A pregnant woman was filmed being shoved to the ground and tased by police officers in Petah Tikvah, central Israel, after jaywalking. The video, taken on Wednesday, caused outrage on social media amid the discourse around police brutality.
"During enforcement activity, an officer noticed the woman committing a traffic violation and not wearing a face mask as the law requires," Israel Police said in a statement. "After being stopped for identification and enforcement, she began shouting at the officers and attacking them physically."
According to police, "due to the woman's refusal to cooperate while being arrested, physical force was exercised and a taser was used until the completion of the arrest. At no point until now has it been clarified the woman was pregnant."
Police brutality has been one of the main topics of Israel's discourse ever since riots broke out in the US following the death of African-American George Floyd. A video circulating social media and news showed Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck for some eight minutes while the latter was saying he could not breathe. Floyd was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
In Israel, protests broke out after Iyad al-Hallak, a 32-year-old special-needs student from east Jerusalem, was shot by Border Police in the Old City on his way to Jerusalem's Elwyn school for children and adults with disabilities. Anti-government protesters in Tel Aviv shouted they "can't breathe" and that they are "being suffocated by the encroaching dictatorship," referencing the racial riots.
Police issued a statement after the shooting, saying officers noticed a "suspicious object" in his hands. According to N12, Hallak fled from the officers to a nearby garbage room. Hallak was shot seven to eight times, with the coroner's report saying two of the bullets hit him, according to Walla.
The Hallak family's house was reportedly raided after the incident, according to Channel 13. "They searched the entire house and did not find anything," Iyad's father said, adding that the one of the soldiers swore at his daughter.
A shrine was established in Hallak's memory in the middle of Tel Aviv's Rothschild Boulevard on Friday. "We may have buried Iyad, but his murder cannot be buried," the display's organizers said.
"It is not a one-time event and not a 'tragedy,' but the result of a years-old racist policy that manifests in disregard for Palestinian lives and legitimizing unrestrained police brutality."
The organizers also called "to release the street-cam videos that document the murder and are being held by police, arrest the officers who shot Iyad and put them to trial [and] withdraw Border Police forces from East Jerusalem." They added that "the vicious circle of violence must stop, now."
A video circulating social media showed police attacking a reporter in Tel Aviv at one of the protests against police brutality and the expected annexation of the Jordan Valley.
Another video, posted by Haaretz reporter Bar Peleg showed police officers throwing stun grenades at residential facilities in Ramleh, central Israel. According to Peleg, police raided the neighborhood to arrest suspects and confiscate illegal firearms.בושה וחרפה למשטרת ישראל. צלם "הארץ" תומר אפלבאום עושה את עבודתו ומצלם מעצר בתל אביב ובתגובה השוטרים מתנפלים עליו באלימות. מספיק!!! pic.twitter.com/BzSL2hqH2m
— Josh Breiner (@JoshBreiner) June 6, 2020
Maariv Online contributed to this report.שוטרים עוברים וזורקים רימוני הלם לחצרות של בתים. לא ברור מי גר שם ומדוע זרקו. אעדכן כשבמשטרה יענו pic.twitter.com/DQixNel4D4
— Bar Peleg (@bar_peleg) June 7, 2020