Israel Police's violence knows no bounds - comment

The majority of Israel’s citizens serve in the IDF. We head out, fresh-faced at 18, and go to the Bakum – the new-recruit Reception and Sorting Base near Tel Aviv – where we get in an ill-fitting uniform and a fluffy beret and go off to learn what the meaning of discipline is in basic training, advanced training, courses, and eventually, sadir — regular service.

While we all emerge from that experience changed, it is not always for the better. Many carry scars – visible and not – and some don’t make it out at all.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is an all-too-common, all-too-painful reminder of what many had experienced in the field, usually from those who served in combat units. With the acute trauma of October 7 pushing down like a weight on the country’s shoulders, far more than just combat soldiers have learned what the meaning of that horrible illness is.

If you saw someone on the train who had their leg blown off in combat in Gaza, would you not stand to give them a seat? If someone’s arm was in a sling on the light rail, would you not give them space on the bench beside you?

So why is it that Koby Levi, a veteran IDF soldier who has been plagued with PTSD since his service, got on a bus on Wednesday with his service dog – the equivalent of a crutch for a broken leg or a pump for asthma – and was promptly booted, beaten, and arrested?

Police officers reportedly used force against him, including a taser, and threatened to separate Levi from his dog when removing him from the bus.

“I told them about my PTSD, but they didn’t listen,” Levi told Walla. “They handcuffed me, injured me, and took me to the police station.” Levi described the police conduct as both humiliating and terrifying, adding that the officers even threatened his dog with a taser.

At the station, Levi spent five hours in detention, during which he said he was unable to care for his dog. “I was left barefoot, handcuffed, and humiliated,” Levi recounted. He was released without being interrogated, and officers reportedly cursed the commander who authorized his release.

Could you imagine police taking a cane from someone with fibromyalgia? This is the mental health equivalent, and while I would love to go on a tangent about the harsh rejection of the modern-day mental health revolution in Israel, I will not. Instead, I would like to turn to the police.

Off-leash

ITAMAR BEN-GVIR’S horrific tenure as national security minister has given the police a far looser leash, and the spike in police violence is reflective of that.

Just earlier this week, at a soccer game between Maccabi Haifa and Ironi Tiberias, a police officer was filmed throwing a fan to the ground and kicking him in the face.

Another incident happened this past September during an ultra-Orthodox demonstration in Beit Shemesh, during which police officers were filmed yelling to each other, “We got permission,” and proceeding to beat protesters who were lying on the ground. The police officers involved included two senior ones.

In one of the recordings, a policewoman is seen kicking a protester who was sitting on the floor, and other police officers are seen beating protesters with batons.

Israel Police officers from the Hadera station who were at protests in Caesarea were investigated in June due to reports of “the continuing violation of the right to protest and the right of those arrested.”

Police in the area allegedly, among other things, beat nonviolent protesters, make unlawful arrests, and do not provide those arrested with their most basic rights, such as access to the facilities.

Lest we forget the incident at the end of April in which police officer Shay Peretz was seen whipping a protester.

A study published in September by the Knesset Research and Information Center showed that 103 cases of police violence that were opened in 2023 had been handled by June 10, 2024. Almost all of them (97%) were related to demonstrations without a criminal investigation.

In addition, in 61 of them (59% of all cases whose handling was completed), a criminal investigation was conducted, and in the other 41%, the case was closed without a criminal investigation. 

Let’s forget about our basic human rights being violated time and time again for the moment and think about how this reflects on our country at a time when our reputation has never been more controversial and our critics more outspoken.

The Israel Police is actively adding fuel to the fire.

The writer is deputy editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post.