Chaim Mizrachi, Beaten And Traumatized By Plainclothes Police, Testifies At Knesset Public Security Committee

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Chaim Mizrachi, who was beaten by four plainclothes policemen last month after he told them that they had hit another car, testified about the traumatic event and its repercussions in the Knesset’s Public Security Commitee. Mizrachi, who broke down in tears when describing his harrowing experience, called for the policemen to be removed from their posts.

“I can’t look you in the eyes, you’re all evil,” Mizrachi said. “Nobody feels what I am experiencing besides my mother and the rabbi who speaks with me at 4 AM. I can’t go to Torah lessons or to psychology classes. I miss my classes. I don’t deserve this.”

“The policemen who beat me up should return their badges. They didn’t even apologize. I can’t sleep at night. I shouldn’t be afraid, I’m a person who helps others, I didn’t do anything to them.”

Meirav Ben-Ari, the head of the committee asked whether the four police had been removed from their posts. Batya Ben David, director of the police discipline department, said that one had been removed from contact with the public and others had returned to their roles. Ben-Ari said that from the public’s viewpoint the policemen should be transferred away from the public. She also called for a criminal investigation into the “shocking incident”.

Mizrachi also demanded that the policemen be dealt with, stating: “I’m afraid of them, its not fair that I can’t go out alone, that you are not dealing with them. They beat you up for no reason. Let’s see one of you coping with my pain.”

איך אפשר לעמוד מול הדמעות האלו של חיים מזרחי???
כמה זמן שלא עבר הבן אדם בטראומה מטורפת בחסות משטרת ישראל, בושה!! pic.twitter.com/5m0wWycl6f

— אריאל אלחרר (@ariel_elharar_) February 2, 2022

MK Uri Maklev said that police are violent towards chareidim, Ethiopians and demonstrators against the government. “Most cases we don’t even know about since there is no documentation, when a person is under arrest we don’t know what goes on in the car.”

Maklev told police representatives that “you have no culture of apologizing, you are so full of power that you violate the law. There are good policemen but you give full backing to the rotten ones, in every society the weeds and extremists are denounced but in the police they are promoted and putrefy the entire system.”

Maklev said that he knew Mizrachi personally as a “sensitive boy who helps others, not a demonstrator”.

Ben-Ari said that Chaim had moved her adding that “you are an exemplary person and all members of the public identify with your pain and with the injustice done to you.”