ToI Community update—Editor’s note: Terrible injustice, finally acknowledged * Sharansky: Behind the Headlines TODAY * Zoom-in: Raphael Ahren * Podcast: Rabbis, pandemics

[The Times of Israel]( Dear ToI Community members and Daily Edition readers, (We’re again sending this week’s Community Update to all Daily Edition readers as well. If you’re not yet a Community member,[join up here](.) In The Times of Israel’s newsroom on the morning of January 18, 2017, our editors looked over and over at a video, released by police, purporting to show “a terrorist attack” in which an Israeli Bedouin man rammed his car into a group of police officers who were overseeing the demolition of homes in the unrecognized Negev village of Umm al-Hiran. Plowing into the cops, the vehicle killed one of them, 1st Sgt. Erez Levi, 34. The driver, too, Yaqoub Mousa Abu Al-Qia’an, was killed at the scene — shot by the cops after he drove into the police line, the police [said](. The police statement was emphatic: Levi had been “murdered in a car-ramming attack.” The minister for public security, Gilad Erdan, today Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations and set to become our ambassador to the US as well, was similarly definitive: “It was a terror attack that murdered a policeman,” Erdan said in an Israel Radio interview that morning, and would repeat on numerous further occasions. Abu Al-Qia’an was an “Islamic Movement activist,” the police further declared, and the authorities were “examining the attacker’s (possible) affiliation with Islamic State.” Israeli police stand next to a vehicle that crashed into police officers in the Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran in the Negev desert, January 18, 2017. (Israel Police) The cops’ own drone footage, however, seemed to us to be at odds with that firm official conclusion. Or rather, while the [first clip]( released by police appeared on first glance to match the official narrative — highlighting the “terrorist’s car” as it had accelerated toward the “police team” — a [fuller clip]( released shortly afterward showed clearly that shots had been fired at close range at Abu Al-Qia’an’s SUV before he crashed into the cops, suggesting that he may have been wounded and was no longer in control of the vehicle at the time of the collision. Yaqoub Mousa Abu al-Qia’an (Courtesy) As the hours passed, eyewitnesses came forward to insist that this was not terrorism, and that cops had opened fire on Abu Al-Qia’an before the crash, apparently erroneously fearing an attack. Hundreds of cops had been deployed in the village for the pre-dawn demolitions, and the situation was chaotic, the witnesses said. It also quickly turned out that Abu Al-Qia’an was a 47-year-old teacher, and a father of 12 — far from the regular profile of a terrorist. He had packed a few belongings into his car and intended to drive out of the village, his family said, not wanting to stay and witness the demolition of their home. Police officer 1st Sgt. Erez Levi, 34, who was killed in what was alleged to be a car-ramming attack at Umm al-Hiran, January 18, 2017. (Courtesy) Subsequent [reports]( indicated that the Shin Bet domestic security service had concluded within 48 hours that this was no act of terrorism, but rather a “serious operational failure,” by the police. But a year later, the police were still insisting that Abu Al-Qia’an was indeed a terrorist. In May 2018, the state attorney’s office closed an investigation into the events, saying it still couldn’t conclusively determine what had happened. Now, however, almost four years after the incident, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has [acknowledged]( what those drone videos had indicated from the get-go — that the official narrative was false — and he issued an apology to Abu Al-Qia’an’s family: “They [the police] said he was a terrorist. Yesterday, it turned out that he wasn’t a terrorist,” the prime minister declared last night. The police, for their part, expressed regret, though, notably, they did not apologize or retract the claim of terrorism. Former state attorney Shai Nitzan. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90) The truth has only been officially acknowledged in the wake of a TV report this week highlighting the official [cover-up]( — a TV report interwoven, as so much of Israeli current affairs these days is interwoven — with Netanyahu’s legal embroilments. It was the former state attorney Shai Nitzan who oversaw the 2018 investigation, and allegedly suppressed evidence, the same Shai Nitzan frequently castigated by Netanyahu as a key figure in the ostensible political coup attempt that sees the prime minister on trial in three corruption cases. Netanyahu has a dismal track record of inciting against Israel’s Arab population, but his key imperative as his trial gathers pace is to discredit the cops and prosecutors who probed and indicted him, and this abysmal saga does precisely that. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference in Beit Shemesh on September 8, 2020. (Screen capture: Facebook) The whole tragic story stinks, as it stank from the very start. In the chaotic darkness before dawn in a Bedouin village down south, a civilian lost his life. A cop lost his life. The authorities rushed to an unsupported and unsupportable conclusion, and for long years refused to acknowledge the truth. And that truth has only emerged now because of unrelated legal and political battles, raising the question of what else is being covered up by Israeli law enforcement that has yet to emerge because it does not serve somebody powerful’s unrelated personal interests. When Israel’s law-enforcement authorities peddle false narratives, they destroy their own credibility, undermine public faith in their integrity, and empower those who seek to weaken the rule of law. They also, not incidentally, cause unconscionable injustice — as was the case here for the family of Yaqoub Mousa Abu Al-Qia’an. They lost their husband and father, who was [reportedly]( left to bleed to death at the scene, and had his name traduced. Bedouin women sit amid destroyed homes in the unrecognized Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran in the Negev desert, January 18, 2017. (AFP Photo/Menahem Kahana) With extraordinary grace, Yaqoub’s widow, Amal, said last night that the apology was “better late than never.” She said her late husband was “an educator who represented Israel overseas and didn’t hate anybody.” But, she asked, “Why couldn’t they have told the truth at the time?” 🤝 NOW MORE THAN EVER: Join the ToI Community We are hugely appreciative that so many of you have been joining the Community, and thus helping finance the work of our reporters and editors. If you haven’t yet joined the ToI Community, [please do so now!]( All Times of Israel content remains open to all readers. But if that content matters to you, do please support us — for as little as $6 a month. 🖥 Did you miss a Community update, webinar, podcast or benefit? It’s all right on [the ToI Community page]( (accessible only to logged-in Community members). 🖥 TODAY: Behind the Headlines with Natan Sharansky and Gil Troy Please join us today, Wednesday, September 9, at 1 p.m. EDT/ 8 p.m. Israel for the latest in our [Behind the Headlines video series,]( premiered exclusively for the ToI Community. This week, Natan Sharansky and Gil Troy discuss their new co-authored book, “Never Alone”, which explores how Sharansky’s years in Soviet prison – many spent in harsh solitary confinement – prepared him for a very public life after his release. nine years in Soviet prisons fighting for the right to immigrate to Israel, Sharansky spent nine years in the halls of the Knesset and headed various ministries under three Israeli prime ministers. Most recently, Sharansky was Chairman of the Jewish Agency. Gil Troy is an award-winning author and historian who resides in Jerusalem. The discussion will be led by Amanda Borschel-Dan, The Times of Israel’s Jewish World editor. The discussion will be aired on YouTube on Wednesday, September 9, at 8 p.m. Israel, 1 p.m. EDT. A recording will be available after this time at the same link. To join the discussion at this time, click on the image above or use this link: [** JOIN ON YOUTUBE **]( In our Behind the Headlines series, ToI reporters and editors video interview influential individuals from a wide range of fields. All sessions are aired exclusively to The Times of Israel Community before being shared with our broader readership. 📼 In case you missed it: Watch recent Behind the Headlines with [writer Etgar Keret](, with [musician Neshama Carlebach](, with [MK Merav Michaeli](, with [NY Times’ Bret Stephens](, with [archaeologist Joe Uziel](, and with [economist Nadine Baudot-Trajtenberg](. 🖥 THURSDAY: Community Zoom with ToI’s diplomatic correspondent Raphael Ahren Last week our diplomatic correspondent Raphael Ahren joined the Israeli and American delegations’ unprecedented normalization trip to Abu Dhabi. He’s now back in Israel with stories to share — and will join us for an exclusive ToI Community Zoom this Thursday, September 10, at 9 p.m. Israel / 2 p.m. Eastern / 11 a.m. Pacific. Have a question for Raphael? Please [send it to us](mailto:community@timesofisrael.com?subject=Question%20for%20Raphael%20Ahren) and we will make every effort to ask it during the session. Zoom meeting details: Thursday, September 10, 2020 11:00 AM Pacific 2:00 PM Eastern 9:00 PM Israel Passcode: 900935 ** To join the Community Zoom at this time, [CLICK HERE](. 🎧 ToI Podcast: How rabbinic responses to pandemics of yore are making a comeback in a COVID-19 world This week we’re speaking with Dr. Rabbi Levi Cooper about rabbinic responses to pandemics throughout Jewish history. Even hundreds of years ago, Jewish communities grappled with the very same questions we struggle with this year, such as whether to limit synagogue attendance, and if so — who may attend? We’ll also discuss a Kabbalistic prayer practice based on the Temple incense ritual that is still being said from on high — from a helicopter above Jerusalem, in fact. Levi is originally from Australia. He immigrated to Israel as a young man, served in the IDF’s Golani Brigade and earned three law degrees, culminating in a Ph.D., from Bar-Ilan University. Today Levi teaches at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies and is a Teaching Fellow at Tel Aviv University’s Buchmann Faculty of Law. He is a prolific writer and a communal rabbi in Tsur Hadassah, just outside of Jerusalem. Listen to [this episode here](— and be sure to subscribe to The Times of Israel Podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you listen. 🙋 Have something to say? We’d love to hear it! Join the discussion on the [ToI Community Facebook group](. Keep tabs on new content and events on our [Community Page](. And don’t hesitate to [write to us](mailto: community@timesofisrael.com) with any suggestions, issues or questions. Be well, David Horovitz Founding Editor, The Times of Israel You are receiving this email because you are subscribed to The Times of Israel's Daily Edition and/or you are a member of [The Times of Israel Community](. If you would like to stop receiving these emails, please click below to unsubscribe. 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