The Israeli Police has reportedly lost an aerial video of the 2005 lynching of IDF soldier Eden Natan-Zada in a bus in the Arab-Israeli city of Shefaram, one week before the start of the trial of the seven accused killers. A journalist for government-run Channel 1 The drone apparently flew over the Arab-Israeli city of Shfaram during the lynching and recorded what occurred. news, which broke the story on Monday, said that the missing film may negatively impact the case. A news report from the time of the lynching, however, indicates that the police may not be faultless either, as reinforcements were never dispatched to the scene, which likely cost Natan-Zada his life. The missing aerial footage was recorded by a pilotless drone plane equipped with a camera, which was in use by the Israeli police in 2005. The drone apparently flew over Shefaram during the lynching and recorded what occurred. The evidence from the drone was termed "significant" by Channel 1 reporter Amir Bar-Shalom. Natan-Zada, an AWOL Israeli soldier, was killed in late August 2005 after he allegedly opened fire on an intercity bus, killing the driver and three passengers. It was never definitively ascertained what happened on the bus preceding or during the shootings; however, clear video footage that was broadcast shortly after the incident shows what happened next. After Natan-Zada had been handcuffed aboard the bus by two police officers who apparently responded to the scene, an Arab mob surrounded the vehicle, broke in, and killed the subdued soldier. A video of the lynching, with Natan-Zada seen alive and in the presence of two policemen, was aired by Channel 10 shortly after the incident (available in Hebrew in two parts on the Emperor's Clothes website, here and here , with an English transcript here ). The Channel 10 broadcast was subsequently suppressed by court order, allegedly due to concerns for the then-ongoing police investigation. In June of this year, seven people were charged in Haifa District Court with attempted murder, assault on a police officer and related offenses. Five other suspects have been charged in a Haifa Magistrates Court with aggravated assault on a police officer, obstruction of justice and rioting. The accused - Muslims, Bedouins and a Christian - are all residents of the Galilee city where the lynching took place. The District Court trial, slated to commence next week, comes after four years of investigation, including hundreds of depositions. The news of the missing aerial footage comes just under three weeks since the fourth anniversary of the shooting allegedly perpetrated by Natan-Zada was marked in Shfaram. On August 4, hundreds of residents, Knesset members and relatives of the victims paid their respects at the graves of the victims in the Muslim and Christian cemeteries in the city. However, the event had an overtly Arab nationalist tinge, as well, with some people chanting anti-Israel slogans and carrying Palestinian flags.
