A compromise agreement was recently reached between the Israel Police and the Honenu organization, which represents a number of minors who were illegally detained and imprisoned after they were arrested during the evacuation of the Magen Eretz outpost near Har Bracha.
According to the compromise agreement, the police will be required to pay the minors NIS 4,500 to be distributed between them and attorney Chaim Bleicher, who represented the petitioners on behalf of the organization.
A few months ago, attorney Bleicher filed a NIS 30,000 lawsuit against the Israel Police in the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court for mental anguish, humiliation and violation of the dignity of the minors and their rights as a result of public shackling, as well as the sense of security of one of the minors as he was incarcerated with older inmates.
According to one of the minors, who was arrested following the demolition of a house in the outpost while the area was under a closed military zone order, he was taken by the police, who was handcuffed behind his back for many minutes, and his hand were only handcuffed in front of him when brought to a police vehicle.
In addition, he was interrogated while handcuffed, even though this is a violation of the law protecting minors, and spent five hours together with four Arab men in detention.
The next day, when the minors were brought to court, and the problematic conduct of the police continued as the minors waited in the courtroom for a long time, in violation of the law prohibiting public cuffing.
While waiting, the father of one of the boys came and asked the policeman why his son was handcuffed illegally.
The police officer who took care of the boys replied: “I do not owe you explanations, if you think that’s not right, there’s the internal affairs unit in Jerusalem – go to the unit and report me.”
During the hearing on extending the detention of the minor, Judge Erez Melamed ruled that the police did not comply with the provisions of the Youth Law, and the judge therefore decided to release the minor from detention.
“The investigating unit is expected to comply with the provisions of the law, including not allowing the minor to stay with other adults and not interrogating minors with handcuffs,” the judge ruled.
As mentioned above, an agreement has recently been reached between the police and the plaintiffs, and the parties have petitioned the court in order to accept the compromise agreement between them.
According to the agreement, his signature does not imply any admission of the correctness of one of the parties or of the allegations made in the letter of claim. The Plaintiffs also undertake not to sue the police or any other party connected with the event again in any matter connected with this case.
Chaim Bleicher, the lawyer who represented the youths: “This is once again a case of violation of the detainees’ rights and their degradation by cuffing in the public space, despite the fact that the father of one of the plaintiffs has turned to the police several times for their actions being illegal and receiving a disrespectful response.
“We hope that the compensation can make up somewhat for the injustice, but more than that, we expect the lessons to be learned and the rights of the detainees will be maintained even when it comes to detainees who fought for the Land of Israel”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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One Response
The compensation is worse than a joke. It is an insult and not just to these boys but to the entire Jewish people. The Jews in Israel must pay for the action of thugs. To say the police must pay means that public tax money will pay. The thugs will not pay anything and will not be disciplined in any way. Nevertheless it is progress that at least an Israeli court acknowledged that their actions were thuggery. Many police departments around the world have civilian review boards. Some are appointed and some are elected. We need a civilian review board in Israel.