Israel Matzav

Settlers: Policemen molested protesters

Last week I ran a story indicating that a mother of nine children had her shirt pulled off by police during the 'Amona' rioting. As this story indicates, there is more to it than that. The police have a record of brutality and have very few religious members, especially among the 'elite' squads that brutally repressed last week's protest. Unfortunately, this story is all too believeable. Even more unfortunately, the mamzer who is Prime Minister - along with his ministers of defense and internal security - is resisting any sort of real investigation.

Heads of the Yesha Council told Internal Security Minister Gideon Ezra during a meeting at his office Monday that settlers are willing to testify to what happened during the evacution of the Amona outpost , including testimonies of sexual abuse of female settlers by policemen, videos and photos.

According to the settler leaders, some of the young female settlers who took part in the clashes in Amona last week complained that policemen yelled at them "we will rape you" and touched their private parts.

In one of the cases, a girl said that a cop shouted at her, "whore, open your legs," and grabbed her by the feet in an attempt to remove her from where she was sitting. Another testimony tells of a police officer who urinated on the ground in front of women protesters, and when a female police officer asked him to stop he told her to "shut up."

One girl said that a policeman shoved her to a corner and started touching her private parts.

Notably, these allegations have yet to be investigated or verified [and the government is doing all that it can to make sure that they won't be. CiJ].

...

Minister Ezra told the settler leaders that the Police Investigation Unit already started examining complaints on individual policemen as a result of their conduct in the evacuation, and added that Police Chief Moshe Karadi ordered a routine internal inquiry following the operation. Ezra said he expects conclusions within 10 days.

The Yesha council heads described the meeting as "difficult" and said voices were raised during the conversation more than once. The leaders met with Ezra in a bid to persuade him to launch an inquiry into the Amona incidents, but Ezra was firm in his refusal to initiate such an investigation.

"This refusal stems from the political establishment's desire to conceal things. They have a lot to hide and they are afraid of a national investigation committee," a Yesha source said.

Apparently it's not just 'settlers' who are beaten by the police. Today they beat the wife of the Dominican Republic's ambassador to Israel. Maybe the police need to be put on ritalin....

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:55 PM