Police beating demonstrators with batons, throwing grenades, electrifying a "taser", and even "only" spraying jets of water vigorously - sooner or later will hurt you too • Opinion
Detention of a boy in Bnei Brak, last week
A few days ago we watched Russian protesters throw snowballs at police in protest of the arrest of the brave opposition leader Alexei Navalny, and we read in a newspaper that Russian police have arrested thousands of protesters.
Many probably thought that this was characteristic of totalitarian regimes and not possible in a democratic regime.
Really?
In recent evenings, those who refuse to believe the pictures have been rubbed again: Hundreds of policemen raided Bnei Brak in the middle of the night, hurled stun grenades everywhere and beat with batons, mercilessly, civilians who, according to the pictures, were actually trying to escape.
The image of the policeman beating one ultra-Orthodox citizen passing by one after the other is a nightmare image.
It is true that a few hours earlier, some ultra-Orthodox thugs (there are some) attacked a car in which disguised policemen were sitting.
A smart police officer, who understands their role, would sophisticately detect them and allow them to be prosecuted.
According to media reports, they turned themselves in later anyway.
Severe clashes between police and residents of Bnei Brak, earlier this week
The police responded brutally with their own counter-violence.
I am afraid that Minister Litzman's description is correct: he objected to the violence against the police at the beginning of the evening and referred to the nightly response of the police as "a wild and aggressive campaign of revenge by incited police officers, while collectively punishing ... city residents."
After all, we have all seen the pictures, which speak for themselves.
Police violence against certain groups is not a novelty: in the distant past, the events of Wadi Salib (1959) and the suppression of the Black Panthers protest in the 1970s are well known.
In the late 20th century, protest repression was known to demand an investigation into the disappearance of Yemeni immigrant children - Jewish events (1994) and the shooting of Arab civilians in October 2000. In recent years, protest repression against the disengagement plan from Gaza (2005) and police violence against Ethiopian immigrants Against Druze, against Arabs, against ultra-Orthodox and against demonstrators near Balfour Street.
Bnei Brak: The policeman was pushed onto the bus - and shot in the air // Photo: Haredim protests - General
What do all these violent incidents have in common?
First, of course, the unjustified and disproportionate police violence.
We are told that when we united as a society within the framework of the Social Charter, we relinquished our right to use physical force and handed over to the state the monopoly on the exercise of force.
But the police must not abuse their power to use force and they must not engage in battle.
It is possible that the root of the evil is actually the definition of police units (spatial patrol unit) and the cultivation of a military ethos of striving for contact and victory. It must be remembered that the citizen has the right to resist arbitrary aggression, and is expressed in his right to self-defense. Kosher and legal on garlic is performed by the authority.
On the contrary, an assault on a civilian by a police officer is several times more serious than an assault on another person.
"No person must, in a state of law, be beaten just because the beating is a police officer," wrote the late Judge Sussman.
What else do all the above demonstrations of police violence have in common? They were all directed at minority groups in the population. I am afraid that this is the main reason why Israeli society has not yet enacted laws that will minimize police violence. Here is the common mistake of many: "It will not happen to me." Protesters belonging to certain groups, such as members of the Eastern community who have demonstrated against inequality, oppose disengagement from Gaza, Druze, Arabs, Ethiopian immigrants, government opponents and ultra-Orthodox, throw stun grenades at them, electrify them with a "teaser" Great - is a scary police force, which sooner or later will hurt you or your children as well.
