After riots developed in Bnei Brak on Sunday, a large number of police forces and Yasam officers were brought to the city, and 28 people were arrested, most of them innocent bystanders that were not involved in the riots.

Twenty of the detainees were released on Sunday night, and the rest were released on Monday, as the police could not provide any evidence of criminal acts for 26 of the suspects. Only two of the suspects were sentenced to five days of house arrest due to a reasonable suspicion that they assaulted a police officer.

According to the witnesses, many of the detainees, including women and minors, were subject to “show arrests” as part of a collective punishment to prove control over the city, while the actual culprits managed to escape the scene. One detainee was a young Chareidi man who was innocently riding his bike home from work when he was violently thrown onto the street by police officers. He had no connection to the riots. Footage of the incident caused a major uproar.

His lawyer announced that he intends to file a complaint with the Police Internal Investigations Department (PIID), claiming unnecessary use of force against his client.

Other residents or passersby were also beaten by police officers for no reason, with some injured by stun grenades hurled at the scene and some taken into custody—while the rioters escaped arrest.

In one case, a middle-aged man who tried to hand a yarmulke to a detainee was forcibly thrown onto the street—in the path of a moving car—by a Yasam officer.

Attorneys Shlomo Haddad and Itai Cohen, who represented the detainees, said, “Unfortunately, in the vast majority of cases these are show arrests. Minors and adults alike were pulled into vans in a forceful manner, when it seemed that the purpose of the arrest was to create a deterrent and awareness effect only, and not due to a real suspicion of an offense.”

“The vast majority of the detainees are passers-by who did not take part in the events and did not commit any offense. We view the conduct severely and will stand on the rights of our clients in full within the framework of the legal proceedings.”

Many Bnei Brak residents complained of collective punishment by the police. “We strongly condemn what happened to the female soldiers; it is unacceptable,” one resident said. “But on the other hand, there is a feeling that the police are acting in an overly sweeping way. Innocent people get caught up in the area and are arrested or pushed for no reason.”

Other residents voiced concern that this conduct may tarnish an entire community. “There is a whole city here made up of law-abiding people. You cannot treat everyone who happens to be on the street as if they are a rioter,” another resident said.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)