Tuesday, March 14, 2023, 15:47 Honenu Attorney Eladi Weisel wrote a letter to the Police Investigation Unit regarding the brutal assault by border police officers on settlers who entered the community of Eviatar after the terror attack in Hawara in February. The incident was recorded (see video clips below) and Attorney Weisel has demanded that the PIU open an investigation.
In his letter, Attorney Weisel described two incidents of assault by Border police officers: “On the morning of February 27, 2023, settlers were removed from the community of Eviatar. A minor and his friends climbed onto the roof of a shipping container to make their removal from the site more difficult. Police officers who were at the site also climbed onto the roof of the container and began to remove the minors. The complainee and another police officer grabbed the minor. Then, as the minor was being held by the two police officers, the complainee hit the minor’s head hard three times.”
Attorney Weisel added a description of another assault in Eviatar that day: “The [second] complainant was loaded onto a combination bus [tiulit] being used to remove residents from the community. The complainee then brutally assaulted and choked him. The terrified complainant’s face changed color because of the choking and his difficulty to utter a sound was audible. After the choking, the complainee threw the complainant to the floor of the bus and made a threatening gesture at him. Fortunately for the complainant, a police officer present saw the assault and stopped the complainee.”
Attorney Weisel emphasized the young age of the settlers who were assaulted. “The force applied was illegal, disproportionate, and unreasonable. There is no legal justification for a 12-year-old boy grasped by two burly police officers, when he barely comes up to their chests and certainly does not pose a danger to them, to be beaten on the head by them. Also, a situation in which a police officer brutally chokes a youth who has already been detained and loaded onto a bus and does not pose a threat to the police officers, is a serious incident that must be investigated.”
In conclusion, Honenu Attorney Eladi Weisel demanded that the PIU investigate these acts of police brutality: “This was an incident of illegal use of force whose only purpose was venting anger and intimidation. There was no legal purpose. The video clips [documenting the incident] speak for themselves and prove that the [police officers] brutally used illegal force and caused the minors pain and humiliation.”
Honenu Attorney Eladi Weisel stated, “Border police officers applied illegal and brutal force on the settlers of Eviatar and showed contempt for their dignity. A police officer who beats a 12-year-old boy in the head, and one who chokes a powerless youth on a bus, are a testament to complete senselessness. We call on the PIU to put the brutal police officers on trial and eradicate this evil from their midst.”