Meretz MK decries alleged police brutality in Haifa protests

Jafar Farah, director of the Mossawa Center, was arrested on Friday during a protest in Haifa and is now in hospital.

By HAGAY HACOHEN
Updated: MAY 21, 2018 09:51
Israeli police officer in east Jerusalem (photo credit: ISRAEL POLICE)
Israeli police officer in east Jerusalem
(photo credit: ISRAEL POLICE)
Meretz MK Ilan Gilon stated on social media on Saturday that he had passed an urgent question to Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan regarding the arrest of Mossawa Center Director Jafar Farah.
Farah was arrested with 20 other protesters on Friday during a protest in Haifa against the IDF's actions in Gaza, which was attended by hundreds of Israelis, both Arab and Jewish alike.
"I demand to know if police brutality led to the broken leg [suffered] by Jafar Farah," wrote Gilon, "The idea that a protester leaves his home to use his democratic right and is taken to an interrogation because of that, and as it ends it turns out his limbs are broken, is a thought that makes my blood run cold," he wrote.
Gilon called on the police to immediately look into the matter and called on all Israeli citizens "not to be intimidated, to go out and use the right for free expression."  
The Mossawa Center, a civil society organization that advocates for equal rights for Arab Israelis, published a post on social media in Arabic in which it stated that the alleged injury occurred during the time Farah was under police supervision. He is now in the hospital.