Palestinian says he doesn't recognize BtS spokesman
After Breaking the Silence spokesperson Dean Issacharoff publishes video purportedly showing the Palestinian he beat, the Palestinian contradicts Issacharoff by claiming he was beaten by more than one soldier, adding that he does not recognize Issacharoff.
A Palestinian appearing in the video published by Breaking the Silence (BtS) Monday, which was intended to reinforce a claim made a group spokesman who falsely claimed he alone had severely beaten him up during his military service, said that in fact he had been attacked by a group of soldiers, but could not confirm that the spokesman himself was involved.
The spokesman, Dean Issacharoff, had claimed that he alone had severely beaten the Palestinian man up during an arrest.
However, an investigation launched to determine whether Issacharoff was lying or guilty of assault found that concluded that the evidence did not attest to the alleged beating ever having taken place.
A central witness was the alleged victim himself, Hassan Julani, who denied ever being beaten by Issacharoff.
Nevertheless, after Issacharoff was accused of lying, he and his organization claimed that Juliani was the wrong man and therefore published a video which purported to show the correct man, identified as Faisal al-Natshe.
In an interview on Hadashot television news (formerly Channel 2 News) Tuesday, al-Natshe, a resident of Hebron, confirmed that he was beaten, but could not confirm Issacharoff's testimony, since he said he could not remember who hit him and was unable to confirm whether Issacharoff was even present.
"That day there were stone-throwing, I stood watching," al- Natshe said in an interview. "Soldiers came and grabbed me from behind. A soldier started yelling "Stop, stop" and we started to run away from him. When they caught me, they beat me with their hands and their legs. There were ten soldiers who attacked me and the person who was with me."
The video, in which Issacharoff is seen walking with al-Natshe, was found by the organization's researchers in the video archives of B'Tselem. Al-Natshe identified himself in the video, but when he was shown Issacharoff's picture he could not identify him.
"I forgot already," he said, "I did not see them, I do not know who hit me. If I saw him I would not recognize him, they would not let us look at them even once.
"They caught us there, beat us and then took us to detention. Some were masked and some were not." Al-Natsheh confirmed that no one from the State Prosecutor's Office had contacted him or questioned him.
Reservists on Duty, an NGO established by IDF reserve soldiers and officers to act against BDS, insisted Tuesday night that even after the exposure of the new video, Issacharoff was lying, and that in this incident he did not hit any Palestinian.
Adir Mizrahi, a combat soldier who served with Issacharoff and claimed to be filmed in the video said Tuesday night that the incident had never happened as Issacharoff detailed.
The Justice Ministry responded to BtS' claims, saying that "the incident presented in the article is unknown to us and on the face of it is inconsistent with the incident described by Issacharoff in his interrogation.
"Issacharoff described an incident in which, after the arrest, the detainee refused to be handcuffed, and that he was then asked by his company commander to use force to cuff him. Then, he claimed, he alone beat the detainee until he bled and fainted," the ministry statement continued.
"On the other hand, the interview (al-Natsheh—ed) described a situation in which he claims that he was beaten by a group of masked soldiers. In any case, there is no connection between the two cases."
"As a rule," it went on, "any information that is transferred to the investigating authorities and which raises suspicion that an alleged offense was committed justifies examining the possibility of opening an investigation. And so will the current case."
A senior official in the State Prosecutor's Office said Tuesday that "if new material is received that proves that there is evidence that has not been examined, the case (of Issacharoff using excessive force—ed) will be reopened."
The case against first lieutenant Issacharoff was opened following a video that was distributed on the internet, in which Issacharoff described in a Breaking the Silence rally how, while serving as a combat officer, he repeatedly kneed a Palestinian detainee in the face and chest, causing him to "bleed and faint" without any operational justification.
His testimony was made to emphasize the IDF's brutality against Palestinian citizens in the "occupied territories," as Issacharoff and his group put it.
The investigation into the incident found that Issacharoff claims "did not occur at all," after questioning the Palestinian he allegedly beat.
Issacharoff then insisted the Palestinian who was questioned and refuted his claims was not the one he assaulted, publishing the video to present his version of the story.
