A Palestinian man who was detained by Israeli occupation forces in occupied Jerusalem has filed a complaint against the Israeli police, saying that they brutally beat him and branded the Star of David on his cheek.
The man’s lawyer, Wadim Shub, presented the charges to a Jerusalem district court on Thursday, a day after he was taken from his residence in the Shuafat refugee camp. Shub said that the incident was “a grave case of intentional violence and humiliation of a detainee by police” and demanded an immediate police investigation.
“As a law-abiding country, we must not put up with the phenomenon of police brutality. In this case, the nature of the injuries raises a strong suspicion that they were racially motivated,” Shub said in a statement.
According to theIsraeli Ynet news website, at least 16 Israeli officers were involved in the arrest of the Palestinian man, however, none had their body cameras on. The officers blindfolded the man and proceeded to beat him with their fists “in all parts of his body”. The man’s cheek was then branded with the Jewish Star of David symbol, it added.
The Israeli police department alleged that the man “resisted arrest, violently attacking and kicking police who responded with ‘reasonable force’ to subdue him”. The Palestinian man was detained for allegedly committing “drug trafficking offences”, the reports said.
The incident comes amid a surge of violence in the occupied Palestinian territories, where more than 200 Palestinians have been killed this year. The United Nations has warned that 2023 is on track to be the deadliest year for Palestinians since it started recording fatalities.
Palestinians and human rights groups have long accused Israeli occupation forces of killing Palestinians under questionable circumstances. They say Israel does a poor job of prosecuting and punishing its forces in cases of wrongdoing.
Last month, an Israeli court acquitted a border police officer who was charged with reckless manslaughter in the deadly shooting of Eyad al-Hallaq, an autistic Palestinian man. The court ruled that the officer was acting in self-defense when he shot the 32-year-old in occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City three years ago.
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