The Zionist occupation military police said on Wednesday that it will not open an investigation into an officer who was filmed kneeling on the neck of a 60-year-old Palestinian protester while arresting him.
The video, released in September, shows the officer kneeling on the neck of Khairi Hannoun, whom he had arrested at a demonstration outside the village of Shufa near Tul Karm. Hannoun then entered his car and the officer was filmed breaking the car window with his rifle and pointing it at the head of another Palestinian.
The occupation army claimed at the time that the demonstration was violent and that the clip was “only partial, biased and doesn’t reflect the disruption of order and the violence toward the military force ahead of the arrest.”
Lawyers representing Hannoun asked the Military Advocate General this month whether an investigation had been opened into the incident.
The ‘Israeli’ military first said the event “would continue to be looked into in the coming days,” but on Sunday the Military Advocate General alleged the officer’s conduct was “part of implementing the power to arrest your client, it did not exceed reasonable [conduct] in the circumstances and doesn’t indicate a suspicion of a criminal offense.”
The army claims Hannoun pushed the officer, who in response used reasonable force when Hannoun resisted arrest.
The Military Advocate General’s office said the smashing of the window was intended to prevent Hannoun from fleeing and that he was welcome to ask the Defense Ministry for compensation “as an exception.”
The demonstration Hannoun had taken part in was held by residents protesting the Zionist confiscation of their land.
“It’s a legitimate, entirely non-violent demonstration,” Hannoun said at the time. “We, a few adults, were walking. We didn’t think the soldiers would attack us. But we were wrong. They attacked us like hooligans. I’m 60, what can I do to an armed soldier? But for the officer there I’m a threat and he attacked me brutally.”
Hannoun mentioned George Floyd, who died last May after a policeman kneeled on his neck in a similar way.
“He kneeled on me just like what happened with that Black American [in reference to George Floyd]. I felt he was choking me,” he said.
Hannoun was arrested by a Border Police force two weeks after the video of the demonstration was published. The Border Police said at the time that he was “arrested after he was seen taking part in several order disruptions and actively causing provocations, forcing them to take control of him by force.”
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