Police woman touched haredi men to force them confess, police fined

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men refrain from touching women or spending time with them in closed spaces, information the female cop used to make them identify themselves.

By MAARIV ONLINE
Police officers directing Muslims to Friday prayers (photo credit: POLICE SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)
Police officers directing Muslims to Friday prayers
(photo credit: POLICE SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)
Israel Police will pay NIS 50,000 as compensation and begin an internal investigation against a female police officer who transgressed the boundaries of haredi detainees in 2017, Maariv reported on Tuesday.
The officer was on duty in 2017 when a massive protest led to the arrest of dozens of haredi youth who, when asked to do so by police, refused to give their names.
The officer informed them that unless they offer their names she will touch them, she then took one of them to an integration room and said that unless he tells her who he is she will close the door.
Ultra-Orthodox men avoid touching women and spending time with them in close spaces as, in that culture, that is the way modesty is defined.
The young man begged her not to do so and explained the concept of Yehud, meaning that, if she does so others might think they are intimate which is a violation of the cultural norms of his Jewish faith, yet she closed the door anyway. The young man handed his name at that point.
Another man was also taken to the room where the police officer allegedly giggled and touched his shoulder to make him uncomfortable.
Police agreed to pay the compensation fee to avoid the case going to court. The case was handled by the leader of Otzma Yehudit Itamar Ben Gvir, who is also a lawyer.
“It is not possible Israeli police officers will think they are above the law and act as if they are criminals,” he said, “Yeshiva students must know they are protected and their beliefs can not be violated.”