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A senior diplomat, the first ever Bedouin to serve in the Foreign Ministry, has lodged a police complaint after being knocked down by security guards at the central bus station in Jerusalem and held in a chokehold.
Ismail Khaldi said that upon arriving at the bus station he took out his mobile phone to take a photo of himself when a security guard approached him and demanded he stops photographing and threatened to wrestle him to the ground.
According to the complaint, Khaldi said as onlookers watched, other security guards then jumped on him and forced him down to the ground holding him by his neck. Three of them sat on the diplomat, holding his neck and head down with a foot and a knee.
"I shouted that I could not breathe, and one of the men asked his partner to remove his leg," he recounted, "I felt humiliated being on the ground for almost five minutes with four security guards on top of me, while I shouted out in pain," the diplomat said.
A counter complaint was lodged by one of the accused security guards, claiming the man refused to show his identity card to authorized personnel and submit to a search.
Khaldi denied the security guards' version of events claiming he was never asked to identify himself to anyone and had his wallet out on the guard's table for the security check, as he was requested to do.
"The station manager refused to hear my complaint and dismissed me with a wave of his hand," Khaldi said, adding that no assistance was offered to him even though he was hurt.
"The entire incident was captured on security cameras in the station and people who were there could attest to the fact that I did not attack anyone or refuse to submit to the security check," he said.
Khaldi was accompanied to the police station to lodge his complaint by senior staffers at the Foreign Ministry and the Director-General of the Foreign Ministry Yuval Rotem called him to express support.
Calling his experience terrible, Khaldi said he had faith that the police will investigate the incident thoroughly.
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The ministry issued a statement condemning the incident. "We were shocked at the events and trust the police to conduct an investigation."
Khaldi, 49, had joined the foreign service in 2004 and is considered one of its most valued diplomats. He had served in several positions and was responsible for combating the BDS movement in the UK while assigned to the Israeli embassy in London and had even come under attack by Palestinians during his term.
In response to the allegations against his security personnel, Jerusalem central bus station manager Yossi Mizrahi claimed his staff behaved according to regulations and that Mr. Khaldi was there to cause provocation.