Four Border Police officers were convicted on Thursday of abusing a defenseless Palestinian at the Al-Jib checkpoint near Jerusalem in 2009. The four officers, Assaf Koneh, Binyamin Mevorach, Buziar Farhan and Dor Yaakobi, assaulted the young man because he was not carrying a form of identification on his person. Attorney Keren Altman of the Justice Ministry's internal affairs department filed the indictment. In it, she detailed how the police unit's chief officer hauled the Palestinian victim into a police jeep, and then ordered a police dog into the vehicle and threatened the Palestinian man if he did not present his identification card. When the young man began to cry, one of the officers punched him in the stomach. Another police officer cursed the victim, poured water on him and then struck him with a bottle. For the duration of the incident, the young Palestinian sobbed uncontrollably and tried to explain to the border guards that he did not possess any form of identification to show them. "This incident was brief and the violence employed in it wasn't very extreme," Jerusalem District Court Judge Raphael Carmel said in his verdict. Nevertheless, he determined that the defendants' behavior was "harsh, cruel and inhumane." "Not only did the defendants, four police officers, do with the Palestinian whatever they wanted, but he was also cornered when the dog that was ordered into the vehicle caused him terror and fear," he said. The four officers will be sentenced at a later date.
