Thursday, January 7, 2016, 10:47 Three minors and one 50-year old Jerusalem resident
Detained minor; Photo credit: Tzvi Monosov
were detained during an incident involving harsh police violence on Wednesday, January 6 in the Givat Shaul neighborhood of Jerusalem.
The incident began when police detectives mistakenly arrived at the dormitory of a yeshiva in the Givat Shaul neighborhood in order to verify the presence of a youth whom they thought was under house arrest at the dormitory. However several days previously the court had canceled the house arrest order and the youth was not present.
Although yeshiva students at the dormitory tried to explain to the police that the youth’s house arrest had been canceled, the policemen insisted on entering the dormitory. The police did not present either a warrant or police badges. At the dormitory a disturbance developed. Outside of the yeshiva a group of curious bystanders gathered and blocked police vehicles for a short time .
During the disturbance on the street, three minors were detained on suspicion of disturbing a policeman in the line of duty and assaulting a policeman. One of the minors was severely beaten by the policemen.
On a street close to the yeshiva, an approximately 50-year old Jerusalem resident was violently detained by policemen. The detainee, who was shopping nearby with his wife at the time, thought that a terror attack had occurred and ran towards the site of the disturbance. He noticed policemen and police detectives running to the site and because he legally carries a weapon, followed them. The policemen roughly shoved him away, hitting him in the process, apparently thinking that he intended to interfere with their work. He asked the police detective who hit him for his personal details and the detective decided to detain him and hit him hard all over his body, as did the other policemen.
The four detainees were taken to the Moriya Police Station in Jerusalem. Honenu Attorney Rehavia Piltz arrived at the police station to provide legal counsel and described the scene:
“The detainees, including the adult, were seated by the policemen on the floor of the police station, not on chairs, with their hands handcuffed behind their backs, facing the wall, as if they were terrorists. This procedure is illegal, humiliating, and unnecessarily drastic.”
The detainees spent the night at the police station and the police announced that they will be brought to court for a deliberation on the morning of Thursday, January 7.