Stop Police Use of Chokeholds

March 2023. Source: "Documentation of the High-Tech Protest", WhatsApp

A chokehold is a method for restraining suspects and detainees that involves applying pressure to a person's neck. In recent years, many countries around the world have changed their legislation, procedures, and guidelines to prohibit or place significant limits on the ability of law enforcement to use chokeholds, recognizing that it is a form of deadly force. In Israel, however, the police routinely use this method of restraint when making arrests. 

Chokeholds cause breathing difficulties and may even result in loss of consciousness. In many cases, the sensation of choking actually produces a panic response and the detainee automatically begins resisting to try and stop the choking, thus producing the opposite result. Beyond the physical risk involved in the use of this method, it also is an affront to human dignity, and has long-lasting psychological consequences. 

On November 4, 2021, we approached the Minister of Public Security and the Police Commissioner along with partner organizations, demanding an end to police use of chokeholds as a means of arrest, control, or restraint. In the appeal, Attorney Anne Suciu presented evidence from 17 cases from the past two years in which this method was used. The documentation indicated that the use of chokeholds is not reserved only for extreme cases when there is a need to control a suspect in a major crime who endangers officers or bystanders, but instead is used as a routine means of restraint and has been used on detainees for minor crimes, in order to disperse protesters, and to lead suspects to police vehicles. ACRI's appeal was joined by Physicians for Human Rights, the Committee Against Torture, the Association of Ethiopian Jews, and the Center for Clinical Legal Education at Hebrew University. 

In response to our appeal, the police reported that on February 24, 2022, a directive was issued clarifying to law enforcement officers that the use of chokehold should be done only in cases essential for control and in proportion to the severity of the offense and emphasized that the technique of placing a knee on the neck should be avoided. 

In our view, the wording of the directive is insufficient. Instead of clearly prohibiting or setting guidelines for the use of this measure, the directive states that: "The technique of placing a knee on the suspect's neck is not taught in the Israel Police and should be avoided as much as possible." This is ambiguous wording that leaves room for broad interpretation by officers. We therefore approached the police again, requesting that they clarify and sharpen the directive, and to establish (as has been done in other countries) unequivocally that officers are prohibited from using chokeholds as a means of arrest, control, or restraint, except in cases where there is a risk to human life. We also sent an additional appeal demonstrating that the directive had not changed the situation on the ground, and that officers continue to use chokeholds as a routine means of arrest and removal. 

On June 15, 2023, following the accumulation of additional testimonies and documentation from the protests against the judicial overhaul, we appealed again to the Police Commissioner. The documentation indicated that the use of chokeholds continued to serve as a routine means of arrest and removal of protesters in circumstances where there was no risk posed by the person and where there was no justification for the use of extreme force. We argued that the recurring cases make it clear that the existing directive is insufficient, and we again demanded its amendment to include clear directives to stop using chokeholds as a means of arrest, control, or restraint except in cases where there is a clear and present danger to human life. 

The police response stated, among other things, that "the chokehold technique as a reasonable means of using force for arrest is not taught. However, there are situations in which the use of a neck grip (which is not choking!) as a means of restraint and control of a detainee is required under the circumstances." It was also reported that in recent months there had been extensive work on the use of force, and that our appeal was brought to the attention of the relevant authorities "in order to emphasize the issue of neck grip, choking, and the use of control techniques." 

On April 1, 2025, we again approached the Police Commissioner and the Legal Advisor to the Police, together with the Public Committee Against Torture, the Association of Ethiopian Jews, and the Clinic for Multiculturalism and Diversity at the Hebrew University. Once again, we presented documentation showing that officers continue to use chokeholds/neck restraints/knee on neck against protesters who are not resisting and do not pose a danger. We emphasized that these are not criminal events but legitimate protest and demonstration events, and that the use of choking methods, in addition to all of the ways in which it is problematic, also creates a chilling effect that deters the public from exercising their right to freedom of expression and protest. We again demanded that the police directive be amended to include an explicit prohibition on any use of restraint techniques involving pressure on the neck area – including knee placement, throat gripping, or any other form of choking – in any context of arrest, control, restraint, or dispersal of demonstrations, except in extremely exceptional cases where there is a real and immediate risk to human life. 

For a list of ACRI’s appeals and Hebrew articles written about this issue, see here (Heb).