Ethiopian-Israeli soldier assaulted by cops suing police

An IDF soldier of Ethiopian descent whose videotaped beating by police officers in April sparked intense protests and high-level hand-wringing filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Israel Police “and its institutionalized racism and violence” at the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s court.

The soldier, Damas Pakada, is seeking NIS 390,000 ($100,000) in damages and compensation for legal fees, the Ynet news website reported.

A video clip showing Pakada being assaulted by the cops in the coastal city of Bat Yam triggered a wave of protests — some of which turned violent — by the Ethiopian Israeli community against police brutality and discrimination against Israelis of Ethiopian descent across all strata of society.

According to Pakada’s attorney Eyal Abulafia, the attack gives a “rare view of a persistent and immeasurably wrong code of conduct which recurs again and again in the Israel Police, which behaves violently toward civilians, then invents felonies it accuses them of having perpetrated and more.”

Abulafia stressed the assault was against a symbol of the state – a soldier in uniform – “yet this fact did not make [officers] hesitate even for a short time before the complainant was brutally attacked.”

The attack against Pakada “is an incidence of racism-motivated police violence among the most shocking seen in Israel and recent times, and which only by happenstance was captured by security cameras,” read the lawsuit.

Following the assault, Pakada met with Prime Minister Netanyahu and Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino, who apologized on behalf of the police for the attack against him and vowed to combat racism.

On May 13, Danino announced that the cop who attacked Pakada had been dismissed. “There was a thorough discussion of this matter, which included the legal counsel, the department of discipline, the attorney general and the head of human resources,” he said. “After listening to everyone, I decided to fire him from the police force.”