‘The policeman shouted at us, he hit me with the baton he had in his hand and injured my leg.’

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

After the antisemitic violence that erupted last Thursday following the Maccabi-Ajax match, Israelis fleeing the mob told Channel 12 that some of the Dutch police participated in the violence.

Maccabi fans said Dutch security guarded them before the match, but afterward, the police had abandoned the Israeli football fans.

One Maccabi fan, Ariel, described disembarking from a train at the end of the match. He was accosted by an anti-Israel man shouting at them, but he ignored him.

However, Ariel said they were soon surrounded by a crowd waiting for them outside of their hotel.

After shouting at them and cursing, the mob began to run after them.

Ariel was relieved to see a Dutch policeman standing on the corner and pleaded with him to help.

However, instead of assisting him, the policeman beat Ariel with his baton.

“The police shouted at us, and the policeman hit me with the baton he had in his hand and injured my leg. My leg changed color. He tried to give me another blow and attack me, but I managed to run away,” Ariel said.

Ariel had no choice but to continue running as he saw his friends being attacked and the Dutch police standing there doing nothing.

We had to defend ourselves by ourselves. Only after everything blew up in the media did they escort us from the hotel to the airport and try to give us a sense of security. All I did was ask the policeman for help, and he hit me,” Ariel added.

Two Israeli brothers and their grandfather almost got arrested by Dutch police for defending themselves from the mob.

Yeheli Eliasi, 14 told Channel 12 that people were throwing firecrackers at him, his brother and grandfather repeatedly.

They wanted to go to their hotel but didn’t know how to safely under the circumstances, so they removed the legs from a bed frame for self-defense.

“Suddenly, two cars arrived with undercover policemen in them who were going to arrest us. They told us to lie on the floor, put down the sticks, and started kicking us. I was kicked in the hand, my grandfather was kicked in the leg, and my little brother started crying from fear,” Yeheli said.

They finally were able to explain their situation, and after thinking it over, the police decided to take the Israelis to their hotel.

However, Yeheli said, “As we got into the car, we were surprised to see stickers saying ‘Palestine liberation against Israel,’ and the crowd repeatedly yelled at them through the window.”

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While handcuffed on the floor, she was ordered to remove her wig while officers made disparaging remarks about her Jewish faith. 

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

An Orthodox Jewish woman in France has filed a complaint against police over the officers’ allegedly violent, antisemitic and sexist behavior during her arrest, BFMTV reported.

The incident, which was first reported by Mediapart, occurred last June when the 67-year-old woman, a resident of Créteil outside of Paris, was taken to a police station after allegedly failing to comply with police instructions at a traffic stop.

In a video posted to X, she can be seen at the station lying on the floor, handcuffed to a chair and screaming while the police order her to remove her wig an make disparaging remarks about her and her Jewish faith.

The woman, who calls herself Sarah to maintain her anonymity, wears the wig as part of her religious Jewish practice.

Sarah filed a report France’s General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN), which is charged with examining complaints about police misconduct.

However, the IGPN rejected Sarah’s complaint because of an “absence of a serious offense.”

Sarah has now reopened the case and is pursuing legal action charging that she experienced violent, sexist and antisemitic abuse at the hands of police officers.

Since October 7th, antisemitic harassment and violence has been on the increase around the world.

The French interior ministry and the Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF), a security watchdog group, reported 1,676 antisemitic acts in 2023 compared to just 436 a year ago.

Of these incidents, 60% involved the use of physical violence, dangerous threats or menacing gestures and 13% took place in schools.

The report says, “We are witnessing a rejuvenation of the perpetrators of antisemitic acts. Schools are no longer a sanctuary of the Republic.”

CRIF revealed that the rise in antisemitic incidents was the worst it had seen since it began keeping records in 2012.

The organization cautioned that it can only count incidents which have been reported to the police and in reality, there are many more than the published figures.

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Police suggest the facial markings on the detainee might have been caused by an officer’s boot.

By World Israel News Staff

Israel Police on Saturday rejected claims of excessive force and branding a Palestinian with a Star of David during an arrest in eastern Jerusalem, suggesting the facial markings on the detainee might have been caused by an officer’s boot.

The man in question, a resident of the Shuafat refugee camp, was detained on Wednesday following a raid on his residence, under suspicions of drug possession for distribution purposes.

During a subsequent remand hearing at the Jerusalem Magistrate’s court, the defense attorney for the suspect asserted that 16 police officers blindfolded and physically assaulted him, resulting in numerous bruises and facial marks that appeared reminiscent of a Star of David.

The attorney said that the nature of his injuries highlights it as “racially motivated.”

Israeli media reported that none of the officers involved had their body cameras operational during the incident.

Following these claims, the overseeing judge ordered the case be examined by the Justice Ministry’s Police Internal Investigations Department (PIID). Meanwhile, the suspect’s detention has been extended until Sunday.

Police said in a statement that media reports on the incident were “biased and distorted”. The statement refuted any racial motives behind the officers’ conduct, indicating that the detainee had resisted arrest violently and that in return, officers had deployed “reasonable force”. The statement further said that the triangular bruise on the suspect’s face could have been caused by an officer’s apparel.

Police also released a photograph of an officer’s boot with the statement, insinuating that the markings on the detainee’s face might have been a result of the boot making contact.

The statement affirmed that all relevant details will be forwarded to the PIID for an exhaustive review and maintained that any improprieties by law enforcement should be “investigated by the relevant authorities.”

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Ex-police commissioner dehumanizes National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, claims lawmaker was born to do evil and doesn’t have a “drop of humanity.”

By World Israel News Staff

The former commissioner of the Israeli police launched a blistering attack on National Security Minister Itamar-Ben Gvir during a radio interview, saying that the lawmaker is not human and was “born to do evil.”

Moshe Karadi, who served as the general commissioner of the police from 2004 to 2007, told Radio 103FM that Ben-Gvir’s ministerial appointment has created serious challenges for the force.

“There are officers and commanders in the police who focus on the war on terrorism, and those who fight the war on crime. [Police Chief Kobi Shabtai] fought terrorism. A criminal came into his office and Kobi does not know how to fight a criminal,” Karadi said.

“[Ben-Gvir] is a criminal in his very essence; he does things that don’t even have a drop of humanity. He isn’t a human being, he came into the world in order to do evil.”

Karadi said that police officials had to swiftly remove officers accused of using excessive force against anti-reform protesters.

“The commanders need to understand that these officers, even if they are few, are causing damage to the thousands of police officers dedicated to their work,” he said.

“They should be removed from the force as soon as possible,” Karadi continued, without acknowledging that around a dozen police officers were wounded by protesters during demonstrations on Tuesday.

“I am very worried that we are heading for bloodshed,” he added.

Notably, Karadi was police commissioner during the 2005 disengagement, a period marked by intense protests as Jewish communities were expelled from the Gaza Strip. During Karadi’s tenure, protesters who attempted to block highways were violently removed from roadways by police, with some held in pretrial detention for months.

According to Hebrew-language media reports at the time, Karadi ordered officers to create roadblocks to prevent buses transporting protesters against the withdrawal from reaching a mass rally.

Officers then reportedly threatened bus drivers that their drivers licenses would be revoked should they ignore orders and continue taking protesters to the demonstration.

Civil rights organizations in Israel later condemned Karadi for his role in suppressing the protests, arguing that the police had overstepped their authority by infringing on protesters’ freedom of speech and movement.

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Violence following shooting death of French-Algerian teenager raises fears of repeat of 2014 riots targeting Jewish communities.

By Associated Press and World Israel News Staff

Young rioters clashed with police into early Sunday and targeted a mayor’s home with a burning car as France saw a fifth night of unrest sparked by the police killing of a teenager, but overall violence appeared to lessen compared with previous nights.

Police made 719 arrests nationwide by early Sunday after a mass security deployment aimed at quelling France’s worst social upheaval in years.

The crisis posed a new challenge to President Emmanuel Macron’s leadership, and has sparked fears among local Jews that they could be targeted by he rioters.

The 17-year-old, whose death Tuesday spawned the anger, was laid to rest Saturday in a Muslim ceremony in Nanterre, a Paris suburb where emotions remain raw. He has been identified publicly only by his first name, Nahel.

As night fell Saturday over the French capital, a small crowd gathered on the Champs-Elysees to protest his death and police violence but met hundreds of officers with batons and shields guarding the avenue and its boutiques. In a less chic neighborhood of northern Paris, protesters set off firecrackers and lit barricades on fire as police shot back with tear gas and stun grenades.

A burning car hit the home of the mayor of the Paris suburb of l’Hay-les-Roses overnight. Several schools, police stations, town halls and stores have been targeted by fires or vandalism in recent days but such a personal attack on a mayor’s home is unusual.

Mayor Vincent Jeanbrun said his wife and one of his children were injured in the attack at 1:30 a.m. while the family was sleeping and he was in the town hall monitoring the violence.

Jeanbrun, of the conservative opposition Republicans party, said in a statement the attack represented a new stage of “horror and ignominy” in the unrest, and urged the government to impose a state of emergency. French news reports said a prosecutor opened an investigation into attempted murder.

Skirmishes erupted in the Mediterranean city of Marseille but appeared less intense than the night before, according to the Interior Ministry. A bolstered police contingent arrested 55 people there.

Nationwide arrests were lower than the night before. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin attributed that to “the resolute action of security forces.”

More than 3,000 people have been detained overall since Nahel’s death. The mass police deployment has been welcomed by some frightened residents of targeted neighborhoods and shop owners whose stores have been ransacked — but it has further frustrated those who see police behavior as the core of France’s current crisis.

Hundreds of French police and firefighters have been injured in the violence, although authorities haven’t said how many protesters have been hurt. In French Guiana, an overseas territory, a 54-year-old died after being hit by a stray bullet.

For many Jews living in the Paris suburb of Sarcelles and other areas with significant Muslim populations, the riots have been reminiscent of the outbreak of violence in 2014, when French Muslims targeted Jewish businesses and neighborhoods in response to fighting between Hamas terrorists in Gaza and Israel.

Netanyahu: ‘Waves of antisemitism sweeping over France’

Thus far, the riots have not specifically targeted Jews, Jonathan Curiel, a 40-year-old resident of Sarcelles told the Times of Israel, though a Holocaust memorial was vandalized in Nanterre and some antisemitic chants have been reported at the riots.

“In 2014, I was afraid as a Jew. This time, I’m afraid as a Frenchman,” Curiel said.

However, “Israel is closely monitoring and deeply concerned about ‘waves of antisemitism sweeping over France,’ Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during Sunday’s weekly Cabinet meeting.

“In recent days, we have witnessed criminal assaults against Jewish targets. We strongly condemn these attacks and support the French government in its fight against antisemitism,” he added.

On Saturday, France’s justice minister, Eric Dupond-Moretti, warned that young people who share calls for violence on Snapchat or other apps could face prosecution. Macron has blamed social media for fueling violence.

The violence comes just over a year before Paris and other French cities are due to host the summer Olympics, whose organizers were closely monitoring the situation as preparations for the Games continue.

Hundreds of mourners stood along the road Saturday leading to a hilltop cemetery in Nanterre to pay tribute to Nahel as his white casket was carried from a mosque to the burial site. His mother, dressed in white, walked inside the cemetery amid applause.

This week, Nahel’s mother told France 5 television that she was angry at the officer who shot her son at a traffic stop, but not at the police in general.

“He saw a little Arab-looking kid. He wanted to take his life,” she said. Nahel’s family has roots in Algeria.

Video of the killing showed two officers at the window of the car, one with his gun pointed at the driver. As the teenager pulled forward, the officer fired once through the windshield. The officer accused of killing Nahel was given a preliminary charge of voluntary homicide.

Thirteen people who didn’t comply with traffic stops were fatally shot by French police last year, and three this year, prompting demands for more accountability.

In 2005, France was shaken by weeks of riots prompted by the death of two teenagers who were electrocuted in a power substation in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois while fleeing police. Clichy has seen new violence this week.

“Nahel’s story is the lighter that ignited the gas. Hopeless young people were waiting for it. We lack housing and jobs, and when we have (jobs), our wages are too low,” said Samba Seck, a 39-year-old transportation worker in Clichy.

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Protester who was struck with riding crops conducts media interviews from the hospital while sitting in a wheelchair, despite the fact that she was not hit on her lower body, back, or legs.

By Adina Katz, World Israel News

An anti-judicial reform protester who illegally blocked Ayalon Highway and refused to obey police instructions to leave the area on Saturday evening claimed she was the victim of police brutality after she was hit with a riding crop by a police officer atop a horse.

But video from the scene and injuries to the horse tell a different story, backing up the officer’s claim that he struck the woman after she endangered the animal.

“I feel very bad, the police who are supposed to protect me are attacking me,” Yael Reuveni, the woman involved in the incident, told Ynet.

“I was on Ayalon [Highway] and started walking back up [to the street,] when suddenly, a police officer on a horse came up to me,” she claimed.

She said that she ended up “trapped between two horse-mounted policemen” and that they randomly began repeatedly whipping her in an unprovoked attack.

However, video from the event shows that Reuveni did not obey police instructions and was facing the horse, rather than away from the officers and in the direction of protesters leaving the highway. From the video, it also appears that Reuveni was struck just once by the officer.

לפרש הבריון שרמס הערב את אחותי הקטנה ואז הרביץ לה עם השוט, ושוב, ושוב ושוב

אני מקווה שהרבה לילות לא תצליח להרדם מרוב בושה

@IL_police לטיפולכם https://t.co/e4iyeMLiIA

— נוב ראובני | Nov Reuveny (@Nov_reuveny) April 1, 2023

An additional video from a different angle also shows that a cardboard sign and flag Reuveni was holding made contact with the horse numerous times, though she claimed this was an attempt to protect herself.

Reuveni conducted media interviews from Ichilov Hospital while sitting in a wheelchair, despite the fact that she was struck in the arm and not her lower body, back, or legs.

In videos from the scene after she was hit, Reuveni can clearly be seen continuing to walk away from the highway.

Considering that Reuveni was hit on her arm, it’s highly implausible that the incident rendered her wheelchair-bound, as is visually suggested in her media interview.

“After giving the order to disperse the protesters in Ayalon, while warning them that this was an illegal demonstration and that force would be used, two protesters waved protest signs and a flag on a [sharp] stick at the head of a police horse, in a way that endangered the horse, the rider and the protesters themselves,” police said in a statement.

“The rider drove the demonstrator away from the horse while using reasonable force.”

Public Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said that he would investigate the matter and ask Tel Aviv District Commander Ami Eshed for clarification regarding the incident.

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Samaria man’s lawyer says his client is a “police punching bag” who has been persecuted by the authorities for his pro-settlement activity. 

By World Israel News Staff

An Israeli man who was beaten by police during a demonstration said that a high-ranking police supervisor praised his team for their use of disproportionate violence against protesters.

Neria Zarog, a father of four and resident of Geva in Samaria, had traveled to the nearby outpost of Ramat Migron on Tuesday to protest the dismantling of the communities by Israeli authorities.

“I came to protest against the harassment of the residents, and suddenly policemen jumped on me and three other people and dragged us to the jeep,” Zarog told Israel National News.

“The second there were no cameras around, he slammed me onto the floor of the jeep and simply started breaking me apart with his fists. He put boxing gloves on his hands and punched me in the eye and temple one after another.”

Zarog was treated the next day at a hospital for a black eye and bruised ribs. But beyond the physical pain, he said he was particularly distrubed by a police supervisor’s praise and encouragement for the rough treatment he had received.

“It was just shameful and also humiliating,” Zarog added. “Later at the police station, [Senior] Officer Almakais boasted to his subordinates and pointed at me, ‘Nice job – did you see how he cried in the jeep?'”

Zarog has had numerous run-ins with the police on past occasions. A resident of the former outpost of Kumi Ori, he refused to leave his home in 2020, despite an evacuation order, and was violently removed from the site by police.

In January 2021, Zarog was arrested at home in a dramatic police raid. Officers burst into his house, in violation of standard procedure, which would require a phone call or letter asking him to come to the nearest police station. The arrest was regarding an incident that occurred a month earlier, although that investigation ended with no criminal charges.

Zarog’s attorney, Menashe Yado, of the Honenu NGO, told media that he is a “police punching bag” and said that the Israeli authorities have disproportionately targeted his client for his pro-settlement and Zionist protests.

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Some of the mostly young activists have been beaten to the point of needing medical treatment.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The Border Police acted violently overnight Wednesday while removing activists from six new settlement points in Judea and Samaria, with leading right-wing politicians calling the authorities’ actions illegal and anti-democratic.

The IDF moved swiftly to counter the attempt to establish the new communities, two near Kiryat Arba-Hebron, two in the Benjamin region and two in Samaria. They declared the areas “closed military zones” just two hours after the campaign began and prevented people from driving on the adjacent roads unless they could prove they lived nearby.

Large forces of Border Police then started evacuating the mostly young crowds. Various videos uploaded to news sites showed police surrounding just a few activists at a time, pushing down on their necks, yanking them and carrying them off forcefully as they sat on the ground displaying passive resistance.

Other police stood around them facing outward, in a seeming attempt to block the journalists’ and activists’ views of what was happening.

The police went overboard in their zealousness, according to Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan, who arrived at one of the clash points very early Thursday morning.

“We have seen terrible scenes of violence here,” he charged. “For example, two youths have been seriously injured, one whose jaw seems to be broken, and the other has a head wound.”

“The scenes that have taken place here and in other locations tonight haven’t been seen since the Expulsion,” Dagan added, referring to the 2005 forceful evacuation of some 8,000 citizens from their homes in Gush Katif in the Gaza Strip and four settlements in northern Samaria.

Dagan placed responsibility for the illegal use of force on interim Prime Minister Yair Lapid.

“Yair Lapid is responsible for the violence,” Dagan stressed, “and I demand that he stop it. Those here are Israeli citizens and this is their demonstration – and also the life-breath of democracy. The demand to establish new communities is legitimate.

“The Lapid government is betraying its task of building the Land of Israel and damaging Zionism, and the unprecedented levels of violence it is using are unacceptable in a democratic state.”

Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked also protested the brutality against the “wonderful” Zionist youth, tweeting, “Again there is violence [against] settlers. It would be better for the police to save its energy to eradicate real crime in the country.”

A few thousand right-wing activists had answered the Nachala Movement’s call to counter what nationalist leaders have long denounced as a Palestinian attempt to seize land in Area C that the government has not acted against, even though the region is under Israel’s full civilian and military control.

The purpose of the initiative, said Nachala Movement head Daniella Weiss, was to protest the government inaction that is endangering the state and lead to a policy change that looks favorably on the Jewish people settling in their own land.

“We have suffered from the construction freeze for years, and also from the incessant attempts of Arabs to appropriate national lands,” she said. “Now we are saying ‘enough.’ We will no longer allow Arabs to seize our lands.”

Dozens of religious Zionist rabbinic leaders had backed the operation, calling on the government “to return to the original Zionist path and establish new settlements.”

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Floyd family attorney Ben Crump said the family had gotten “some measure of accountability” but is hoping Chauvin gets the maximum at his upcoming federal civil rights trial.

By Associated Press

Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin was sentenced Friday to 22 1/2 years in prison for the murder of George Floyd.

The punishment — which came after Chauvin broke his yearlong silence to offer condolences to the Floyd family and express hope that they eventually have “some peace of mind” — is one of the longest prison terms ever imposed on a U.S. police officer in the killing of a Black person.

Still, Floyd family members and others were disappointed. The sentence fell short of the 30 years prosecutors had requested. And with good behavior, Chauvin, 45, could get out on parole after serving two-thirds of his sentence, or about 15 years.

“Just because it’s the most time doesn’t mean it’s enough time,” said Nekima Levy Armstrong, a Minneapolis protest leader.

Judge Peter Cahill went beyond the 12 1/2-year sentence prescribed under state guidelines, citing Chauvin’s “abuse of a position of trust and authority and also the particular cruelty” shown to Floyd.

Floyd family attorney Ben Crump said the family had gotten “some measure of accountability” but is hoping Chauvin gets the maximum at his upcoming federal civil rights trial. Crump said this was the longest sentence a police officer has ever received in Minnesota.

But he added: “Real justice in America will be Black men and Black women and people of color who will not have to fear being killed by the police just because the color of their skin. That would be real justice.”

Outside the courthouse, a crowd of about 50 people clasped hands or placed them on each other’s shoulders. The reaction was subdued as people debated whether the sentence was long enough. Some cursed in disgust.

At George Floyd Square, as the intersection where Floyd was pinned to the pavement is now known, members of the crowd broke into applause, and several said, “We’ll take it.”

Chauvin was immediately led back to prison. He showed little emotion when the judge pronounced the sentence. His eyes moved rapidly around the courtroom, his COVID-19 mask obscuring much of his face.

The fired white officer was convicted in April of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter for pressing his knee against Floyd’s neck for up to 9 1/2 minutes as the 46-year-old man gasped that he couldn’t breathe and went limp on May 25, 2020.

Bystander video of Floyd’s arrest on suspicion of passing a counterfeit $20 bill at a corner store prompted protests around the world and led to violent rioting in Minneapolis and beyond, as well as demands for overhauling police departments.

On Friday, Chauvin, who did not testify at his trial, removed his mask and turned toward the Floyd family, speaking only briefly because of what he called “some additional legal matters at hand” — an apparent reference to the federal civil rights trial, where his words could be used against him.

“I do want to give my condolences to the Floyd family. There’s going to be some other information in the future that would be of interest. And I hope things will give you some peace of mind,” he said without further explanation.

Defense attorney Eric Nelson had asked that Chauvin be let off on probation, saying the former officer’s “brain is littered with what-ifs” from that day: “What if I just did not agree to go in that day? What if things had gone differently? What if I never responded to that call? What if? What if? What if?”

Chauvin’s mother, Carolyn Pawlenty, pleaded for mercy for her son, saying his reputation has been unfairly reduced to that of “an aggressive, heartless and uncaring person” and a racist.

“I want this court to know that none of these things are true and that my son is a good man,” she told the judge, adding: “Derek, I want you to know I have always believed in your innocence, and I will never waver from that.”

“I will be here for you when you come home,” she said.

Prosecutor Matthew Frank, in asking the judge to exceed the sentencing guidelines, said “tortured is the right word” for what the officer did to Floyd.

“This is not a momentary gunshot, punch to the face. This is 9½ minutes of cruelty to a man who was helpless and just begging for his life,” Frank said.

Floyd family members had tearfully asked the judge to impose the maximum, which was 40 years.

Several spoke before the sentence, and his 7-year-old daughter, Gianna, was seen in a recorded video.
“I miss you and I love you,” Gianna Floyd said in the video when asked what she would say to her daddy. She had a list of things she would have liked to do with him: “I want to play with him, have fun, go on a plane ride.”

Afterward, Floyd’s nephew Brandon Williams said the sentence was insufficient, “when you think about George being murdered, in cold blood with a knee on his neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds execution-style in broad daylight.” LaTonya Floyd, George Floyd’s sister, said of the punishment: “That’s nothing. That’s nothing. He should have got the max, period.”

The concrete barricades, razor wire and National Guard patrols at the courthouse during Chauvin’s three-week trial in the spring were gone Friday, reflecting an easing of tensions since the verdict.
Before the sentencing, the judge denied Chauvin’s request for a new trial. The defense had argued that the intense publicity tainted the jury pool and that the trial should have been moved out of Minneapolis.

The judge also rejected a defense request for a hearing into possible juror misconduct. Nelson had accused a juror of not being candid during jury selection because he didn’t mention his participation in a march last summer to honor the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Prosecutors countered the juror had been open about his views.

Philip Stinson, a criminal justice professor at Bowling Green State University, said 11 non-federal law officers, including Chauvin, have been convicted of murder for on-duty deaths since 2005. The penalties for the nine who were sentenced before Chauvin ranged from from six years, nine months, to life behind bars, with the median being 15 years.

With Chauvin’s sentencing, the Floyd family witnessed something of a rarity: In the small number of instances in which officers accused of brutality or other misconduct against Black people have gone to trial, the list of acquittals and mistrials is longer than the list of sentencings after conviction.

In recent years, the acquittals have included officers tried in the deaths of Philando Castile in suburban Minneapolis and Terence Crutcher in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

“That’s why the world has watched this trial, because it is a rare occurrence,” said Arizona-based civil rights attorney Benjamin Taylor.

Chauvin has been held since his conviction at the state’s maximum-security prison in Oak Park Heights, where he has been kept in a cell by himself for his own protection, his meals brought to him.

The three other officers involved in Floyd’s arrest are scheduled for trial in March on state charges of aiding and abetting both murder and manslaughter. They will also stand trial with Chauvin on the federal charges. No date has been set for that trial.

The post Chauvin gets 22.5 years in prison for George Floyd’s death appeared first on World Israel News.

The PA said it formed a high-level committee to investigate Banat’s death. His family said he was beaten in custody.

By Associated Press

Angry demonstrators clashed with Palestinian security forces for a third day Saturday during a protest in Samaria over the death of an outspoken critic of the Palestinian Authority (PA) who died while in custody.

Hundreds gathered in the city of Ramallah — the headquarters of the PA — to chant slogans against President Mahmoud Abbas, two days after Abbas’ forces beat activist Nizar Banat shortly after his arrest.

The protesters held Palestinian flags and posters of Banat, and called on Abbas to quit. “The people want to overthrow the regime,” they chanted along with, “step down, Abbas!”

As the protesters began to march to Abbas’ office compound, a group of the president’s supporters blocked the rally, prompting an exchange of stone-throwing between the two sides. Palestinian security forces in riot gear fired tear gas and stun grenades at the protesters, sending many running away for cover.

Later, Abbas’ supporters gathered in a counter rally, with many chanting: “People want Abbas as president.”

On Thursday, demonstrators had set fires, blocked the streets of the city center and clashed with riot police in Ramallah. Palestinians also chanted against the PA at Banat’s funeral in Hebron and masked gunmen fired shots into the air. Hundreds also rallied against Abbas after Friday prayers at the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.

The crackdown comes as the PA faces a growing backlash from Palestinians who view it as corrupt and increasingly autocratic, a manifestation of a three-decade peace process that is nowhere close to delivering Palestinian independence.

The PA controls parts of Judea and Samaria, while its rival, the Hamas terror group, has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007. Abbas, who was elected to a four-year term in 2005, has little to show after a decade and a half in power.

The EU has provided hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinian Authority over the years, and the U.S. and other nations have trained and equipped its security forces. The PA is seen internationally as a key partner in efforts to revive the Middle East peace process, which ground to a halt more than a decade ago under the weight of Palestinian rejectionism.

In a series of posts and live videos on his Facebook, Banat slammed Abbas in April for calling off what would have been the first Palestinian elections in 15 years. Banat was a candidate on a slate formed of academics and PA opponents.

The PA said it formed a high-level committee to investigate Banat’s death. His family said he was beaten in custody. An initial forensic examination concluded the cause of the death was “unnatural.”

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