Haaretz, Dec. 26, 2016

Three Israeli civilians were brutally attacked by three other Israelis on November 30, 2013. The reason that the attack remains etched in the shocked memory of very few people is the simple fact that the victims were Bedouin from the southern town of Rahat and their attackers were policemen.

Taleb Al-Touri and his sons Rauf and Nidal had joined a protest against the Prawer plan for the forced relocation of Negev Bedouin from their land. When the demonstration in the village of Hura turned violent, the three members of the Al-Touri family left the area, planning to go home. All of a sudden, they were attacked by a group of about 10 men wearing uniforms and helmets. The father and his sons had then made the mistake of a lifetime.

Their assailants knocked them down, with their heads striking the ground. A stun grenade or sponge-tipped bullet exploded on Nidal’s back. They were kicked and dragged, with their hands cuffed behind their backs by plastic handcuffs. The uniformed men jumped on them. A soldier urinated in the father’s face; at one point he lost consciousness.

While all this was happening to them, they should have taken out a pen and a pad of paper and politely said to their assailants: “Excuse me. What are your names, what are your ranks, what unit do you belong to and how many of you are there?”

They are to be blamed for having failed to do so. And because of this failure, the Justice Ministry department that investigates police misconduct halted its inquiry into the complaint they had filed. That was in January 2014. In December 2014, their file was closed.

from http://www.haaretz.com/misc/article-print-page/.premium-1.761360