Palestinian killed in Bedouin village facing demolition

By Kaamil Ahmed

UMM AL-HIRAN, Israel (AA) – A Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli forces on Wednesday after clashes erupted in a Bedouin town in southern Israel that faces imminent demolition, according to police sources and eyewitnesses.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said in a statement that a Palestinian was shot dead in Umm al-Hiran, located in the Negev Desert, after trying to run over policemen with his vehicle.

The road leading to the town has since been closed off by police.

Village headman Raed Abu al-Qiyan, however, denied the spokesman’s assertion, saying the police were "liars".

According to Abu al-Qiyan, the slain Palestinian -- whose name he did not give -- was a resident of the village.

"What happened this morning was nothing less than a war," said Rabbi Arik Ascherman, co-founder of Rabbis for Human Rights, an NGO.

Ascherman had stayed overnight in the village as part of planned protests against the imminent demolition.

"There was a helicopter overhead; hundreds, literally hundreds, of soldiers came into the village," he said.

According to witnesses at the scene, including Ascherman, police had treated local residents aggressively -- even before the alleged vehicular attack -- while Ayman Odeh, an Arab-Israeli member of the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) had been struck in the back with a foam-covered bullet.

Israeli authorities have formally lodged a demolition order against the village -- the residents of which are Israeli citizens -- to make way for a planned Jewish-only housing project.