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Tuesday, December 17, 2024
Police, IDF reps don’t show up for Knesset hearing on far-right attacks on detention facilities
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Representatives of the Israel Police and IDF fail to show up to a hearing on the far-right mob attacks on the Sde Teiman and Beit Lid military bases, which took place over the summer, at the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee.
The hearing is being held two days after the Haaretz daily reported that around 20 people who participated in the incidents have been identified by police but have not yet been questioned due to senior police officers’ opposition to the investigation.
On July 29, an ultranationalist mob broke into the two military bases to interrupt legal proceedings against reservist soldiers suspected of abusing Palestinian terrorist detainees.
Among those who entered the base without authorization were MK Nissim Vaturi of the ruling Likud party, MK Zvi Sukkot of the Religious Zionism party, and National Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu of Otzma Yehudit.
The three have also yet to be questioned, Haaretz reports, even though police have been granted permission to do so.
“There is a close connection between the Israel Police’s failure to appear for this hearing and the subject of the hearing — the Israel Police’s disregard for the highly serious events that occurred at Sde Teiman and Beit Lid,” Labor MK Gilad Kariv declares.
“The Israel Police chose, apparently on the instructions of [National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s] office, not to attend this parliamentary oversight hearing.”
According to Haaretz, representatives of the police and National Security Ministry only informed the committee late on Sunday evening that they would not be attending, while the IDF’s failure to show up stemmed from miscommunication.
The mob attack on the bases were “the most marginal event of all the dangers and threats,” asserts committee chairman Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionism).
“I think the leak of the video, we should all agree, caused much, much greater damage to the State of Israel and it is not being investigated.”
Coalition lawmakers have condemned the leak of footage broadcast by Channel 12 in August which purported to show IDF servicemen sexually abusing a Palestinian security prisoner at the Sde Teiman detention facility.
The Times of Israel Community.