Israel's Police Internal Investigations Department said Wednesday evening it had begun reviewing footage from ultra-Orthodox protests in Bnei Brak, including videos showing police striking demonstrators. One clip circulating on social media appears to show an officer kicking an ultra-Orthodox protester. The officer has been suspended from duty until the inquiry is completed.
Police Commissioner Danny Levi addressed the incident, saying, “Commanders and officers acted not according to procedure, we will not hesitate to deal with this severely and suspend from operational activity.”
The protests involved thousands of ultra-Orthodox men from the radical Hatzpnikim faction, part of the Jerusalem Faction, who blocked the entrance to Military Prison 10 in protest against the detention of draft evaders arrested by the Military Police. Israel Defense Forces forces were dispatched to the scene. Earlier, ultra-Orthodox protesters blocked Route 4 near Bnei Brak, where five demonstrators were arrested during clashes with police.
Shalom Ariel, an ultra-Orthodox participant in the Route 4 protest, told Kan News radio’s Kalman Liberman that “there is brutal violence here, something never seen before, something crazy, stun grenades, batons, wounded people and detainees.” He said the protests would continue until “the outrage over the absurd arrogance of the State of Israel coming to arrest yeshiva students to create forced enlistment in the ‘army of destruction’ reaches every home in Israel.” Ariel added that for the ultra-Orthodox public, going to the army is “absolutely forbidden,” calling it religious conversion and saying they would never do it.
