1. Home
  2. Middle East and North Africa
  3. Palestine

Israeli police accused of ignoring Palestinian complaints

A report by the Israeli human rights organisation Yesh Din said that 90 percent of Palestinian complaints filed to police against Israelis have been closed without charges being filed. Israel has denied the accuracy of the report.

According to the report, Palestinians were also prevented from filing complaints against Israeli settlers for various reasons, including the absence of police in localities where they should be or their refusal to accept the complaints. In some cases, according to Yesh Din, Israel’s civil administration applied pressure on citizens to deter them from filing complaints.

Yesh Din added that some 79 percent of cases involving violence were closed without charges being filed while five percent of the cases were not investigated at all because the forms on which the complaints had been lodged were lost.

“I was attacked by [Israeli] settlers from Elon Moreh settlement, which is adjacent to my land, in early 2006. I was ploughing my land when a number of armed settlers started beating me with their hands and with a butt of a gun,” said Saber Ahmad Ashteyeh, 73, from Salem village east of Nablus.

The attack caused 15 fractures in his skull and chest in addition to an internal hemorrhage, accorded to medical reports kept by his family.

“I was hospitalised in the Israeli Beilinson Hospital for 40 days during which my sons filed a case in Israeli courts against the attackers, but until now I have not heard anything from the courts concerning my case,” said Ashteyeh. “I will not be surprised if the case drags on for years or is neglected.”

Sha’wan Jabarin, head of Al-Haq Organisation for Human Rights, a West Bank affiliate of the International Commission of Jurists in Geneva, said that negligence starts when the Israeli police either ignore or reject filing Palestinian complaints.

Al-Haq is documenting all Palestinian complaints which were not investigated by Israeli police or courts. "Israeli police are encouraging settlers to cointinue their attacks. There is a total absence of justice, which encourages more violations," said Jabarin.

“Since the establishment of the [adjacent Israeli] settlement in 1984, we have been physically attacked or our properties have been destroyed. We have filed complaints but all in vain,” said Hana Jamil Abu Haykal, a resident of Al-Rmaileh neighbourhood in Hebron.

Two months ago, some settlers destroyed grapevine trees in Hana’s garden so she filed a complaint to the Israeli police. After waiting for four hours, the police told her that their computers were not working. They asked her to go back home and wait for their call but until today she has not received any call from them.

The report also showed that 69 percent of complaints filed for attacks on land and on trees were closed without charges being brought against suspects.

Israeli Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told IRIN that the Israeli police have a policy of dealing with every complaint it receives, but that the security situation in the West Bank made carrying out investigations more difficult.

"The Israeli police receive and deal with many complaints throughout the year in the Judea and Samaria district [the West Bank]. All the official complaints are dealt with regardless of who makes them, be they Palestinians or Israeli settlers,” Rosenfield said.

"One has to take into consideration that the police operation in Judea and Samaria is a lot more complicated because of the security concerns involved. It's a fact that must be taken into consideration and can explain part of what the group Yesh Din is saying."

Rosenfeld added that while some West Bank police stations are inaccessible to Palestinians because they are located in Israeli settlements, others are not.

"Our force in Judea and Samaria is one of the most advanced police teams in Israel and has been trained to deal with this type of complex situation. We understand that the Palestinians have their needs.”

NHK+TS/AR/ED

This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

Share this article

Get the day’s top headlines in your inbox every morning

Starting at just $5 a month, you can become a member of The New Humanitarian and receive our premium newsletter, DAWNS Digest.

DAWNS Digest has been the trusted essential morning read for global aid and foreign policy professionals for more than 10 years.

Government, media, global governance organisations, NGOs, academics, and more subscribe to DAWNS to receive the day’s top global headlines of news and analysis in their inboxes every weekday morning.

It’s the perfect way to start your day.

Become a member of The New Humanitarian today and you’ll automatically be subscribed to DAWNS Digest – free of charge.

Become a member of The New Humanitarian

Support our journalism and become more involved in our community. Help us deliver informative, accessible, independent journalism that you can trust and provides accountability to the millions of people affected by crises worldwide.

Join