The Israeli police have refused to bring Palestinian workers who have been arrested while working without permission in Israel to court, in order to hide police brutality against them, the Israeli Haaretz newspaper reported on Thursday.
Haaretz said that a large police force attacked a group of Palestinian workers in the Modiin settlement near the occupied city of Jerusalem, causing fractures and severe physical harm.
To justify broken bones, officers claim Palestinians tried to flee https://t.co/FFLFzNeibj
— Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) January 21, 2021
According to the paper, the police attacked the workers in a construction site after receiving a false tip claiming that they planned to carry out an attack in the illegal settlement, noting that two workers suffered various fractures on the body and face and a dislocated shoulder.
The judge at the Magistrate’s Court in Petah Tikva demanded the Israeli police clarify how they dealt with the detainees, and to explain why they decided not to bring three of them to the court.
The police claimed three workers entered quarantine due to suspicion of being infected with coronavirus, however they did not present health reports supporting their allegations.
Thousands of Palestinian workers in Israel have no protected rights. When corona first began to spread, Israel told these workers to make a choice: Stay in Israel (sleep in your workplace) or go home to the West Bank and lose your work permit and job. https://t.co/ud7qX2PElW
— IMEU (@theIMEU) July 14, 2020
However, according to Haaretz, “the three men denied they had any symptoms. The court criticized the Prison Service for not allowing them to attend the hearing and demanded to see medical documentation that would support the doctor’s opinion.”
One of the detained Palestinian workers told the court that the Israeli special forces arrived at the construction site and assaulted him and his colleagues breaking his arm and nose, although none of them resisted detention or attempted to escape.
(MEMO, PC, Social Media)
