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What U.S. Police Officers Learn When They Visit Israel
(JTA) Ben Sales - The organizations sponsoring trips to Israel by U.S. police delegations say they do not teach physical tactics such as chokeholds, and that the claim that Israel encourages American police brutality is an anti-Semitic canard. Trip organizers and participants say the trips expose participants to policing practices including models for community policing in minority communities. The itineraries mostly consist of lectures, meetings and tours. "What we do is focus on management and policy issues...not specific tactical training," said Steven Pomerantz, director of the Homeland Security Program at the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs. "There's no shooting, there's no wrestling, there's no chokeholds." The delegations to Israel ramped up after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001 to focus on the Israeli approach to terrorism and counterterrorism, providing an opportunity for American police to learn from a country with many decades of experience protecting civilian populations from attack.