Israeli policeman insults, threatens protesters, sparks outrage – Firstpost

An Israeli policeman sparked outrage after threatening to rape a protester’s mother.

During a weekly protest in Jerusalem, which was also attended by families of Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip, a police officer was reported to have attacked and threatened a protester.

According to Israeli media reports: “I’m going to rape your mom.” The policeman was additionally caught calling a protester a “son of a bitch.”

After footage of the incident surfaced, the Israel Police’s Criminal Investigation Department opened an investigation into the matter. In a second incident, a police officer also attacked an opposition MP during the same protest, and that incident is also under investigation.

The Police Investigations Department (PID) said it was investigating an incident in which “police officers allegedly attacked a protester in Jerusalem and an officer was heard threatening him” and another involving “an attack on Labor Party MK Naama Lazimi in Tel Aviv,” The Jerusalem Post reported.

The newspaper also reported that the footage also shows police pushing protesters onto the hoods of police cars.

After the incidents were reported and an investigation was launched, the police found that “the conduct of the officer at the scene did not comply with the norms of discourse and conduct expected of every police officer,” the document reads.

Police acted like it was a totalitarian regime, Labour Party says

Following the attack on Labour MP Lazimi, the party said the police were behaving as if they were a totalitarian regime.

Labor Party leader Yair Golan wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that the violence against Lazimi and protesters in Jerusalem “has crossed the line and is disturbing, reminiscent of totalitarian regimes.”

“This is exactly what the politicization of the police by the criminal and terrorist supporter (National Security Minister Itamar) Ben-Gvir looks like. The role of the police is to protect citizens, not to be a convicted criminal’s private militia and beat up citizens and opposition members,” Golan said, referring to Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s far-right National Security Minister responsible for internal security.

Lazimi, for her part, sharply criticized the police for commenting that the officers intervened because she prevented the confiscation of a protester’s cell phone.

“In a democratic country, police cannot confiscate a protester’s cellphone just because they don’t like it,” Lazimi said on Program X.

Lazimi continued: “There are laws in Israel, and although there is no executive power to defend citizens in Israel, we will be their shield and you will not prevent us from fulfilling this duty.”

Protesters put pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu

Since the beginning of the Gaza War, families of Israelis held captive by terrorists in Gaza have been protesting to put pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to secure the release of all hostages.

In the months leading up to the war, Israel was rocked by months-long protests against the government’s judicial reform. Since the beginning of the war, the two types of protests have often been seen as a single movement representing Israelis’ frustration with Netanyahu’s government. This weekend’s protests were larger and more passionate than usual and took place amid renewed U.S. efforts to reach a ceasefire and a hostage release deal and Netanyahu’s comments about pursuing a “partial” settlement in Gaza, according to The Times of Israel newspaper.

Protests also broke out in Tel Aviv, Israel’s economic center, where protesters demanded that a strong trade union declare a strike and shut down the economy to put pressure on the government.

The newspaper went on to say that protesters wanted to close businesses on July 7, which would mean nine months of war.