Days of Palestine – Ramallah
Data published by the Hebrew Channel 12 showed that the investigation department of the occupation police closed 75% of the files filed against them during the past year, while the Human Rights Center denied this percentage and said it reached 97%.
The Mezan Foundation for Human Rights in the occupied Palestinian Lands indicated that, according to the data published by the channel, 3 files out of 4 cases of violence by the occupation police against Palestinians in the occupied lands in 1948 that were opened last year were closed.
The Organization said that out of 1,238 complaints filed at the Investigations Department (Mahash) in 2021 against the occupation police involved in violent practices against citizens, 940 cases have been closed so far.
The director of Mizan Foundation for Human Rights, Lawyer Omar Khamaisi, commented on the data by saying: “The occupation police deal with excessive violence outside the circle of law when they play the role of maintaining order in protest demonstrations or expressing an opinion, or even when they apply search or arrest warrants issued by the court.”
He added that the occupation police deal in an undisciplined manner, and this is what the police are used to, especially in their dealings with the Palestinian community at home.
He stressed that the results of the data published in the channel “are not surprising to us at all, and this is what we have always emphasized.”
He added, “What is worrying here is that the rate of closing files against the occupation police, who are involved in violent practices against Palestinian citizens, has reached 97%.”
He stressed the necessity of submitting these complaints to the Investigation Department, even if we know in advance that the fate of these files will be closed, but we must stand on the fact that Mahash deals with dimensions of racial discrimination when dealing with such issues, especially if the victim is from the Palestinian community.
“These data were published at a time when the security of the occupation police and (Mahash) was to remain in secret and not be revealed to anyone,” he stated.
He stressed the necessity of exposing these policies, perhaps going to the courts to embarrass those parties.
However, Khamaisi noted that from the many previous experiences of us as human rights organizations and lawyers who follow up on such files and cases, the Mahash department demands us to provide it with information and evidence, and this apparatus is supposed to ask the occupation police to provide it with information and evidence because it is the one who has the authority.
He also said that we know very well that the (Mahash) apparatus does not have the will to investigate and reach the truth, except that we find the method of procrastination, rude treatment and lack of seriousness, which reaches the point of mockery and ridicule by the department’s investigators in their dealings with such files and cases.
It is noteworthy that the Occupation Prosecution submitted more than 250 indictments during the past year against Palestinians from the towns of the interior, against the background of their participation in the demonstrations and events that erupted in support of Al-Aqsa and the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and Gaza, in addition to the arrest of thousands of Palestinians, including dozens of minors, on the same background.
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