Public Service for Policemen Who Attacked Expulsion Demonstrator

The Tel Aviv Magistrates Court sentenced two policemen on Thursday to three and six months of public service, respectively, for having brutalized an "orange" (anti-Disengagement) protestor in 2005.  Most of the evidence was provided by an on-site video taken by Arutz-7 Russian site editor Tuvia Lerner.

Eran Naim was sentenced to six months of service, and Eliran Avraham will serve for three months.  They were found guilty six months ago of beating demonstrator Akiva Vitkin without cause during an anti-Disengagement road-blocking demonstration on June 29, 2005. Both were Yassam-unit policemen, and Naim was dismissed from the force after the incident in question. Naim is seen in the video pulling Vitkin's nose from behind by sticking his fingers in his nostrils and pulling up, and Avraham later beat Vitkin repeatedly in the police station.

For them to lose their jobs is an obvious consequence, so that they will not be able to continue hitting people as they did me. But this is not a [sufficient] punishment...





Lawyers for the policemen had claimed that the "fingers-in-the-nostrils" trick is a legitimate police tactic against demonstrators, and complained that justice had not been served.  "These two policemen lost their jobs, and other policemen will hesitate next time to fulfill their duty and disperse demonstrators," one lawyer lamented.  Naim himself complained that he had only done "what I was taught," and that the police had abandoned him, while Avraham said, "We are victims of the Disengagement."



The attacked demonstrator, Akiva Vitkin, said afterwards, "For them to lose their jobs is an obvious consequence, so that they will not be able to continue hitting people as they did me.  But this is not a punishment; the punishment should have been that they must sit in jail; that seems to me to be clearly necessary."



Orit Strook, of the Yesha Civil Rights organization, said after the conviction that the judge had ruled that police may use reasonable force when in danger or to make an arrest - but not as punishment. It was Strook's organization, together with Atty. Nadav HaEtzni, that filed the suit against the policemen.

Officer Eran Naim was caught on tape by Arutz-7’s Lerner taking part in what Lerner later said was a "cruel, shocking and pre-meditated attack." Despite attempts by the police to obstruct his view, Lerner managed to film the attack on a digital camera. Naim is first seen motioning to his colleagues to help beat the demonstrator, after which they sit on him and stick their fingers in his nose and mouth, causing extensive bleeding and facial injuries. Naim is also seen beating 58-year-old Rabbi Dr. Yisrael Katz, after the latter asked Naim to stop beating girls present at the road-blocking.



Lerner said, "Through the screen of my camera I saw the officer, wearing a name tag with the name Eran Naim, go behind the demonstrator, go on top of him, and stick his full hand towards his face. He stuck his fingers into the man's nostrils and pulled upwards and backwards in a fast and professional way, and tore his whole face, including a blow at his eyes."  Lerner said he later saw Naim go to the side and wipe the blood off his hands.

A policeman, as one who enforces the law, must serve citizens by protecting them - and not by becoming an additional source of threat and fear

Judge Chanan Efrati ruled, "Violence is always a terrible ill that must be uprooted from roots, or else we will quickly find ourselves living in a society in which the strong and violent imposes his will on the weak...  A policeman, as one who enforces the law, must serve citizens by fulfilling the law and protecting them - and not as an additional source of threat and fear.  Each of the defendants, via his actions, harmed the relationship of trust that must reign between the public and its policemen."

The judge further said, "The limits for use of enforcement means must be clear and rigid; the instructions and guidelines must be precise, well-known to policemen and internalized by them."



The Yesha Civil Rights Organization praised the judge for his ruling, but said that the light sentence "did not jibe" with it.  "Public service works are not sufficient to punish the severe violence that occurred or to deter against it. The Police Department's Unit for Complaints Against Policemen must appeal the sentence so that justice will be both served and seen."