The Israeli military’s top general suspended all operational activities of a reserve battalion involved in the detention and assault of a CNN team in the West Bank last week – including dismissing one soldier from military service – the Israeli military said Monday.
The reserve battalion, which is comprised of hundreds of reservists who served in the ultra-Orthodox Netzah Yehuda battalion, will be immediately withdrawn from the West Bank and reassigned to training until further notice, an Israeli military official said.
The sweeping disciplinary action by Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, the Israeli military chief of staff, appears to be unprecedented in speed and scope, coming about 48 hours after CNN’s report about the incident first aired. It also appeared to reflect growing concerns inside the Israeli security establishment about spiraling Israeli settler violence in the West Bank.
The suspension follows an incident Thursday in the Palestinian village of Tayasir, where CNN’s Jeremy Diamond and his team were covering the aftermath of a violent assault by settlers who established an illegal outpost in the village. The soldiers detained the team, after one of the soldiers placed CNN photojournalist Cyril Theophilos in a chokehold, bringing him to ground and damaging his camera.
The assault of Theophilos will be investigated by Israel’s military police, a military official said.
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