Druze ex-soldier claims police assault after mistaken for terrorist

A shopping expedition to buy kitchen knives turned into a nightmare for a young Israeli Druze after police beat and arrested him on suspicion of being a terrorist, Channel 2 News reported Thursday.

The young man, a resident of the Galilee town of Sajur and former IDF soldier, had gone into a store in the city of Safed to buy the knives. A woman there suspected he might be a terrorist and called the police.

The unnamed man told Channel 2 that when confronted by police, he explained that he had completed full military service in the Israeli army, as had the relative sitting next to him in his car.

“The police arrested me and attacked me with drawn weapons without any reason. I didn’t understand what was happening,” he said.

He said he had presented his Israeli ID and behaved in an appropriate manner. “Despite that, they hit me after arresting me,” he said.

He said he was only released from the police station when his brother, a career soldier in the IDF, arrived.

“What had I done? They could have checked my ID… and ended it without weapons, without causing panic all around, and without people yelling that I’m a terrorist,” he said.

He said that he and his family would complain to the Police Investigations Department.

Israel Police said the two had “actively refused” to have their bodies or their car checked, and that the police had had to use “reasonable force” to carry out a search “given the heavy suspicion.”

A police statement said it was only en route to the station that one of the suspects said he was Druze.

“At that moment, the level of suspicion went down, the two were released at the police station, and the complexity and development of the incident was explained to the soldier brother of one those involved.”