Violence Erupts at Bedouin Home Evacuation; Policeman and Civilian Killed

A demonstration underway Wednesday morning as Israeli police were carrying out the forced evacuation of illegal homes in a Bedouin village in the southern Negev area turned violent when a driver drove his vehicle into security forces killing a policeman and a civilian. The driver was shot dead by police. Among the five people wounded in the attack was the head of the Arab list in the Israeli parliament, Member of Knesset Ayman Odeh, who was at the village to show support for the families being removed from their homes. The Israeli authorities labeled the incident a “nationalistic act” (read terror) while the Palestinians accused the Israelis of shooting the driver who only then lost control of his vehicle. Israeli police had reportedly been using crowd control measures including tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades to control the crowd that had assembled at Umm Al-Hiran to show solidarity. The dead civilian was identified as a 47-year old high school teacher who was a Palestinian citizen of Israel. The policeman who was killed was a 34-year old officer.