Honenu Attorney Adi Keidar; Photo credit: Honenu
Sunday, December 15, 2024, 12:29 Natan Kimchi, an 18-year-old yeshiva student and part-time Yehuda and Shomrom resident, was detained at Ben Gurion Airport on his return from Uman after Rosh HaShana. Two other Yehuda and Shomron residents were also detained upon their return from Uman. Several days after his detention, the GOC of the Home Front Command, Major-General Rafi Milo, placed Kimchi under nighttime house arrest for four months, required him to report to a police station twice a week, and banned him from entering Yehuda and Shomron for four months. Honenu Attorney Adi Keidar filed an objection on behalf of Kimchi asking Maj.-Gen. Milo to relax the conditions and consider allowing him to serve the house arrest at his yeshiva in northern Israel. The request was refused. The resident must serve the house arrest at his parents’ home in Jerusalem.
Kimchi leveled sharp criticism at the defense forces and described their constant persecution: “My name is Natan Kimchi, I am 18 years old, currently living in Jerusalem, and I attend a yeshiva in Tzfat. Over the past year, I have been the victim of a witch hunt by the security forces. Administrative restrictions have been imposed on me, and I have been banned from entering Yehuda and Shomron. The height of the persecution was when I returned from Uman after last Rosh HaShana. I was detained at Ben Gurion Airport and then transferred to a GSS facility where I was interrogated for many days and accused of illegal activities against Arabs in the Shomron. I was not allowed to meet with an attorney, nor given any food as required by law. I was released from detention by the Magistrates Court, and although the GSS appealed against my release the District Court also released me without an indictment. Several days later, I received a restraining order banning me from Yehuda and Shomron for four months, and also a nighttime house arrest order requiring me to stay at my parents’ home in Jerusalem every evening from seven until the morning. I also had to report to a police station twice a week, and I was forbidden to make contact with several of my good friends. The restraining order went into effect immediately. I was not allowed to appeal it as I should have been able to according to the law.”
Kimchi added, “The persecution against me continues even now that I am under house arrest. Every night, police officers come to check on me, usually during the small hours of the night. They bang on the door and wake up my family. We are eight siblings living at home. My youngest brother is three years old. Even though I asked them [the police] to be considerate and come at normal hours, they haven’t shown any willingness to comply. They’re still coming to bang on the door late at night.”
Kimchi concluded with his reaction to claims by the defense forces that he poses a “danger to the public”: “I do not understand why they have been persecuting me for such a long time. All I want to do is study Torah in peace without restrictions. The request for the lifting of the restrictions that I sent via Honenu to Major General [Milo], who imposed them on me, was denied without a satisfactory explanation because of a vague claim that I am ‘dangerous.’ I do not have a criminal record. Exactly whom do I endanger? Someone must put an end to the persecution of the Yehuda and Shomron residents who devote their lives to the Land of Israel and defend all of us on the ground and on the battlefield.”