No replacement was immediately named, although Israel Radio reported that one possible candidate was Brig. Gen. Effi Fein, who has risen through the ranks despite his involvement in a beating incident during the Palestinian uprising.

The British government has vowed to investigate the beating incident and has announced the arrests of three people.

A bit of preconvention edginess was discernible even before the beating incident.

By the time Chief Kirchner's decision was announced, the anger had for the most part been vented, and both sides were engaged in calmer discussions of the beating incident.

The police had arrested Walter Davis, 28, in the beating incident in which the police said the victim was struck with a metal bar.

Referring to the beating incident, he added, "I have never seen, nor heard, the intensity, the sense of furor, that people have expressed, not just in this city."

General Mitzna and other Israeli officials have said that such beating incidents were "aberrations" and exceptions to army policy.

Later, Mr. Spota successfully defended him in 1993 against assault and robbery charges in a beating incident.

After the beating incident last fall, Judge Dolan was denied extra court officers and negotiations with the city for another space for the court's criminal business seemed deadlocked, so he imposed the cap.

In "The Smell of Burning Ants," for example, Mr. Rosenblatt used old instructional films about bullying and fights between boys to explore a disturbing beating incident from his own youth.