Israeli probe is ‘cynical’

BETHLEHEM: Israel-based Rabbis for Human Rights said that Israeli leaders’ calls to prosecute the spokesperson for Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence was a move that “smacks of ideological persecution”, amid an ongoing Israeli investigation over an assault he carried out on a Palestinian protester during his service in the army, which he provided as testimony to the group.

Dean Issacharoff came under investigation after a video was released when the former soldier is heard admitting to beating an unarmed Palestinian protester in the southern occupied West Bank district of Hebron. Breaking the Silence provides anonymous testimonies from Israeli soldiers and veterans recounting their experiences serving in the occupied Palestinian territory in order to shed light on abuses committed by the Israeli army. Rabbis for Human Rights said that the investigation was “a cynical move that smacks of ideological persecution”. Ma’an