In response to the government’s most recent efforts to impose the judicial overhaul by taking steps to fire professional gatekeepers keeping check on the government’s actions, thousands Israelis have been taking to the streets in protest. On March 25, 2025, we contacted senior police officials to demand that they investigate the violent conduct of Border Police (Magav) officers during protests that took place in Jerusalem the week before. The appeal was accompanied by firsthand documentation that presented a troubling picture of unbridled police violence against nonviolent protesters: police punching protesters’ faces and genitals, dragging protesters across the street by their hair, intentionally smashing protesters' mobile phones to prevent them from documenting the violence, and more. Some Border Police officers attacked protesters without wearing name and while keeping their faces covered.
In ACRI's appeal, Sivan Tahel, ACRI’s Director of Freedom of Expression and Protest, and Lawyer Nitsan Ilani asserted that "the fact that non-violent protesters were beaten with violence that was disproportionate and arbitrary requires an immediate and comprehensive investigation of the event's progression, the operational and command figures involved, and the instructions given on the ground." They noted that police officers must be identifiable in order to deter officers from abusing their authority, and argued that the extensive use of unidentified officers in protests contradicts police procedures and reflects a serious lack of transparency and an alarming deviation from legal provisions. As the appeal states: "Documentation of the serious violence employed by Border Police officers who were without name tags and/or wore a face covering is precisely the realization of the fear of all restraint being abandoned by unidentified officers, knowing they cannot be held accountable.”
The petition also mentioned that it is not appropriate for Border Police officers to be used as a police force against a civilian population, especially in matters relating to suppressing the freedom of expression and protest: "Positioning a force with military training, part of which includes young soldiers doing their mandatory service, to handle protests, leads to recurring incidents of disproportionate police violence, the dispersal protesters using harsh measures, and harming the freedom of protest and expression, as well as the physical integrity of the protesters.”
ACRI’s Appeal, March 25, 2025 (Heb)