Andreas Ias, the pro-Palestinian Danish protester who was filmed being slammed in the face with an M-16 rifle by an IDF officer on Sunday, challenged the officer to produce documentation of alleged violence by the activists.
"I'd like to see the documentation," Ias said in a Monday interview with Channel 10, adding that other soldiers had filmed the entire event.
According to Channel 2, the initial IDF investigation of the incident stated that activists had behaved violently toward soldiers.
IDF Spokesman Brig.- Gen. Yoav Mordechai said Monday that the video did not show the entirety of the confrontation with the protesters, who were participating in a bike ride through the West Bank intended to draw attention to limited Palestinian freedom of movement.
Mordechai condemned the attack, adding that it did not represent the values of the Israeli army.
Ias said he was not engaging with Eisner in any way when he was hit in the face with the M-16 rifle. "As I remember I was looking slightly to the other direction, so I was rather surprised," he said. "I think anyone would be surprised if they were beaten during a bike ride."
More surprising than that, he said, was the outcry over the incident. "It's surprising to me that there's this big reaction," Ias said, saying that in his time in the West Bank, he saw similar things happen "all the time."