Last update - 02:24 15/01/2007
Police: Findings contradict Negev farmer's account of 'thief's' death
By Mijal Grinberg
Police findings contradict the story told by a Negev farmer who shot and killed an alleged sheep thief over Shabbat, according to Ilan Peretz, commander of the Ayarot police station.
A court yesterday remanded the farmer, Shai Dromi, 47, for another four days. He is suspected of murdering Khaled al-Atrash, a 31-year-old father of four, and also of illegal weapons possession.
Police declined to say what they had found in their search of Dromi's farm that contradicted his story, and most of their evidence was presented in camera at the remand hearing. However, police sources cited other facts that aroused their suspicion. First, they said, Dromi did not initially claim self-defense; he changed his story after speaking with his lawyer. Moreover, noted one, "he could have called the police when he heard them [the thieves], or called the neighbors, or stayed inside. But he chose otherwise."
The affair has roused tempers on all sides. The Cattle Growers Association issued a statement yesterday noting that the number of cattle thefts rose 236 percent last year compared to 2005. According to the association, most of the stolen cattle disappear quickly into the Palestinian Authority.
A forum of Southern mayors announced it plans to demonstrate opposite the court tomorrow for Dromi's release and for stiffer sentences for cattle rustlers. Former agriculture minister MK Yisrael Katz (Likud) urged that Dromi not be tried, adding that he intends to submit a bill that would make it self-defense to attack someone who breaks into your house or grounds.
MK Avshalom Vilan (Meretz) urged Public Security Minister Avi Dichter to order the police to crack down on agricultural theft, which, he said, they currently largely ignore. Agriculture Minister Shalom Simhon (Labor) echoed this call, saying that widespread theft and police neglect has made life "hell" for Israeli farmers.
MK Ahmad Tibi (Ra'am-Ta'al) demanded that Dromi be charged with murder, saying that had the alleged thief been Jewish, "there is no doubt that he would have stood trial for murder." Bimkom - Planners for Planning Rights claimed that family farms such as Dromi's exemplify the state's discrimination against the Bedouin, who, unlike Jewish farmers, are deprived of vital agricultural lands.
And Dromi's family bemoaned the impossible circumstances in which, they said, he found himself.
Dromi, whose parents and brother are also farmers, moved to his farm near the Green Line some 20 years ago, and currently lives there with his mother, wife and children. According to his brother Amir, the state encouraged the move, because there were many Palestinian infiltrators in that area, and "they wanted farmers to stop the infiltrations." However, say local residents, the farmers have found themselves helpless in the face of widespread cattle rustling.
Ilan Peretz of the Ayarot police station admitted that cattle theft was widespread in the South, and that the farms in Dromi's area, being isolated, are particularly hard to guard. Nevertheless, he insisted, these particular farms have not been hard hit by rustling.
Amir Dromi, in contrast, said that his brother's flock was stolen twice in the last five years, and a month ago, so was his tractor. Additionally, some of his sheepdogs were poisoned.
According to Dromi's lawyer, Suzy Shalev, one of his dogs was poisoned last Friday night, leading Dromi to believe that the thieves would soon follow. He therefore hid nearby, and when he heard the sound of the fence being cut, he emerged and, in Arabic, ordered the four men whom he spotted to halt. "They didn't stop," she said. "He fired in the air, but the rifle didn't fire. They continued to come toward him."
At that point, Shalev said, they were close enough that Dromi had no choice but to fire at their legs. But he hit al-Atrash in the femoral artery, and he died.
Al-Atrash, who had a history of convictions for property crime, was killed just a day after being released to house arrest while under investigation for other crimes. His family has agreed to permit an autopsy in order to assist the murder probe. They have also hired a lawyer to represent them.
Gideon Alon and Yoav Stern contributed to this report.