Punches to the chest and ribs: police officer charged with assaulting a 17-year-old
According to the Police Investigation Department (Mahash), two 17-year-olds arrived at a banquet hall in Jerusalem to receive payment for their work. A confrontation developed with the police officer who was securing an event at the location. He is charged with both a violent assault on one of the teenagers and assaulting his friend.
The Police Investigation Department (Mahash) filed an indictment in the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court against Ben Levi, born in 1989 from Jerusalem, who served as a police sergeant in the Malha-Katamonim precinct, for assaulting two 17-year-old teenagers who arrived at a banquet hall in the city to receive their wages.
The incident occurred on May 12, 2025, in the evening hours at the Valkan banquet halls in Jerusalem, where Levi was participating along with other police officers in a security mission for a Torah scroll dedication event, which also included a procession outside the hall. At a certain point, an argument developed between the two teenagers and a shift manager at the hall, after the two arrived to demand their wages.
According to the indictment, filed by Adv. Tomer Akilov from Mahash, Levi ordered the teenagers to move away from the place and pushed one of them after he refused to leave. A few minutes later, the two returned and asked to enter the hall to receive the money owed to them, but Levi refused to allow it even after the hall's CEO asked him to let them in. Finally, the shift manager brought their wages out of the hall.
After they had already received their money, it is alleged, Levi called out to one of the teenagers: "Who are you looking at?" and demanded that he identify himself. When the teenager refused, according to the charge, Levi hit him hard with his fists in the chest and ribs and grabbed his hands. When the second teenager approached to defend his friend, Levi also hit him with his fists on his head.
Later, according to the indictment, Levi pushed the first teenager several times with force against a nearby wall and ordered him to sit on the floor. After he refused, he kicked him hard in his right leg. Then he grabbed him by the neck, forced him to the ground, pressed his knee to his back to prevent him from getting up, and hit him on his head.
As a result of the assault, the teenager suffered a large hematoma on his ribs on the left side, a small cut on the eyebrow above the right eye, redness and sensitivity in the right knee, and sensitivity in the ankle. The indictment charges Levi with the offense of assault causing actual bodily harm in multiple acts.
The investigation was conducted by the Jerusalem team of the Police Investigation Department. Mahash informed the court that if Levi is convicted in the case, there is a possibility that it will request to impose an actual prison sentence on him.
