Thursday, February 23, 2023, 10:09 On Monday, February 20, the police detained Shomron resident Meir Ettinger due to a video recording that was publicized by the media in which he was seen arguing with soldiers near Yitzhar. Ettinger stated that he was assaulted by a prison guard while he was in remand. In a court hearing regarding a request to extend his remand, Ettinger said, “I asked if I could take a book that I had brought with me into the cell. The prison guard refused. Afterward, a more senior commander arrived and I asked him also if I could take the book. I was refused. The prison guard was angry that I had asked his commander. He put me in a room and demanded to conduct a full-body strip search. He stepped on my foot, twisted my ear, threw me to the ground, pulled at my clothes, and threatened to punch me and send me to the hospital.” Ettinger added that after the assault, the prison guard told him that there was no point in filing a complaint because “the Prison Service is higher than the High Court of Justice.”
Subsequent to the incident, Honenu Attorney Eladi Weisel filed a complaint with the police on behalf of Ettinger. Additionally, Weisel demanded that the recordings from the security cameras in the Russian Compound Detention Center that documented the incident be taken as evidence.
Honenu Attorney Moshe Poleski, who is representing Ettinger, sharply criticized the Prison Service and stated, “This was a crime under the protection of the law. It is unacceptable for a detainee to be assaulted by Prison Service personnel. We can only cite what the Supreme Court stated: ‘Prison walls [do not surround] a “normative black hole,” within which there are no rights and there is no protection. On the contrary, a prisoner – who is, of course, subject to certain duties of conduct in prison – is in the custody of the State, and the State bears heightened responsibility for him…’ The State of Israel failed twice, first when ordering my client’s detention, and then by allowing him to be the victim of violence at the hands of a violent prison guard who should be behind bars – not as a guard, but rather as a prisoner.”