Border Police officer filmed shoving Palestinian out of wheelchair
Bystander films incident, which occurred after Palestinian girl tried to stab troops Sunday; police to investigate the case
Judah Ari Gross is The Times of Israel's religions and Diaspora affairs correspondent.
A Border Police officer was filmed pushing a Palestinian man out of his wheelchair Sunday, as Israeli security forces in Hebron attempted to clear away a crowd after an attempted stabbing attack by a Palestinian teenager.
A bystander captured the incident on video, which was later posted on the Palestinian Shehab News Agency’s Facebook page.
In the video, the officer appears to tip the Palestinian man out of his wheelchair, and his head smashes onto the pavement. A group of people rush over to help. Border Police allow three to approach, and tell the rest to back away.
One officer is seen kicking away one of the bystanders, while aiming his gun at them. Another officer throws a stun grenade at the crowd and shouts at them to disperse.
In response to the video clip, the Justice Ministry’s Police Investigations Unit began looking into the incident, a police spokesperson said.
The group of Palestinians were apparently trying to get closer to the scene of an attempted attack in the city, in which a teenage girl took out a knife at a checkpoint near the Tomb of the Patriarchs and tried to stab a Border Police officer.
The officer pushed the attacker away and shot her, seriously wounding her.
Palestinian residents of Hebron began violently demonstrating shortly after the attempted attack and were pushed back using riot dispersal tactics, police said.