The district court in Tel Aviv indicted three Israeli border policemen on charges of assaulting, abusing and robbing Palestinian workers in the city of Lod in northern Israel.
On March 9, the three broke into an apartment where eight West Bank Palestinian workers stay. According to the reports, the three border policemen, Benny Timsit, Guy Tzuriel and Shlomi Mor-Chaim, were wearing their uniforms, despite the fact they were not on duty. They
The indictment statement shows that the three woke the Palestinians up by repeatedly shouting ‘police’ and flashed them with their flashlights. They then ordered the Palestinians to stand up facing the wall. Tzuriel and Mor-Chaim cocked their M-16 rifles and ordered the Palestinians to lie down facing the floor, and then hit them on the head with the barrels of the weapon. Afterwards they searched the Palestinians’ possessions, kicked their legs and continued to threaten them with the rifles. The three then robbed the Palestinians of some NIS 2,500 and a mobile phone.
The three policemen then, forced them to lie facing the floor with their hands on their necks slapped and threatened to shoot anyone who moves.
Then they poured sugar and oil on their legs and instructed them to perform pushups and then forced heaviest of the eight Palestinians to sit on the other while performing the pushups.
The three are accused of robbery and assault under aggravated circumstances and abusing their power.
Reports mention nothing about the workers, except that Haaretz said they were in Israel without permits.
Palestinians need permits to enter Israel and Jerusalem, a procedure started to be implemented in different stages since 1991 and the barriers to enter Jerusalem increased gradually since.
Indicting those three policemen, might deter other policemen and soldiers who continuously assault Palestinians.
Lately an Israeli court accused an Israeli solider of killing a Palestinian boy I the West Bank.
Such moves make people wonder if such cases signal a change on the policy of dealing with soldiers assaults against Palestinians, that usually was dealt with as self defense on the part of the soldier.
