State Attorney’s Office probing video of riot officer beating ultra-Orthodox men

Department for Internal Police Investigations says it has received a number of clips for review from clashes last week in Jerusalem during which 13 officers were hurt

The Department for Internal Police Investigations, the body responsible for conducting criminal probes into police officers, has begun looking into an incident in which a member of the Yasam riot police unit was filmed beating ultra-Orthodox men last week, a spokesperson told The Times of Israel on Saturday.

The footage filmed on Thursday appeared to show an armored police officer repeatedly striking a group of young men with a baton, driving them up a set of stairs and into a building during a riot in Jerusalem.

“There were a number of videos submitted for review by DIPI,” the spokesperson said, confirming an earlier report by i24 News regarding the investigation.

The DIPI operates under the State Attorney’s Office, which itself is an independent agency operating under the Justice Ministry.

Hundreds of members of the ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, community clashed with police on Thursday, injuring 13 officers and overturning a cruiser. The commotion broke out after a municipal inspector who had been issuing parking tickets in the capital came under attack from two young Haredi men, police said.

The pair kicked him and made threats on his life, promising to “slaughter” him if he returned to the area. Police officers called to aid the inspector in distress arrested one of the assailants, angering locals. Hundreds then gathered around the officers in an attempt to free the detainee, and events quickly mushroomed into rioting.

According to Hebrew outlets, officers realized that the assailants were draft evaders and sought to hand them over to the Military Police. The police only said in their statements that the riots were sparked over the parking ticket, and did not mention whether the pair were draft dodgers.

Police used stun grenades and tear gas on demonstrators.

Asked about the riot on Thursday, a spokesperson for United Torah Judaism chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf shared a copy of the video of the policeman striking the rioters, stating merely, “We saw this.”

The rioting drew widespread condemnation from lawmakers as well as police chief Danny Levy.

Levy called the rioting a “very grave incident” and vowed that police would “hold everyone involved to account.”

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who oversees the police, said that he “unequivocally condemns the extremist rioting in Jerusalem,” and called the attacks on police officers a “red line.”