Border police abuse what appears to be a mentally disabled Palestinian man, in a
video that was presented as evidence on Thursday in an trial against four
officers.
In the video, which was shot in 2009 next to the al- Jib
checkpoint north of Jerusalem, the officers yell at the Palestinian man,
“Where’s your identity card?” and shout at him that the police dog next to him
will bite him if he doesn’t answer.
The man, who was detained for not
having an ID card on him, was sitting in the back of a Border Police jeep during
the incident.
Throughout the video he sobs loudly as he pleads that he
doesn’t have his card or know his ID number.
The officers throw water at
the man several times, yell at him, “Don’t cry like a whore!” and throw a
plastic water bottle at him that hits his face.
The video was filmed by
one of the officers on his cellphone and a few months after it was shot made its
way to the Justice Ministry’s Police Investigation Department, which opened the
case.
One of the officers’ lawyers, Moshe Oren, said on Thursday that the
incident did not constitute humiliation. “It is true that things were done that
legally shouldn’t be done, but that don’t count as abuse,” he said.
The
Border Police said that the video and the images it shows “do not represent the
spirit of the organization and the values its stands for.”