Police filmed children bathing in a spring - and compensated them with 40,000 shekels

April 11, 2022   

After four years: The police will compensate the three children who were recorded by Border Police officers while bathing in a spring used as a mikveh in the settlement of Yitzhar in Samaria. Cleaning for Passover: What do you know about the rules for maintaining the home gas system? The Deputy President of the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court, Judge Mordechai Burshtin, accepted the children's claims of violation of privacy and individual confidentiality, criticized the police officers' conduct during the incident and awarded total compensation of 40,000 shekels. In his decision, the judge criticized the police officers' conduct during and after the incident. "No action report was prepared, and in addition, one of the police officers confirmed that the police officers coordinated versions. One of the police officers in the police station reported: 'He wrote to me in Hebrew letters with an Arabic meaning: that the second version is the correct one and to remember it.' This admission is enough to significantly damage the police officers' version," the judge claimed. Regarding the photographing of the children, the judge said: "Despite the fact that the police officer was aware of the minors' condition, the time required to get dressed, and the fact that they were not dressed, the police officer continued to use the operational camera. There was no necessity or urgency to re-enter the scene, and there was no danger that justified another entry." The judge further wrote: "The additional and unnecessary photography significantly exceeded the required conduct, while ignoring the rights of minors." Attorney Menashe Yado, who represents the three children on behalf of Honenu: "A photograph of three children aged about 12 and a half years, when they were immersed in a Mikveh Tahara spring in Yitzhar - this is not how the operational activity of the Israel Police in Judea and Samaria should look. "I heard no condemnations from either the Commissioner-General or the Minister of Public Security for the shameful conduct of their police officers, nor did we see any indictments from the Police Department - neither for the photography nor for the coordination of versions and obstruction of justice carried out by the police officers during the investigation. No disciplinary indictment was filed and no disciplinary sanctions were taken. The Jerusalem District Attorney's Office defended the documentation of the children until we received, after three years of legal struggle, a ruling that finally explicitly defines that there was no justification for photographing the small children." The incident occurred in the summer of about four years ago, when the three children were bathing in a spring near Yitzhar. The children, one 12 and a half years old and two 13 years old, went down to the spring with one of their dogs, which was tied to a stretchy leash that blocked the road leading to the place. A Border Police jeep appeared behind the children, honking its horn to get the children to clear the crossing. The children pulled the dog toward them to clear the road, and ran to the spring. This is a spring hidden from public view, covered by a sealed cistern and serving as a mikveh where one can remove their clothes in private before bathing. The children undressed and dipped in the spring, when they suddenly noticed two Border Police officers who had entered under the cistern. The officers took pictures of the children with their personal cell phones and another camera, which caused the children to cling to the sides of the spring to hide. The children asked the officers to leave so they could get dressed and speak to them in an orderly manner outside the spring. The officers agreed, but returned to the scene again in a very short time, before the children had time to get dressed. The children tried to hide their bodies and faces with their hands and towels, and asked the officers to stop taking pictures of them. In the video, the children can be heard pleading: "Why take pictures? No, we're naked! You thief. Are you ready to come out?" "Wait, wait." Then the policeman comes back and takes a picture of them again. The children hide and say, "Why, but why?" and the policeman replies, "I have to." The children reply, "Fuck, we're naked. Come on, are you ready to come out?" The children filed a lawsuit against the police through attorney Menashe Yado on behalf of the Honenu organization, and as mentioned, the court ruled that the police must compensate them with 10,000 shekels each, as well as 10,000 shekels in legal costs, a total of 40,000 shekels.