United Torah Judaism faction chairman MK Uri Maklev on Monday evening submitted an urgent motion to Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana regarding police conduct during the riots in Bnei Brak.
At the same time, it emerged that most of those arrested in the incidents were released without being indicted.
The unrest broke out after two soldiers from the Education Corps arrived for a home visit to a serviceman. A crowd that gathered outside the building mistakenly believed they were military police officers who had come to distribute draft orders. The soldiers were forced to take shelter in a resident’s apartment until they were rescued by police.
In his proposal, Maklev condemned the rioters. “We denounce and repudiate any display of violence by an extremist fringe. This is lawlessness that runs contrary to the spirit of the Torah," he stated.
However, the bulk of his criticism was directed at the police. “The severity of the extremists’ actions cannot serve as a permit to act with indiscriminate violence. The scenes from the area indicate the use of unreasonable force against innocent civilians," he said.
Maklev described the police actions as “collective punishment reminiscent of a revenge campaign rather than professional law enforcement," and demanded an urgent plenary debate with the participation of representatives from the Ministry of National Security.
Attorneys Shlomo Haddad and Itai Cohen, who represent the detainees, echoed the claims. According to them, of the 27 individuals arrested, 20 have since been released, and only seven remain in custody - four of them minors.
“In the overwhelming majority of cases, these were show arrests," the attorneys argued. “Minors and adults were forcibly pulled into police vehicles, when the sole purpose of the arrests was to create a deterrent effect. The vast majority of those detained were bystanders who did not take part in the incidents and committed no offense."