Memphis Police Department Chief Cerelyn Davis’ connections to Israeli police training programs is coming under scrutiny by anti-police and anti-Israel activists, who claim that the tactics used by Israel’s police encourage American officers to use more violent methods, such as in the case of Tyre Nichols, according to The Intercept.
Davis’ old résumé revealed that in 2013 she attended an Israel police” leadership program” while working at a department in North Carolina, and also showed that she had facilitated a similar exchange program while working in Atlanta, Georgia, according to The Intercept. In the wake of the death of Tyre Nichols, and complaints about the Tennessee department’s procedures and training, activists have pointed to Israel as a potential culprit for police brutality.
“We know, without a shadow of a doubt, that what takes place during US-Israel police exchanges does nothing to keep our communities safe,” Eran Efrati, director of campaigns and partnerships for Jewish Voice for Peace, an organization calling for an end to the “Israeli oppression of Palestinians,” told The Intercept. “But the exchanges refine and enhance the militarization rooted in American policing with Israeli tactics and technology of occupation and apartheid that are being tested on Palestinians on a daily basis.”
Davis said in 2018 that she was no longer supportive of working with the exchange programs saying she had “no intention to participate or initiate an exchange with Israel,” according to The Intercept, which eventually resulted in a lawsuit being filed by two Israeli police officers, claiming the chief’s statements were discriminatory.
Other activist groups have likened the Israel-Palestinian conflict to police brutality in the U.S. calling for defunding all police departments.
PASS IT ON, COPY/PASTE:
From Jenin to Memphis to Atlanta, the wave of grief from losing our people to cops & soldiers must end. Defund them:
1. Abolish the police and #StopCopCity. #DefundThePolice
2. Stop funding Israel’s massacres of the Palestinian people. #StopArmingIsrael pic.twitter.com/qgPym4R3Jb— Movement 4 Black Lives (@Mvmnt4BlkLives) February 2, 2023
The police chief whose department was responsible for the death of Tyre Nichols, 29, in January, trained with Israeli police in 2013.
Source: The Intercepthttps://t.co/EUl7bWWxmE pic.twitter.com/yNA7zNt4JL
— #SupportPalestine #BDS #Yemen #Kashmir #Assange (@ChristineJameis) February 4, 2023
Most of the complaints stem from the alleged abuse and mistreatment of Palestinians by the Israeli Defense Forces and Israeli National Police, according to The Intercept.
“During these trainings in Israel, U.S. and Israeli officials visit checkpoints, prisons, airports — sites of well-documented human rights abuses against Palestinians,” Efrati told The Intercept. “Participants witness real-life examples of repressive violence, watching the Israeli military repress protests in the occupied West Bank, and joining Israeli police patrols in East Jerusalem and along the militarized fence blockading Gaza.”
Former Memphis police chief Larry Godwin spoke highly of the exchange programs, saying at one point that he hoped to “incorporate” some of what he’d learned, according to The Intercept.
“We’re doing a lot of it, but there’s still some other things we can do, technology-wise,” Godwin said. “I picked up some very good information.”
Davis did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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