0A NIS 75,000 civil suit was filed against detectives in the Jerusalem District Police who allegedly dragged a Chareidi Avreich to the ground, tugged him by his beard and humiliated him.

The lawsuit filed by attorney Itamar Ben-Givir targets a group of policemen who entered the Meah Shearim neighborhood of Jerusalem, one of whom was disguised as a soldier. One of the neighborhood children approached the policeman disguised as a soldier and threw a plastic bag at him. A police officer dressed in civilian clothes charged at the child to arrest him.

At this point, the Avreich allegedly turned to the police and tried to inquire what the child had done. Despite not raising his hands, the policemen jumped on him, choked him, threw him on the pavement, and one of the policemen also beat him with his fist.

While the Avreich was lying on the floor, policeman Eliran Esbag approached him, leaned toward him, pulled his beard hard and then continued on his way as if nothing had happened. The police then led him along Meah Shearim Street without a yarmulke, despite the fact that he repeatedly asked him to allow him to pick his yarmulke up after it fell during the arrest.

According to the lawsuit, the abuse did not stop, and at the police station the avreich was forced to comply with a body search as police forced him to take off all his clothes. Only a few hours later and after the avreich was questioned on suspicion of assaulting the police, was he released.

Ben-Givir says the the incident was documented by a security camera and claims that “the photographs show that the avreich did nothing. He did not attack the policemen as they claimed to be the case, and it was precisely those same policemen who attacked him with great violence, an unprovoked attack.”

“The behavior of the policemen who jumped and arrested a civilian who wanted to know ‘what the fuss is about’ is very problematic and the officers’ behavior who pulled his beard just makes things worse. The pulling of the avreich’s beard is reminiscent of anti-Semitism in Europe, and I hope that the police will bring the policemen responsible to justice.”

The Betzedek organization, that has been following the case, released the following statement: “The organization will continue to monitor and document the illegal behavior of police towards the chareidi tzibur and will act with all the legal tools available to it, in order to locate violent policemen and abusers, to exact a price from them towards accepting responsibility and holding them accountable to the fullest extent the law provides.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)