Beatings, shouting and confiscation of phones: A group of young men went up to the Temple Mount on Tuesday and encountered unusual violence by police officers. Footage obtained by Israel Hayom shows one of the officers hitting a boy in the head and knocking a phone out of another's hand.
Unusual incident on the Temple Mount: Policeman beats youths and takes their cell phones \\ Photo: Courtesy of Bidinu
This joins a series of recent allegations against National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir about the treatment of immigrants to the Mount, which activists say has changed for the worse.
The group of young people consisted of about 20 members of the Migdal HaEmek yeshiva who came for the tour, but shortly after ascending to the Temple Mount, some of them decided to bow, which the police forbid to do on the grounds that it is a change in the status quo. Usually in such cases, the police remove the prostrates from the scene and sometimes lead them for interrogation, but this time the incident escalated quickly and reached shouting, pushing, beating some of the minors and even confiscating cameras and phones. According to activists from Bidinu for the Temple Mount, police officers even deleted videos on their phones.
"Delete videos"
Footage obtained by Israel Hayom from the police shows the youths bowing. But supplementary footage from the Go Pro camera of Bidinu for the Temple Mount shows the seconds after their phones were confiscated, which is unclear why it had to be done because the police do not hide the footage of the bowing at all. The video shows a policeman confronting the youths and one of them asking, "When will you give me my phone back?"
Police car (illustration). A hard hand on the part of the police?, Photo: Marco
The patrol continued, but when one of the young men became angry while filming that "a police officer confiscated phones and deleted videos," the same officer who he said kicked him attacked the young man and pushed the camera. The peak of the violence came minutes later. The footage shows the policeman, apparently angry by the youths' words, hitting one of them, as seen in the video – for no reason.
"The police beat us and pushed us to get us to go faster, and they beat anyone who tried to talk to them," says one of the young men. "I was walking fast and a police officer came from behind and pushed me for no reason and I fell to the floor."
At the end of the tour of the Temple Mount, the youths were taken to the police station. They say all their phones were taken, which the organization says is prohibited because it was done without seizure warrants. The youths claimed that the police deleted most of the videos taken during the incident and forced the boys to open their phones with threats. If this is indeed done, it is a deletion of evidence. In addition, the GoPro camera attached to Bidinu for the Temple Mount instructor Roy Zaga, who was only present at the scene and was not part of the group of youths, was taken away by the policeman who was filmed beating, without a seizure warrant. According to the organization, the device is used by an NGO or institution, which prevents police officers from confiscating it without a court order.
Police camera footage: Young men prostrate themselves on the Temple Mount and are arrested \\ Photo: Police Spokesperson's Office
The boys say that even at the police station, the threats against them did not stop when they even threatened to detain them for 24 hours. They were eventually released without interrogation. "They threatened a child that they would leave him there for 24 hours and Ali threatened a police officer that 'my head would be somewhere else.' I asked him why, and he said it was because I had talked to someone. After I told him I hadn't spoken, he said it was because I was looking at him."
"Do whatever they want"
The organization in our hands was horrified by the unusual pictures. The organization's legal team, they told Israel Hayom, is already working on the issue with the other partners in order to bring the law to justice and formulate materials for a claim for compensation for the case, which they described as shocking, on the Temple Mount.
"This is a very serious case of severe violence, destruction of evidence, coordination of versions, and other extremely serious criminal acts against children committed by police officers who are supposed to represent the law in the State of Israel," says Tom Nissani, executive director of Bidinu for the Temple Mount. "Anyone who goes up to the Temple Mount knows that the police officers on the Mount do whatever they want. That's how it is when the minister in charge and the prime minister allow lawlessness on the Mount and every Dalit is a man. We will invest all our energy in bringing the offenders to justice in the courts, together with Honenu."
The Israel Police said in response: "As part of the regular visits to the Temple Mount area, the police operate in accordance with the visiting rules that have been in place for many years, which are intended to maintain public order, public safety and security.
"As can be seen in the attached documentation, during the visits in question to the Temple Mount, a number of visitors together deliberately violated the rules of visiting the site and did not obey the policemen's instructions. As a result of their misconduct and provocation on the spot, their visit was immediately stopped, they were detained, warned and eventually released. Digital devices that recorded the deeds at the scene were seized as evidence, and they were later returned to their owners. We will continue to act at the holy sites and on the Temple Mount to maintain security and order in accordance with the rules for visiting the holy sites and the Temple Mount."
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