Despite a Knesset panel protest this past week against police violence, one policeman beat up a Gush Katif resident Friday, after ordering him to turn off the motor of his car.
The driver, a resident of Ne've Dekalim, was driving to the nearby Jewish community of Netzarim in Gaza in order to bring equipment to a soldier who is a relative. Police stopped the car and demanded that the driver turn off the engine, according to Eldad Levi, who also was in the car.
He said the driver told the officer he did not want to turn off the motor because the air conditioning was running. "The policeman started hitting him even though he was sitting in the car," Levi said. "His children sitting in the back seat began to cry."
Policemen claimed the driver tried to break through a previous checkpoint, but Levi said that one policeman had made a motion to the driver that he thought was a sign to continue to travel.
According to another eyewitness, Tzvi Friedman, "Policemen approached his car…and asked, ‘Who are you and what are you?’ Suddenly he ran after the car behind us and tried to open the door. I heard the driver tell him, ‘You have no permission to open the door,’ but the policeman…opened the door and pulled the young man, sat on him...and tried to turn off the motor.
"The policeman pulled him by his clothes, and the driver tried to defend himself as he held on to the steering wheel." Friedman added that women soldiers nearby tried to calm down the policeman and stop him from continuing to beat up the man, whose daughters fled from the car.
Click Here to Visit Gush Katif via Arutz-7's Interactive Map and Virtual Video
The driver, a resident of Ne've Dekalim, was driving to the nearby Jewish community of Netzarim in Gaza in order to bring equipment to a soldier who is a relative. Police stopped the car and demanded that the driver turn off the engine, according to Eldad Levi, who also was in the car.
He said the driver told the officer he did not want to turn off the motor because the air conditioning was running. "The policeman started hitting him even though he was sitting in the car," Levi said. "His children sitting in the back seat began to cry."
Policemen claimed the driver tried to break through a previous checkpoint, but Levi said that one policeman had made a motion to the driver that he thought was a sign to continue to travel.
According to another eyewitness, Tzvi Friedman, "Policemen approached his car…and asked, ‘Who are you and what are you?’ Suddenly he ran after the car behind us and tried to open the door. I heard the driver tell him, ‘You have no permission to open the door,’ but the policeman…opened the door and pulled the young man, sat on him...and tried to turn off the motor.
"The policeman pulled him by his clothes, and the driver tried to defend himself as he held on to the steering wheel." Friedman added that women soldiers nearby tried to calm down the policeman and stop him from continuing to beat up the man, whose daughters fled from the car.
Click Here to Visit Gush Katif via Arutz-7's Interactive Map and Virtual Video