After a settler protester allegedly had his beard pulled and torn out by a police officer on Saturday, the right-wing organization Honenu said that it had filed on the man’s behalf a NIS 30,000 lawsuit at the Jerusalem Magistrate Court on Wednesday.
The Honenu attorney Eladi Wiesel also demanded that Police Chief Kobi Shabtai immediately fire the officer for excessive violence.
The Ateret resident had been protesting the temporary closure of the settlement in the wake of settler riots against Palestinians, when Honenu said that officers used inappropriate levels of force.
The protester had reportedly sat down along the entrance road with other demonstrators. Wiesel said that his client did not act violently prior to the incident. The officer allegedly approached the resident and pulled him by his beard. The officer was said to have pulled so hard that a handful of the beard was torn from the man’s face.
A fire is seen raging in a field during clashes between Palestinians and Israeli Jewish settlers in the West Bank, on June 22, 2023. (credit: FLASH90)A blurry video of the incident was circulated on social media
“It is unnecessary to mention the great pain and suffering caused to a man who is pulled by his hair, and even more so by the hairs of his beard,” said Wiesel. “It is unnecessary to mention the humiliation felt by a religious man by pulling the hairs of his beard, which is of religious value to him; the tearing of a Jew’s beard from his face is a shocking sight that reminds us of dark periods in the past of the Jewish people.”
Honenu said that the man had been protesting against a security response that punished the people of Ateret while failing to deal with the security threats that they faced. Ateret is near Arab villages where homes, fields, and cars were torched in a riot by Jewish Israelis. The IDF suspected the attack was in retaliation for a deadly terrorist shooting near Eli that claimed the lives of four Israelis and injured four more.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir attacked the “collective punishment” of Ateret on Sunday, demanding answers from the police for their use of curfews and violence against protesters. IDF Col. Eliav Elbaz was subject to attacks on his character by the political right for the decision to implement a closure of the town. Honenu on Wednesday said that his orders were unprecedented.
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