Lt. Col. Shalom Eisner, the IDF officer videotaped striking a Danish anarchist with his gun, told a confidante Sunday that the leftist struck him first, causing fractures in his hand.
Arik Ben Shimon, who served under Eisner in the past, spoke to him after the incident and heard his version of what happened.
The Deputy Brigade Commander said that the moment taped and published in the internet was preceded by verbal and physical violence that the leftists perpetrated against him and his soldiers.
"You have to understand that this was a confrontation that lasted over two hours and not an event that lasted a few minutes," Ben Shimon told Arutz Sheva. "This was the last line of defense before an area that was declared a 'closed military zone' and the video is obviously edited in a biased way, leaving out the part where that anarchist from Denmark hit Eisner with a stick on his right hand and caused fractures of his hand."
Eisner's hand is bandaged, Ben Shimon said, and yet he has gone back to his unit and continues to command over it.
Ben Shimon said that he has served alongside Eisner in similar events in the past and that he never let himself be provoked by the anarchists, and made sure not to let his soldiers be provoked either.