident, and State Attorney Shai Nitzan refused. He buried it. He sent an email saying: 'The commissioner did act outrageously but there are state interests to consider. "It will only do good to those who want the evil of the system and enough of wisdom." That is the quote.