On Friday, 9 August 2024, at around 8:30 P.M., Zuheir a-Rajabi (53), a resident of the ​​Batan al-Hawa neighborhood in Silwan, East Jerusalem, was on his way home when a neighbor informed him that a Border Police officer was chasing neighborhood children. A-Rajabi approached the officer, who claimed that he was looking for a child who had cursed and thrown stones at him, in order to arrest him. A-Rajabi told the officer that he would speak with the children and warn them not to throw stones, and then went home.

Later that evening, at around 10:00 P.M., while a-Rajabi was spending time with relatives at the entrance of his home, four other Border Police officers arrived and demanded he locate the child in question. A-Rajabi’s son, Yazan a-Rajabi (22), began filming the officers, and one of them ordered him to stop. When his other son, Hamza (20), argued that documenting police officers was legal, the same officer approached him and pushed him forcefully, causing him to fall. A-Rajabi asked his sons to go inside, but before they could, the officer threw a chair at Yazan and fired a rubber bullet at the two brothers that hit the front gate. The two entered the house and fled via the rear balcony.

Meanwhile, the officer who had spoken to a-Rajabi in the street earlier that night also arrived. He claimed that a-Rajabi’s sons were the ones who threw the chair and demanded to enter the house to arrest them. At that point, 10 to 12 special police unit officers arrived and searched the house, without causing damage. After the search, the first officer informed a-Rajabi that he was under arrest for interfering with police work. A-Rajabi handed his phone to his brother, Jadallah (45), who was also in the house, but the officers demanded both of their phones. When the two refused, the officers assaulted them, forcibly took the phones, and threatened a-Rajabi’s wife, Rula, with their weapons. The officers continued to beat a-Rajabi and arrested him, locking Jadallah and Rula on the balcony. They then took a-Rajabi away and proceeded to overturn the contents of the house. They damaged some furniture and security camera monitors, and confiscated the drive where the camera footage was stored.

A-Rajabi was taken to the police station on Salah a-Din Street in East Jerusalem, where he was interrogated only the following morning. After the interrogator reviewed the video footage sent to the station by his lawyer, he was released with no conditions and was advised to file a complaint with the Department of Internal Police Investigation. Suffering from multiple bruises and severe pain in his rib area, a-Rajabi went to a hospital to be examined.

The attack on the a-Rajabi family and the arrest of the father are not isolated incidents. They are part of the violence the residents of Silwan’s Batan al-Hawa neighborhood have experienced routinely ever since settler outposts were established in the area. This routine includes relentless attempts to evict residents from their homes, violence by Border Police officers and privately-funded security guards, and daily harassment by settlers.

 

In a testimony he gave on 11 August 2024 to B’Tselem field researcher ‘Amer ‘Aruri, Zuheir a-Rajabi recounted what happened on the day of the incident:

On Friday, 9 August 2024, at around 8:30 P.M., I was on my way home. A neighbor told me that a Border Police officer was trying to arrest some teens and children. That officer has been stationed here for a while and I know him. I asked him what the problem was and he said that one of the neighborhood kids had cursed and thrown stones at him. He wanted to arrest him. I told him I would handle it.

I went back home and sat by my entrance, drinking coffee and smoking a hookah. A while later, four Border Police officers showed up and demanded that I find the kid and hand him over to the police. I told them I didn’t know him. My son, Yazan, was filming the officers, and one of them yelled at him to stop. My other son, Hamza, told the officer that filming is allowed, and then the officer attacked him and pushed him backwards into a trash can.

I asked Hamza and Yazan to go inside, but then one of the officers threw a plastic chair at Yazan, hitting him in the head. The officer also fired a rubber bullet at Hamza and Yazan as they ran inside, and the bullet hit the gate of the house.

While the officer was throwing the chair at Yazan, the officer I’d spoken to earlier on the street arrived. He apparently thought my sons had thrown the chair. I told him that it was one of the officers, but he didn’t listen to me and went into our house to arrest my sons. He couldn’t find them because they’d already gone out through the rear balcony, because they were afraid they’d be arrested.

At that point, 12 members of a special police unit arrived and demanded to enter and search the house. They conducted a search, and afterwards, the officer I spoke to on my way home informed me that I was under arrest for interfering with police work. I handed my phone to my brother, Jadallah, but the Border Police officers demanded both our phones. We refused, and then 4-5 officers attacked us and confiscated them.

Some of the officers pushed my wife and Jadallah to the rear balcony and locked them out there, while the others threw me to the ground and hit me all over my body with their hands and their rifle butts. After about five minutes, they handcuffed me and took me to a Border Police vehicle.

They took me to the police station on Salah a-Din Street in East Jerusalem [Shalem Station]. On the way, one of the Border Police officers cursed me and hit me on the head. At the police station, I waited with my hands tied until 4:30 A.M. when they finally gave me water and let me go to the bathroom. They then interrogated me. The interrogator watched videos of what happened that my lawyer sent, and he saw that neither I nor my sons had attacked any of the officers. He told me I could file a complaint with the Department of Internal Police Investigations against the officers who attacked us, and gave me a referral slip. I was released without any conditions.

At 5:30 A.M., my daughter’s husband arrived and took me to al-Makassed Hospital, where they examined my bruises and advised me to rest for a few days. Since the attack, I’ve been in a lot of pain and can’t sleep because it hurts to lie down. Even sneezing or talking hurts. I intend to file a complaint with the DIP.

In a testimony he gave on 11 August 2024 to B’Tselem field researcher ‘Amer ‘Aruri, Jadallah a-Rajabi recounted his brother Zuheir’s arrest:

They threw my brother Zuheir to the ground. They also pushed Zuheir’s wife, Rula, against the wall and threatened to shoot her just because she tried to prevent them from attacking me. Then they pushed Rula and me to the balcony and locked the door. From the balcony, I heard the sound of furniture and other belongings being smashed inside the house. Later, Zuheir told me that the Border Police officers arrested him before they caused the damage inside the house.

After 10 minutes, the forces left the house, including those who were guarding us. I went back in through the balcony because the door wasn’t locked. I saw that furniture and other things in Zuheir’s house had been destroyed: four security camera monitors, four TV screens, small serving tables and framed pictures that were hanging on the wall.

While they were withdrawing, the occupation forces fired several tear gas canisters throughout the neighborhood, causing damage to residents. People had to close their windows to avoid choking on the gas.