Tel Aviv Special Patrol Unit Commander Yair Hanona and four other police officers will be questioned today (Wednesday) under warning at the offices of the Police Investigation Department in Tel Aviv.
Their summons for questioning followed videos published in the media from the recent demonstrations in Tel Aviv, in which police officers were documented using more than reasonable force against demonstrators, including an 18-year-old man.
Police officer punches protester after arresting him
Hanouna was summoned for questioning following a complaint he filed against 18-year-old Omer Gat for strangling him.
The PIU adamantly refuses to disclose how many complaints have been filed against police officers since the protests began. Regarding the five policemen, it was reported that they were summoned for questioning following one complaint filed last Monday by a demonstrator named Amitai Abodi, another complaint filed by a protester who had his nose broken and 18-year-old Omer Gat. The police said in response to the claims that last Monday, when the Knesset voted on the grounds of reasonableness, "the police dealt with dozens of protests without coordination, which developed into serious disturbances of the peace, including blocking roads, harming police officers, disrupting the fabric of life for long hours and causing damage."
Referring to Gat's claims, the statement said, "During the disturbances on Route 20, the officers noticed a young man trying to push plastic items thrown at the officers under the wheels of the spray tanker in order to disrupt its work. The police officers who noticed his actions arrested the suspect, but he began to resist and tried to obstruct the arrest, and in the process fell along with the policemen. During his transport to the police car, he shouted in the faces of the officers as saliva came out of his mouth and reached the face of the officer who tried to turn his face to the side in order to avoid the saliva."
The police emphasized that contrary to the young man's claims, "under no circumstances and at no stage was the suspect beaten with punches or at all," and that "any claim of conduct that deviates from the accepted standard should be examined by the documented authorities."
Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, photo: Oren Ben-Hakon
Attorney Ofer Bartal of the Bartal Cohen law firm said on Hanona's behalf that "the officer did not hit the detainee or threaten him. In contrast to the published still images, the arrest films prove this unequivocally. It's a shame that in the meantime he's being given a field trial on social media, some of which is led by lawyers who elevate the rule of law and the presumption of innocence by their throats, but not by their actions."
Meanwhile, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir referred to 18-year-old Amitai Aboudi, who complained to the PIU that he was attacked by police officers. In an interview with Arie Golan on Kan Reshet Bet's "This Morning" program, the minister said: "I saw in the videos that he was breaking the law and trying to harm the radar. I saw how he went wild and how he hurt and tried to hurt. He's not that naïve, that boy."
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