Calls are growing in Israel to investigate two Knesset members who clashed with police in recent days, resulting in physical confrontations.
According to a report on Wednesday by Makor Rishon, the Wives of Policeman and Wardens organization petitioned the Israeli Attorney General to launch investigations against Knesset members Ofer Cassif and Ahmad Tibi, after they were filmed clashing with police officers.
Israel Police also asked the attorney general for approval to investigate the MKs after submitting documentation of the confrontation, and raising suspicions that they assaulted police, the report said.
On Tuesday, an attorney representing the police officer who was allegedly struck by Cassif during an incident at Masafer Yata, in the southern Hebron Hills region, on May 13, sent a warning letter to Cassif, demanding 400,000 shekels ($118,288) in compensation for assault.
“This is an unprecedented incident in which a Knesset member allowed himself to attack a policeman who is fulfilling his duties. There were two attacks, one after the other, which undoubtedly proves that this was well planned with clear intent to severely harm my client,” said the letter, which was published by Mako.
The letter detailed injuries to the officer’s leg and head, as well as to his mental health, requiring medication.
Responding to the letter, Cassif said, “Unfortunately, and not for the first time, we see a situation in which police act violently against civilians, and then rush to accuse them of attack, while selectively and misleadingly publicizing video on what really happened. The officer who attacked me on [May 13] even went a step further by threatening me with a lawsuit to silence me. So let it be clear: I have nothing to fear. All has been documented, including the threats by police to my life and the hand shoved in my face that I rebuffed.”
In Tibi’s case, he was documented interfering with police work at a protest in Jerusalem.
