A video recorded by journalist Eli Hirshman appears to show a police officer dragging a protester during a demonstration near Bnei Brak. The protesters claim the officer is Bnei Brak-Ramat Gan Police Station Commander Deputy Superintendent Yuval Shavit, according to Channel 12. The claims have not been independently verified and no official police response has been issued.
A new video distributed by Channel 12's Haredi affairs correspondent Eli Hirshman, published at Wed 10:16 Jerusalem, shows a uniformed officer dragging a male protester during a demonstration near Bnei Brak. Protesters identified the officer as Bnei Brak-Ramat Gan Police Station Commander Deputy Superintendent Yuval Shavit, according to Hirshman's report on N12. The identification escalates a story The Zioneer first tracked at Wed 10:16 Jerusalem, when Hirshman's initial footage showed an officer kicking a protester in the head and another dragging a demonstrator along Highway 4 — at that point without naming the officer. By the same minute, The Zioneer reported that protesters had named the station commander as the one dragging, and that National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir had ordered an urgent review of police stun grenade use.
Over the previous days, The Zioneer reported that protesters earlier on Wednesday claimed police used stun grenades and batons during a separate demonstration, and that undercover arrests were carried out (Wed 10:06 Jerusalem). Later that day, N12 journalist Itai Gal-On filmed clashes in the Abu Kabir detention compound, where one protester was arrested (Wed 16:48 Jerusalem). None of those previous incidents resulted in an official police statement.
The claim that a station commander personally participated in dragging a demonstrator — if confirmed — would represent a significant escalation in the nature of the allegations against police conduct. As The Zioneer reported on Wed 10:17 Jerusalem, Eli Hirshman is a prominent journalist with extensive coverage of ultra-Orthodox enlistment tensions and civil-police confrontations.
The video has not been independently verified, and police have not commented as of this writing at Wed 10:22 Jerusalem. The identification remains unconfirmed by an official source.
4 developments
- DevelopingBen Gvir seeks to remove Bnei Brak-Ramat Gan police station commander over roadblocks
- DevelopingEli Hirschman posts police station commander video that sparked Ben-Gvir-MPS rift
- DevelopingDeputy Bnei Brak police commander reportedly opened van door to show protest organizer released detainee
- DevelopingHaredi protesters accuse Minister Ben Gvir of police violence in signs
Source and signal
- Open-source intake