Border Police said to reinstate 2 officers filmed beating Palestinian journalist

Two Border Police officers who were temporarily suspended earlier this month after they were filmed beating a Palestinian photojournalist in East Jerusalem have reportedly been reinstated to the force.

The two resumed their duties Sunday, over a week after they were removed from their positions pending a probe into the incident by the Department of Internal Police Investigations, Ynet reported.

According to the report, the police investigation is ongoing.

On December 15, the pair was filmed beating photojournalist Mustafa Haruf in East Jerusalem. Haruf, who works for the Turkish news agency Andolu, said he was attacked without cause after leaving a prayer protest broken up by Israeli security forces in the Wadi Joz neighborhood, and had to be hospitalized with head injuries.

In the footage, which circulated widely online, a border cop could be seen approaching Haruf and striking him with the barrel of his weapon. Haruf is then flung to the floor by an officer and repeatedly kicked in the head and the body as he lies on the ground screaming.

The incident sparked outrage, with Washington saying it was “deeply concerned by the disturbing images of the use of force against a journalist that was depicted in those videos.”

An early police statement said journalists from foreign outlets had sought to interfere with their operations in the area and refused orders to vacate the premises.

The Border Police later said it suspended the two officers involved in the incident. The two were questioned as part of the probe by the Department of Internal Police Investigations and conditionally released. A third Border Police officer was also questioned on the matter, the force said later.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who oversees the police, issued a statement following the incident expressing his support for the officers and calling for them to be allowed to return to their duties as soon as possible. In the statement, the journalist was accused of being a “Hamas supporter.”

Ben Gvir, a far-right firebrand, said he had instructed the Border Police to reinstate the two officers following the nine days of suspension set by the Department of Internal Police Investigations.

The Union of Journalists in Israel condemned the incident and said it was “shocked by the violent attack” on Haruf.

The union said the incident was “the 37th attack on Arab journalists since the beginning of the war” on October 7, when Hamas-led terrorists launched their murderous assault on southern Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking some 240 hostages of all ages.

The union, in a December 15 statement, said “most of the attacks [were] carried out by the security forces. This is a reality that dramatically harms freedom of the press and the ability of journalists to perform their duties.”