Before dawn on 18 January 2017, a police force raided the illegalized Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran at the northern threshold of the Naqab/Negev Desert in order to demolish several houses. Two people were killed: a Bedouin villager, Yaqub Musa Abu al-Qi’an, and an Israeli policeman, Erez Levi. Immediately after the incident, the Israeli government and police claimed the incident was a ‘terror attack’ by Abu al-Qi’an, and further, that he had links to Daesh (ISIS). Forensic Architecture’s investigation of the incident, in collaboration with the activist group ActiveStills, helped to expose the falseness of this narrative, and established the veracity of local residents and activist claims that Abu al-Qi’an lost control of his vehicle and ran over Levi only after being shot by Israeli policemen, subsequently left to bleed out and die. This analysis assisted in forcing the police to retract its narrative of the events, and led to an internal police investigation yet to be concluded.
View Full Cast >