Hadera police chief indicted for assaulting anti-government protester last year

Prosecutors filed an indictment against Hadera police chief Amit Pollak and his wife earlier today, after he was filmed a year ago attacking a civilian ahead of an anti-government protest in Caesarea. He allegedly tried to conceal evidence in the case along with his wife following the incident.

According to the indictment filed by the Department of Internal Police Investigations (DIPI) in the Haifa Magistrate’s Court, Pollak assaulted an anti-government demonstrator ahead of a planned protest outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residence in April 2024.

Before the demonstration, a group of elderly Yom Kippur War veterans took a mock cardboard tank to Caesarea on the back of a truck.

They stopped for coffee at the home of the complainant, Shemi Attar, a member of the group who also planned to protest that day. The truck with the tank was parked in the driveway.

Pollak, along with several other officers, arrived at the complainant’s house, ordered the truck removed from the driveway, and proceeded to assault Attar by pushing and choking him. Pollak then ordered officers to arrest Attar. Pollak went on to assault another individual present at the scene, the indictment reads.

The station chief is charged with assault, as well as obstruction of justice, after allegedly attempting to conceal his phone from investigators. When Pollak was summoned for questioning by DIPI officials after the incident in Caesarea, he arrived without the device and falsely claimed it was broken, prosecutors say.

In March this year, after a Supreme Court decision ordering Pollak to hand over his phone to DIPI investigators, his wife took it, drove to the beach, and threw the phone into the sea. His wife, Shlomit Pollak, is also charged with obstructing justice.