MK Barakeh, a leading member of the Communist Party of Israel, said troops pushed him violently and sprayed him with tear gas when they through tear gas and shock grenades into the crowd.
The incident occurred when IDF soldiers asked dozens of peace and Palestinian demonstrators to disperse. They had staged their protest in front of the settlement inside the West Bank city, a frequent flashpoint for tensions between occupation soldiers and Palestinians. Barakeh, however, refused to leave and told the soldiers that the only people able to make such a request were the city’s true owners, the Palestinians.
Last month, Haaretz Israeli daily newspaper reported that Attorney General Menachem Mazuz was considering indicting Barakeh for "attacking a policeman during a demonstration". Barakeh is suspected of having assaulted a member of the Israel Prison Service’s elite Masada unit at a protest in the West Bank during a demonstration in the village of Bi’ilin in 2005. The policeman was taking a detainee to a police car at the time of Barakeh’s alleged assault.
