Reservist arrested by Palestinian police: "They lynched me"

Reservist Shlomo Rosenthal told this evening (Tuesday) in an interview on the program "The Patriots" with Yinon Magal about the incident in which he was arrested by Palestinian police officers on his way to Jerusalem. According to him, the incident occurred on Sunday night on the Ma'azim axis, in an area that he claims is in Area C, after a Palestinian police jeep blocked his path.

Rosenthal said that after the police officers identified him, they surrounded his vehicle and demanded he get out.

"I was surrounded by many Palestinian police officers with weapons aimed at me, about 30 police officers, I had nowhere to move," he said.

According to him, he tried to continue driving but one of the officers turned off his vehicle, and at some point they tried to take his weapon from him.

The incident quickly deteriorated into violence.

"One of them grabbed me by the left hand and I could no longer fire. They jumped on me, sprayed me with pepper spray and kicked me in the face while breaking my glasses," he said.

According to his claim, the officers took his car key, phone, and weapon, forcibly removed him from the car, and continued to beat him outside the vehicle as well.

Rosenthal said that afterwards he was handcuffed and driven towards Ramallah. During the drive, the officers cursed him and debated how to act, and only after some time did they allow him to speak with the IDF's Coordination and Liaison Administration.

"They told me that soon I would join an IDF force, and indeed after a few minutes we arrived at a parking lot where an IDF force arrived and picked me up," he said.

According to him, the entire incident lasted about an hour and a half.

Later, Rosenthal criticized the way the incident was initially described. He noted that reports claiming a Jew "got confused on the way and arrived in Area A" were incorrect. Even the later correction, stating he was in Area C and a crowd had gathered, was inaccurate.

"There were no civilians at the incident at all, only Palestinian police officers. This whole lynching was by them," he said.

In conclusion, Rosenthal called for a re-examination of the attitude towards the Palestinian police.

"I call on the IDF to understand that the Palestinian police are a bunch of terrorists who received weapons and do whatever they want. Tomorrow it could happen to a pregnant woman. It is a danger."