Last week, 16-year old Ahuvia Sandak died when the car he was riding in crashed, after being pursued by an unmarked police car.
By MOSHE DANNDEMONSTRATORS PAINT over a picture of Ahuvia Sandak in protest against his death, at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.(photo credit: MIRIAM ALSTER/FLASH90)
On May 25, George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was killed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, while being arrested for a minor offense, allegedly using a counterfeit bill while trying to make a purchase. His death at the hands of white policemen was determined to be a homicide.It sparked outrage and widespread demonstrations throughout America and fueled protests by anti-racist groups such as Black Lives Matter, which are seeking to focus on systematic police violence against black Americans. The police officers involved were indicted and will stand trial for this crime.Last week, 16-year old Ahuvia Sandak died when the car he was riding in crashed, after being pursued by an unmarked police car. The incident provoked demonstrations across Israel. The media, however, relying on information provided by the police, failed to report the story accurately. Demonstrators were violently attacked by the police.Sandak’s parents filed a complaint and demanded a full investigation but so far none has been ordered. Instead, the police arrested the surviving passengers for complicity in Sandak’s death.The context for this tragedy is critical for understanding how and why it happened.For several years, the police have waged a relentless war against what are portrayed as “hilltop youth” – religious, idealistic young people who build shacks in areas adjacent to Jewish settlements without permission. For more than a decade, with no apparent reason, the government has imposed a building freeze in settlements, refusing to allow for natural expansion and development.Although illegal building is widespread, especially in Arab and Bedouin communities, the police focus on the hilltop youth, violently attacking them and destroying their shacks, often at night. In some cases, violators are brutally attacked by the police for resisting these destructions.Meanwhile, many thousands of Arab and Bedouin illegal buildings are ignored, including some the High Court has ordered destroyed. Recently, the government decided to legalize 180,000 illegal Arab and Bedouin buildings.The police have also violently attacked demonstrators in haredi (ultra-Orthodox) communities, apparently without any government supervision or approval.The abdication of responsibility has created a chaotic situation and undermines the government’s authority and civil society. Allowing the police to make its own rules is a threat to our democratic system and the concept of law and order. Respect for the police is important because the police represent the state and they protect, or should protect, all of us. When they act irresponsibly, however, they violate their raison d’etre, our ethos and our common cause.
Violent and disrespectful cops abuse the power and authority with which they have been entrusted. Neither they nor we should take this for granted.Ahuvia Sandak’s death should be investigated by a government commission of inquiry that examines not only the specifics of this tragedy but also bias and hostility within the police.The writer is a PhD historian and journalist in Israel.
