The torn pants and bloodied faces from Wednesday's Route 4 confrontation were merely the visible tip of a far more disturbing pattern. New video evidence obtained by Kikar HaShabbat reveals Israeli police have been systematically violating their own use-of-force protocols at haredi protests for weeks, deploying stun grenades in ways explicitly forbidden by department regulations, but only when the demonstrators are ultra-Orthodox.
The footage, compiled from multiple recent protests by the Committee to Save the World of Torah, documents officers throwing stun grenades directly at protesters' heads and bodies, deliberately turning off body cameras before attacks, and senior commanders visibly coordinating illegal grenade deployments. In one video, a haredi man is evacuated to hospital after a stun grenade strikes him directly. In another, an officer switches off his body camera moments before hurling a grenade straight into a crowd.
Police regulations explicitly prohibit direct throws of stun grenades at demonstrators. The protocol mandates grenades be tossed into the air or onto the ground at a minimum distance of five meters, allowing the device to detonate safely away from human targets. The videos show those rules being ignored repeatedly, but sources familiar with police operations at other protests confirm the same protocols are scrupulously followed when dealing with non-haredi demonstrators.
