Police question Breaking the Silence official who allegedly beat Palestinian

The Israel Police on Thursday questioned an official with Breaking the Silence, a left-wing NGO that publishes allegations, often anonymous, about IDF soldiers' conduct in Judea and Samaria, for allegedly assaulting a Palestinian during his military service, while his fellow platoon members and commanders watched.

Dean Issacharoff, the NGO's spokesman, was called into the Hebron headquarters of the Judea and Samaria District Police and confronted with footage of himself admitting to the incident, which took place years ago. He was then questioned under caution as to what had transpired.

In May, Reservists at the Front, a group which seeks to counter false or slanted portrayals of IDF conduct, released a video in which 11 of Issacharoff's former platoon mates -- soldiers who served with him as well as superior officers -- said that Issacharoff was lying in his testimony and that the incident he described never took place.

Following a brief questioning, Issacharoff was released on bail. The police are due to submit a recommendation to the State Attorney's Office on whether to proceed with an indictment against Issacharoff or close the case.

The police launched an investigation into Issacharoff's version of the incident, made on camera at an event hosted by Breaking the Silence several months ago, at the request of Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked. After conducting an initial review of the issue, the State Attorney's Office instructed the police to open an investigation.

The IDF Spokesperson's Unit said in a statement that "the Chief Military Prosecutor received a complaint about the video Mr. Issacharoff had put out. Since the complaint pertains to a civilian to whom military justice does not apply, the complaint was passed on to the State Attorney's Office for review."

"Either we have a liar who is slandering the IDF, or we have a case of violence that needs to be investigated," Shaked said over the weekend.

"The state has asked and will continue to demand that it receive the testimonies submitted to the organization [Breaking the Silence] so it can investigate [them] and discover the truth. The IDF is the most moral army in the world, and cases of violence are investigated and addressed," Shaked said.

Breaking the Silence responded with outrage to Shaked's decision to single out Issacharoff and called on her "not to be satisfied with investigating a single activist from Breaking the Silence, but rather investigate the hundreds of male and female soldiers who 'broke their silence' openly so we could tell about what we did in the territories, and the everyday violence perpetrated against the Palestinians."

The organization charged that Shaked "doesn't really want to open the Pandora's box of the occupation, which would expose its violence and crimes. Shaked doesn't really care about the Palestinians, justice, or morality. All she wants is to attack Breaking the Silence, and in doing so make the Justice Ministry a tool for political persecution.

"We 'break our silence' to take a moral stance and assume personal responsibility for our actions in the territories. All the government's attempts thus far to silence us have failed, and investigations don't deter us, either. There is only one way to shut us up, and that is to end the occupation," the group said.

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