An Israeli lawmaker said he had been “beaten” by police as he took part in a demonstration against an Israeli settlement in East Jerusalem, territory annexed and occupied by the Jewish state.
Ofer Kasif, Jewish MP of the “Common List” party (Arabic), took part in a demonstration against the development of an Israeli settlement in the Palestinian district of Sheikh Jarah, in East Jerusalem.
A French news agency correspondent who watched the incident saw Israeli police grab Kasif and throw him to the ground, while in a video shown on Channel 13, protesters shouted in Hebrew that he was a “member of parliament”.
“They started beating me, they broke my glasses…. “They have gone crazy,” Kasif said in the video. “They did not care if I was an MP.”
Injured, the MP was taken to hospital, Kassif’s spokesman Itai Aknin told AFP. Before the police arrived, the demonstration was “peaceful and calm,” he said.
Jerusalem police said in a statement that, according to initial reports, a protester had attacked a police officer.
The “attacker” was released when he was found to be an MP, the statement said.
Several MPs denounced the incident.
“The brutal police violence against him (Kassif) is a deadly blow to parliament and parliamentary immunity,” right-wing lawmaker Gideon Saar, a former ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who supports Israeli settlements, wrote on Twitter.
Opposition leader Jair Lapid called the incident “scandalous” and called on police to investigate.
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