Israeli Policeman Charged With Assault Over Violent Arrest of Tariq Abu Khdeir
Image by Getty Images
An Israeli policeman was charged on Wednesday with assault causing bodily harm against a 15-year-old American of Palestinian descent during a protest over the revenge killing of the teenager’s cousin days before the eight week war with Gaza.
The indictment submitted to a Jerusalem court charged the policeman with grabbing the youth and throwing him to the ground, and subsequently pummeling him and dragging him with help from other officers in the course of his arrest.
The U.S. State Department at the time urged a “speedy, transparent and credible investigation and full accountability for any excessive use of force” against the American teen, a video of whose arrest was circulated on the Internet.
The protests had erupted after the torching to death of the high school student’s cousin, Mohammed Abu Khudeir, 16. Three Israelis have been charged with the murder, said to have been done as revenge for the killings of three Israeli teens in June.
The two-page indictment did not identify the teenager, but a Justice Ministry official confirmed it concerned Tariq Khdeir of Tampa, Florida, whose encounter with police stoked Arab-Israeli tension before the conflict erupted.
Police said at the time Khdeir was one of six protesters detained during the clashes in East Jerusalem.
Israel has since released him and he returned to Florida in mid-July.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
