Judge tosses conviction of cop who threw stun grenade at protesters

Meir Suissa convicted of reckless and negligent behavior over violence towards anti-gov’t protesters, then successfully appeals ruling, paving way for his potential promotion

By Charlie Summers

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and ToI Staff 22 January 2026, 8:05 pm

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A Tel Aviv judge threw out the conviction of police Supt. Meir Suissa on Thursday, shortly after he was found guilty of throwing a stun grenade at anti-government protesters in 2023.

As permitted under a plea deal Suissa struck with prosecutors, the officer confessed to having thrown a stun grenade into the crowd, was found guilty of reckless and negligent behavior, then swiftly appealed his conviction.

Yaron Gat, the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court judge presiding over Suissa’s case, said in his decision accepting the appeal that he believed the officer had “proven his innocence,” Ynet reported.

The favorable ruling for Suissa paved the way for him to be promoted in rank, which National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has been seeking since the policeman was indicted over two years ago.

Still, Suissa had to pay a total of NIS 12,000 ($3,825) in damages to two women he injured. The two complainants were to receive NIS 10,000 ($3,188) and NIS 2,000 ($638) respectively.

Gat stressed in his ruling that the overturned conviction does not “minimize the severity of the harm to the victims of the offense” and wished them “complete physical and mental recovery.”

The ruling brought an end to a nearly three-year process that began at a March 2023 anti-government protest in Tel Aviv, during which cops hurled stun grenades straight into crowds of people, injuring protesters.

Suissa, the police commander at the demonstration, and four other officers were probed and, in July 2024, indicted by the Department of Internal Police Investigations (DIPI) for their violent treatment of protesters.

While Suissa was convicted of a criminal offense, the other four cases were later transferred to the police’s internal disciplinary department.

Ben Gvir tried to promote Suissa after the stun grenade incident, a move that was struck down by the Jerusalem District Court. The blocked promotion has factored into the far-right minister’s feuds with the attorney general and police brass.

Illustration: Mounted Israeli police officers try to disperse anti-government protesters on the Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv on July 5, 2023. (OREN ZIV / AFP)

The charges against Suissa stemmed from his and other officers’ tactics at the 2023 demonstration, which marked the first time that police had used stun grenades against anti-government protesters. Ben Gvir has consistently advocated a more aggressive police response to protesters.

As a result of the police’s actions, a total of 11 protesters required medical treatment. Two of these protesters — including one who was wounded after Suissa’s stun grenade hit her in the face — were hospitalized with serious injuries.

Noa Ron-Geffen, who was injured by a stun grenade during an anti-government protest on March 1, 2023, appears on Israel’s public broadcaster in a segment that aired January 26, 2025. (Screenshot from Israel Public Broadcasting Corporation)

Another was badly hurt after taking a stun grenade to his shoulder.

Suissa was among five officers indicted in connection to the incident by the Department of Internal Police Investigations (DIPI).

As part of the plea deal, Suissa confessed to throwing one stun grenade, and other charges against him were dropped. The conviction was announced earlier on Thursday before it was tossed.

Following the announcement of the conviction, Ben Gvir slammed it on X as “fundamentally wrong” and disconnected from the complicated reality in which Israel Police officers operate.”

“This is a grave mistake,” Ben Gvir added. “The blow against Suissa is a blow to anyone on the front lines of safeguarding public order.”

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir leads a faction meeting of his Otzma Yehudit party at the Knesset in Jerusalem on December 12, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

A month after the indictment, Ben Gvir had promoted Suissa to the rank of chief superintendent. The promotion would have put the officer in charge of the South Tel Aviv police station.

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara called the promotion — made without the police chief’s recommendation — illegal. The Jerusalem District Court froze Suissa’s promotion in September 2024, which Ben Gvir then appealed. The promotion was thrown out in June 2025.

Baharav-Miara has accused Ben Gvir of violating an agreement they reached last year that limits his involvement in policing protests and in promotions within the force. She has called for him to be fired, a demand Prime Minister Netanyahu has rebuffed.

In addition to the attorney general, Assistant Commissioner Elazar Kahana, then the top legal adviser to the Israel Police, opposed the bid to promote Suissa. Later in 2024, Police Commissioner Danny Levy sought to dismiss Kahana as legal adviser and put him in charge of the police’s prosecution division, considered a less powerful role.

However, Levy stopped short after Baharav-Miara wrote him a letter freezing that move, which she likewise claimed was illegal. Kahana announced late last month that he would retire in February.