5 police officers charged with negligence for throwing stun grenades at protesters
Minister Ben Gvir attacks decision; at the same time, investigations are closed into several cases of alleged police brutality toward demonstrators last year
The Justice Ministry’s Department of Internal Police Investigations (DIPI) indicted five police officers on Thursday for throwing stun grenades at demonstrators during a protest against the government’s judicial overhaul last year.
At the same time, DIPI announced it had closed its investigation into Chief Superintendent Yair Hanuna and other police officers from the Tel Aviv Police District over their actions during anti-government protests last year.
The indictment accused Meir Suissa, Raviv Birenbaum, Naor Nani Toledano, Matanel Hemo and Yehonatan Yemini of “negligence” that endangered civilians who did not pose a threat to police officers at that time of the demonstration on March 1, 2023.
“The great density of demonstrators, which included children and elderly people, and their constant movement, prevented the possibility of reasonably estimating where the grenades would land, in violation of police guidelines,” the indictment read, adding that the police officers had not first tried alternative lower-risk methods to disperse the crowd.
The indictment mentioned two women who were injured by the first grenade thrown by Suissa. One of the women, A.A., sustained multiple injuries to the face that left her with scars and PTSD. and the other, B.B., sought medical attention for persisting tinnitus.
Following the incident, a man identified as Dan Peled sustained an injury to his back while another, Shahar Mor, had his ear nearly severed and had to have it reattached.
A Channel 13 reporter, Roni Shchuchensky, was also wounded by one of the grenades.
Suissa’s lawyers, Moshe Alon and Diana Shomsky, told Channel 13 on Thursday that DIPI had “once again given in to pressure from people with agendas and decided to submit a baseless indictment.”
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who oversees the police and who repeatedly called for a more aggressive police response to protests last year, also criticized the indictment, saying that the decision was “contaminated by political motives and pressure.”
“DIPI, under instructions from the attorney general and state attorney, continues to employ selective enforcement and protects law-breakers and road-blockers on one side of the political spectrum while trying to deter police officers from enforcing the law,” he said.
A total of 11 civilians sought medical attention following the protest in which the grenades were thrown, although it is unclear whether they were all wounded by the stun grenades.
Despite the controversy surrounding his conduct, Suissa was chosen in April last year to be awarded the Independence Day award for outstanding police work. This last May he was promoted and appointed commander of the South Tel Aviv Police Station, a position he has not yet begun to fill.
In the cases it shuttered, DIPI said policemen did not act wrongfully.
In one case, in which protester Amitai Aboudi said he’d been punched and threatened by cops, DIPI said videos shown by the media of the incident had been selectively edited “to distort the incident” and that the complainant had “violated the public order” by kicking an object toward a water cannon and resisting arrest in a way “that justified the use of force by the police officers.”
לכבוד תשעה באב, משטרת ישראל גוררת שוב את הנער אמיתי עבודי לחקירה.
כן, אתם קוראים נכון, אחרי ששוטרים פוצצו אותו במכות וגררו בשערות למעצר (שימו לב לחיוך של השוטר האלים), הם מנסים עכשיו לתפור לו תיק.
מי שיכול בואו לתחנת סלמה 18 תל אביב.@EstyS pic.twitter.com/dFwAgYvV4s— yayafink (יאיא פינק) (@yayafink) July 27, 2023
In another incident, DIPI stated that the complainant, Omer Gat, refused repeated requests by police to leave the site, including by Hanuna, and was “arrested lawfully with the use of reasonable force,” which did not injure Gat in any way.
In the third incident, DIPI found that an arrest had been lawful after the complainant, Uri Bichonski, tried to set an object on fire on the Ayalon Highway and then fled from police to avoid being arrested.
