Police chief chides cops for show of force as commander was investigated for violence

Yasam riot police officers show their support for their commander Yair Hanuna and colleagues, arriving for investigation at the Police Internal Investigations Department offices in Tel Aviv on August 2, 2023. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
Yasam riot police officers show their support for their commander Yair Hanuna and colleagues, arriving for investigation at the Police Internal Investigations Department offices in Tel Aviv on August 2, 2023. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai reprimands officers who demonstrated outside the Justice Ministry’s Police Internal Investigations Department (PIID) yesterday as their commander was being questioned over allegations they used excessive force against protesters opposed to the government’s judicial overhaul.

Shabtai sends a message to police commanders to clarify norms of behavior for officers.

“Support for comrades is important and indicates the spirit of the force, but it must be done without harming symbols of government,” Shabtai says in his message, according to the Ynet news site. “I will not agree to this.”

The message comes after the chief of the Tel Aviv police’s Yasam special patrol unit, Yair Hanuna, and four other officers were questioned by the PIID.

Dozens of Hanuna’s fellow uniformed officers from the unit gathered outside, obstructing the flow of traffic on the Tel Aviv street, and cheered as he arrived.

Some of them shouted: “We love you!”

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