Hebron man identified as Palestinian allegedly beaten by Breaking the Silence spokesman

Hadashot television news, formerly Channel 2, says it may have located the Palestinian man allegedly beaten by Breaking the Silence spokesman Dean Issacharoff when he served as an IDF soldier in Hebron in March 2014.

Issacharoff’s claim at a Breaking the Silence rally in April that he beat a Palestinian “in the face and chest until he was bleeding and dazed” during an arrest in the Palestinian city has stirred controversy, and launched a criminal investigation into the case. Last week, the prosecution announced it was closing the case because the alleged Palestinian victim, one Hassan Julani, denies that he was ever beaten.

But on Monday, Breaking the Silence said Julani was not the Palestinian involved in the 2014 incident, and published a photo and video of another Palestinian man.

According to Hadashot, that man was Faisal el-Natche, a Hebron resident, who was tracked down by Hadashot and interviewed for the network’s Tuesday night broadcast.

“There was rock throwing,” El-Natche recalls in the interview. “Soldiers came, they shouted, ‘Stop, stop.’ They hit me, with hands and legs. There were ten soldiers. They attacked me and those who were with me.”

Asked if Issacharoff was among the soldiers who beat him in the 2014 incident, however, El-Natche says he doesn’t know.

“I didn’t see who was hitting me. If I saw him [today], I wouldn’t recognize him.”

El-Natche was not questioned by police in recent weeks, he says, and so was apparently not part of the investigation into Issacharoff’s claims.