10-year-old boy detained and beaten by detectives – his brothers threatened by the GSS

Tuesday, May 20, 2014, 8:25 On Monday, May 19, in the early afternoon police detectives arrived at Etzion Bloc community of Bat Ayin and detained two brothers approximately 17 and 19 years old. They were not told the reason for their detention. After the brothers had been loaded into the police vehicle the detectives claimed that their 10-year-old brother threw a rock at the vehicle. One of the detectives stepped out and detained the 10-year-old.
According to the older brothers on the way to the police station the detectives brutally hit their younger brother, claiming that he had been rude to the policemen. “One of the detectives choked my brother and the others beat him,” said one of the older brothers.
The three brothers were taken to the Etzion Bloc Police Station where the older brothers were taken in for interrogation. The younger brother, who is not of legal age to be charged with a crime, was given a warning by a police officer and released at the station.
The older brothers, who had not yet been told the reason for their detention, were astonished when suddenly the police claimed that they had thrown rocks at the police vehicle in which they were transported. Both brothers vehemently denied all charges and after a few minutes the interrogators changed the story and said that they were suspected of assaulting policemen in the police vehicle itself. “The investigators claimed that we attempted to prevent them from hitting our brother and that we assaulted them,” said the brothers, who deny all charges.
Honenu attorney Rehavia Piltz arrived at the police station in order to provide the detainees with legal counsel and work towards their release. Only after a few hours of detention did the actual reason for their being brought to the police station become clear.
Two agents from the Jewish Department of the GSS arrived at the police station and threatened the two brothers. “Two men dressed in civilian clothes came into the room and one of them introduced himself by the name ‘Dan’. He began to threaten me and told me that he follows me 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,” the 17-year-old brother told Honenu. “He told me that his goal is to put me in jail for life and that he will hurt me and my family. I laughed and then he told me that the day will come when I will be in a dark cell and he will laugh at me. When he saw that I continued to laugh he simply left the room.”
The brothers were released to five days of house arrest and issued an order to not leave their home community of Bat Ayin for 15 days.
Honenu attorney Rehavia Piltz is currently examining the possibility of suing the police for false detention of the older brothers.
Also on Monday, May 19 a 12-year-old boy was detained in Bat Ayin. He was taken to the Etzion Bloc Police Station and interrogated on suspicion of assaulting a policeman. Police detectives claimed that he blocked their path as they tried to enter the synagogue in Bat Ayin. After interrogation he was released to his home.