Video shows cop cuffing Arab bus driver on the ground for allegedly entering crowded intersection

By Noam Lehmann Today, 12:56 am

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Footage shows a police officer sitting on top of an Arab bus driver on a Jerusalem sidewalk and handcuffing him, after the driver allegedly drove into a crowded intersection and refused to show identification.

The driver can be heard pleading with the officer to stop, and in separate footage says to the officer, “I’m sick.” The officer responds: “I’m also sick.”

Passengers tell the officer that the driver didn’t do anything and say the officer is behaving inappropriately, but the officer ignores them as he looks up the driver on a police computer.

After the footage is shared widely, police say in a statement that the officer detained the driver on Wednesday after he “entered an intersection that wasn’t clear” and then “again and again refused the officer’s demands to identify himself” and show a driver’s license.

The driver was released after he was identified and his violation registered, police say.

Veteran Arab MK Ahmad Tibi, no. 2 on the Joint List slate in Tuesday’s Knesset election, shares the footage on X, and says: “It’s not just street thugs who beat up Arab bus drivers — it’s also police.”