26 Nov. '08: Indictment filed against policemen who seriously injured Palestinian in Israel

26 November 2008, updated 16 October 2013

Update: On 13 February 2013, the Beersheba Magistrate Court convicted Israeli mounted policeman Dani Haveri of grievous bodily harm to Fadi Darab’i. On 6 October 2013 Haveri was sentenced. Despite the gravity of Haveri's actions and their consequences, Justice Adam Or of the Beersheba Magistrates Court sentenced him to only six months of community service. He received none of the jail time demanded by the DIP. Haveri was also senteced to pay 24,000 NIS [approx. 6,800USD] in compensation to Darab’i. An article in Israeli news site ynet reported that the DIP, which filed the charges, is considering appealing the sentence.

On 28 October 2008, the Department for the Investigation of Police filed an indictment against two policemen who assaulted Fadi Darab'i at a construction site in Gan Yavneh, a town located south of Tel Aviv.

On the morning of 13 April 2008, policemen came to a construction site in Gan Yavneh where Darab'i, a 24-year-old resident of Dura, a village in Hebron District, was working. Two of the policemen, Iyad Huzeyl and Dani Haveri, went over to him and demanded that he tell them the name of his employer. Darab'i replied that the employer was not at the site. One of the policemen bent Darab'i's arm behind his back and asked him again who his employer was. The other policeman, who stood in front of Darab'i, kicked him hard in the groin.

A short while afterwards, the policemen took Darab'i, along with 15 other laborers from the construction site, to a police station. Although Darab'i and other detainees requested the policemen several times to summon an ambulance because of the intense pain Darab'i was suffering as a result of the blow to his groin, the policemen refused. The detainees were released a few hours later. Darab'i then went to ‘Aliyah Hospital, in Hebron, where he underwent surgery the same day. Due to the severity of the injury, the surgeons were forced to amputate one of his testicles. He was hospitalized for three days.

Following the assault, B'Tselem wrote to the DIP demanding an investigation. The indictment, filed as stated on 28 October, charges the two policemen with causing grievous injury.

Filing of indictments against security forces for assaulting Palestinians is exceptional, although violence against Palestinians has for some time been part of the reality of life in the Occupied Territories.

Israeli officials routinely condemn beatings and abuse of Palestinians. However, the law-enforcement authorities avoid serious, in-depth investigation into allegations of security forces' violence and do not prosecute, or take any action, against the persons responsible. This policy conveys to security forces in the field the message that the bodies and dignity of Palestinians are of no value, and that perpetrators of such violence will not pay any price for their acts.

Suggested items

Open-Fire Policy

The Elimination Project

Since the current Israeli government took office at the end of 2022, and even more so since October 2023, Israel has dramatically escalated its assault on all aspects of Palestinian life in the West Bank. At any moment, Palestinians may be exposed to violence by soldiers or armed settler militias, arrested and imprisoned, subjected to abuse and humiliation, and sometimes even killed.The Elimination Project draws on more than 2,000 testimonies B’Tselem collected from Palestinians since October 2023 and over three decades of documenting the Israeli apartheid regime’s human rights abuses in the West Bank. The report looks at the current reality not as a collection of isolated incidents or specific harms, but as part of a comprehensive mechanism of elimination that works to dismantle the conditions for continued Palestinian existence in the West Bank, while deepening Jewish control and supremacy in an irreversible manner. An examination of the current reality in the West Bank reveals that the project of elimination is now being implemented more openly, directly and violently than before, and increasingly relies on cooperation between official state authorities and settler militias operating in the West Bank with state backing and support.

14 September 2026

New B'Tselem report: new report - Unleashed - Abuse of Palestinians by Israeli Soldiers in the center of Hebron

Hebron City Center

“People step out to go about their daily business, are randomly seized by Israeli soldiers and subjected to severe abuse as a matter of routine.”

Today, human rights NGO B’Tselem released a new report - Unleashed: Abuse of Palestinians by Israeli Soldiers in the center of Hebron. The report uncovers repeated cases of severe abuse of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers.The report is based on over 20 testimonies collected by B’Tselem from Palestinians who were abused by Israeli soldiers between May and August 2024. Victims describe being randomly seized by soldiers, mostly as they were walking down the streets of the city, going about their daily affairs. They were beaten and subjected to severe abuse by soldiers, sometimes in the street, and at other times inside military outposts where they were taken.B’Tselem Executive Director Yuli Novak: “People step out to go about their daily business, are seized by soldiers and beaten to the point of passing out as a matter of routine. The testimonies collected by B’Tselem field researchers paint a shocking picture of the violent behavioral norms of Israeli soldiers. After more than a year of Israel’s unrelenting war against the Palestinian people, abuse of Palestinian passersby has become a desirable, even required practice. These are not isolated incidents or a departure from operating procedures, but rather a pattern representative of systemic attitudes, which are, themselves, the result of the dehumanization of Palestinians, steered by the Israeli government.”

3 December 2024

Torture and Abuse

Unleashed

For over a year, Israel has been waging an unrestrained war against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and within the State of Israel. The violence that has always characterized the Israeli apartheid regime’s treatment of Palestinians is now appearing in its most direct and exposed form. B’Tselem gathered 25 testimonies from Palestinians who were abused by Israeli soldiers in central Hebron between May and August 2024. The testimonies describe acts of violence, humiliation, and abuse by soldiers directed by soldiers at men, women, teenagers and children. The scale of the violence revealed in these testimonies—carried out openly and, in some cases, filmed by the soldiers themselves—demonstrates that this is not merely the result of personal vendettas or isolated incidents. Instead, it reflects a particularly brutal manifestation of a systematic, long-standing policy of oppression, expulsion and dispossession that lies at the root of the Israeli apartheid regime.

3 December 2024