An Israeli court on Saturday freed without charge three Turks who had been arrested on suspicion of assaulting police outside a Jerusalem holy site contested by Jews and Muslims, a police spokesman said.
The Israeli forces told the group that they would not be able to enter the site unless they took off their t-shirts with the Turkish flags, causing a brawl after which two people were detained, the eyewitnesses said.
The detained Turkish citizens came to Jerusalem from Belgium and hold dual citizenship.
Bystander video appeared to show Israeli police detaining several fez-wearing men and boys in the walled Old City of East Jerusalem, which Israel captured in a 1967 war and which Palestinians want as capital of their own future state.
Rosenfeld said the three Turks “carried out an assault on police officers there”. He did not elaborate on the circumstances, other than to say there were no casualties.
Brought before Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court on Saturday, the men did not speak from the dock. Two of them flashed four-finger hand gestures that appeared to be the so-called “Rabia sign” of solidarity with Egypt’s ousted Muslim Brotherhood.
The Turks’ Israeli defense lawyer, Nick Kaufman, said police asked the court to keep them in custody so charges of assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest could be brought.
“It was obvious that this was a politically charged case and the judge rightly released them,” Kaufman told Reuters.
