An IDF investigation has concluded that Palestinian Authority security personnel illegally established a roadblock in Area C of the Binyamin region and unlawfully detained IDF reservist Shlomo Rosenthal, contradicting the initial official explanation that the PA officers had intervened to protect him from an attack.
According to the military investigation, the PA forces had no authorization to operate at the location along the so-called Strongholds Route. The findings determined that the officers detained Rosenthal on their own initiative before eventually transferring him into IDF custody.
The conclusions directly contradict the account initially circulated after the incident, which maintained that PA security personnel had come to Rosenthal’s assistance because he was being assaulted and faced immediate danger. Instead, the investigation largely corroborates the version Rosenthal provided to Arutz Sheva following his release.
The incident began earlier this week when Rosenthal left his home and headed toward Route 443 using the Strongholds Route. Speaking afterward with Arutz Sheva-Israel National News, Rosenthal said that upon reaching the Beitunia Junction, he encountered what appeared to be a police vehicle and checkpoint. He initially assumed they were Israeli, only realizing as he drew closer that the officers were members of the Palestinian Authority security forces.
According to Rosenthal, the PA officers prevented him from continuing, surrounded his vehicle and then physically assaulted him. “At a certain point, one of them grabbed my arm, and when I was unable to defend myself, they all jumped on me, sprayed a can and a half of pepper spray at me, and kicked me in the face.”
Rosenthal said the officers smashed his glasses and confiscated his cellphone, car keys and firearm before pulling him from his vehicle, placing him in handcuffs and forcing him into a PA police vehicle.
He also disputed the original assertion that a crowd of Arabs had gathered around him and that the PA security forces had intervened to save him from them.
Rosenthal said the officers then drove him for approximately 30 minutes in the direction of Ramallah, eventually arriving at a PA police station in the city. He was not brought inside the station, he said, and was eventually permitted to speak with an Israeli COGAT representative, who informed him that IDF personnel would meet him. Rosenthal was subsequently turned over to Israeli forces.
Even before the IDF investigation was completed, Rosenthal vehemently rejected reports suggesting that he had mistakenly entered Palestinian-controlled territory and had then been rescued by PA police.
“That is a complete lie,” he told Arutz Sheva, emphasizing that the Strongholds Route runs through Area C and was a road he had traveled previously.
The IDF investigation has now confirmed that the checkpoint was located inside Area C and that the PA security officers had no authority to establish or operate a roadblock there. Investigators also concluded that Rosenthal was unlawfully detained and that the officers had not arrived at the location to rescue him from an attack, as initially claimed.
The probe further determined that Rosenthal was handed over to IDF forces only after the PA officers had detained him and taken him away from the scene. Those conclusions substantiate Rosenthal’s account on the major points that had been disputed by the initial version presented by defense establishment and Civil Administration officials.
Rosenthal’s vehicle, which had also been taken during the encounter, was subsequently returned to him by the IDF and Israel Police. In the aftermath of the incident, Rosenthal, represented by the Honenu legal advocacy organization’s Department for Victims of Hostile Acts, contacted Defense Minister Israel Katz and IDF Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth and demanded that the PA officers responsible for attacking him be arrested.
Binyamin Regional Council head and Yesha Council chairman Yisrael Ganz praised the IDF for investigating the incident and establishing what had occurred.
“We commend the IDF for the investigation, which confirms the testimony of the Binyamin resident who was abducted by Palestinian Authority security officers, beaten and had his weapon stolen. We thank Central Command chief Avi Bluth and the command’s personnel for establishing the facts.”
Ganz said, however, that establishing the facts was insufficient and called for concrete action against those responsible.
“We must not settle for an investigation alone. This was an armed force of the enemy, the Palestinian Authority, that set up a roadblock within the sovereign territory of the State of Israel, abducted a soldier along with his weapon and transferred him to Palestinian Authority territory. A sovereign state cannot overlook such an incident.”
Ganz called on the Israeli government to respond forcefully, including by ending coordination with the PA and arresting the officers involved.
“We expect the Israeli government to take meaningful action, not merely issue condemnations: immediately end coordination with the Palestinian Authority, arrest the Palestinian police officers involved and put them on trial in Israel. At the same time, the Civil Administration must conduct a thorough internal review into how such an incident was allowed to occur,” he said.
Ganz warned that failing to respond decisively could encourage additional challenges to Israeli control in the region.
“If we do not act now, attempts to erode Israeli sovereignty on the outskirts of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area will continue and intensify,” Ganz warned. “We must not close our eyes and wait for the next disaster.”
{Matzav.com}
