Scores of Israeli cops hurt drilling to wreck Jewish communities

[Israel Insider]

About 6,000 police officers participated in an exercise intended to simulate demolition of a Jewish community as well as riots in Arab towns. The officers were divided into law enforcement personnel and Jewish resistors in the largest exercise by the force.

"This marked a successful end to a comprehensive training regime for police forces," Police Commissioner Inspector-General David Cohen said of the December 18 simulation. Officials said the exercise was meant to improve police anti-riot skills.

Many of the cops got carried away by the violence. Literally.

54 officers were injured in the exercise at a military training facility in southern Israel. The injuries included broken bones and sprained limbs. "When there is such a large exercise meant to simulate a real-life situation, there are also injuries," a police statement said. They included five injured when a police van overturned, reportedly caused by the driver who fell asleep.

Police, who have been criticized for excessive force against women and children demonstrators, have been granted greater responsibility for operations against Jews in the West Bank. They cited the Dec. 4 violent police raid on the Jewish-occupied Peace House in Hebron in which 30 people were injured.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak has pledged to escalate a crackdown on Jewish dissidents in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank. Barak said that Jews among the 300,000 Israeli residents of the West Bank posed one of the biggest challenges to the military and police. The police exercise also included a simulation of a riot by Arabs, similar to the violence in the coastal city of Acre in September 2008. Officers were dressed in Arab headdress and waved Palestinian flags in the mock confrontation. "The police are ready for any complex scenario, as well as protecting law and order and maintaining public peace," Cohen said.

IsraelJustice.com contributed to this reported.

[Robert Bernier]

The "Hilltop Youth".
In a country where the justice system is political, a media that makes no room for a flow of opinions, where half the nation finds no place in the media discourse, it should come as no surprise that the only communication tool left is the rock. The youth gathered at Beit Hashalom in Hebron have skipped school 2 weeks but the lesson they received from the government of Israel in civics was more than they could have ever received in the classroom. As to coexistence with Arabs : http://xrl.us/oxz7f

[David Ben Ze'ev Aryeh]

it's too bad they didn't drop dead.