Within one day, two violent detentions

Friday, June 22, 11:59 A Kiryat Arba resident approximately 18 years of age was detained yesterday (Thursday) afternoon in Kiryat Arba, Honenu reports. According to eye witnesses the policemen brutally beat the youth, A., and sprayed him with tear gas. A nurse on the scene attempted to administer medical care but met with refusal from the policemen. Today A. was brought to a deliberation at the Jerusalem Magistrate Court.
Yesterday afternoon A. was walking through the streets of Kiryat Arba when suddenly a police van stopped next to him. Policemen exited the van and began to beat the youth. Eye witnesses said that several policemen knocked A. onto the street and continued to beat him as he was lying on the ground. As they were beating him they sprayed him with two containers of tear gas.
As the policemen were calling forces to take A. to the police station, they continued to choke him as he lay on the ground suffering from the severe beating. A local nurse acquainted with A. was witness to part of the beating and attempted to administer medical treatment. The policemen, who continued to hold and choke A., refused.
“I really don’t understand why they had to use such horrific violence to detain him. I’m genuinely shocked. They treated him as if he was a dangerous terrorist,” said the nurse. “Additionally they did not allow me to examine his injuries.”
A. told Honenu attorney Adi Kedar that two days ago he met a local policeman in Kiryat Arba who requested that he come into the police station the following day. According to A. he was on his way to the station when the policemen detained and severely beat him, even though the hadn’t done anything.
The violent detention in Kiryat Arba follows a violent detention at the Hizma checkpoint at the north-eastern entrance to Jerusalem earlier the same day. A Jewish resident of Ma’ale Levona on his way to work in Jerusalem was stopped for a routine check and in the end violently detained by border policemen who broke into his car and sprayed him in the face with pepper gas. Also in this case the detainee was denied medical treatment despite the painful injuries suffered. According to the police the detainee is suspected of not cooperating with the routine check. According to the detainee and his friends who were traveling in the car with him they did not actively resist the check but only asked why the check, which they regarded as superfluous harassment, was necessary.
Currently A. is being brought to the Jerusalem Magistrate Court. Honenu attorney Naftali Wertzberger is representing A.