Honenu filed a urgent complaint with the Police Investigation Unit on behalf of a detained minor who complained that a policeman punched him at the police station after another policeman threatened him.

The sixteen-year old youth was detained for interrogation on the morning of Sunday, 8 Elul after he ascended Har Habayis. The policemen claimed that as the minor was leaving he walked backwards and bowed slightly towards the site of the Holy of Holies.

According to the complaint filed by Honenu Attorney Menasheh Yado, when the minor arrived at the Department of Holy Sites Police Station escorted by two policemen, one of them impatiently hurried him to sit on a bench and ordered him to, “Sit, sit, before I break your bones!” and the other policeman punched him in the stomach.

Then the minor was interrogated and released with an order distancing him from the Old City of Jerusalem for 15 days. Another minor detained the same morning after prostrating himself at the exit from Har Habayis was released and summoned to a deliberation on the police demand to order him distanced from the area.

In the complaint Honenu Attorney Menasheh Yado filed with the Police Investigation Unit, he wrote, “This is an incident of police brutality on a handcuffed minor who did not use any violence, neither at the police station, nor in general. I sincerely hope that your investigation and objective work will lead to a reduction in complaints about police brutality at the Department of Holy Sites Police Station.” Yado also mentioned that this was not an isolated incident of misconduct by Merchav David (Old City) District policemen in their treatment of Jews on Har Habayis.

Gedolei Yisrael over the generations and the Chief Rabbinate of Israel prohibit visiting Har Habayis

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)