Police Commissioner Dudi Cohen spoke to the Knesset’s Interior Committee on Wednesday regarding violent clashes between police officers and residents of the majority Druze village of Peki’in late last year.  Cohen apologized on behalf of officers who entered a Druze prayer house, explaining that the building had not been marked and “we did not know it was a holy place.”

Police entered the prayer house to rescue 19-year-old officer Liat Douadi, who had been taken to the building by a retired Druze officer in order to protect her from a gang of masked men who had kidnapped her and were attempting to stab her.  Representatives from Peki’in who spoke at Wednesday’s meeting denied that Douadi had been kidnapped, saying she had been abandoned by her fellow officers and that villagers had treated her well. 

Cohen rejected the representatives’ claim, and supported Douadi’s account of events.  The incident was “outright kidnapping,” he said, adding, “In my 30 years in the police, I have never encountered such violence towards police officers.”