Sunday, May 11, 18:38 A young man and his friend, both minors, were detained on Friday, May 9 at the Elad Junction on suspicion of, “possessing materials used in a nationalist crime,” according to an announcement from a police spokesman.
In an unprecedented step, and apparently a last, desperate move, in the mid-afternoon hours of Sunday, May 11 the police detained the mother of one of the detained youths shortly before he was scheduled to be released. She has been taken to the Central Unit of the Yehuda and Shomron Police Station for interrogation.
Relatives of the family stated that, “The [law enforcement] system has lost its senses. Only last week there were several attacks and a Jewish woman was murdered, and instead of fighting the genuine enemy the system is wasting time on good Jews. The time has come to differentiate between friends and enemies.”
Attorney Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is representing the mother on behalf of Honenu stated that, “The court ruled today that if there is no progress in the investigation then her son should be released. The police decided to put on a show for the court and what is more serious than anything else, to put unacceptable pressure on a child, forcing him to see his mother in remand so that he would make a false confession. What won’t they [the police] do to satisfy [Internal Security Minister Yitzhak] Aharonovitch…”
The murdered Jewish woman mentioned above is Shelly Dadon, hy”d. The caricature illustrates the media’s excessive coverage of minor, and seldom proven, “Price Tag” incidents – the graffiti in the left-hand panel – while ignoring Dadon’s murder – her grave is depicted in the right-hand panel.
Arutz 7 (Israel National News/INN) interviewed attorney Itamar Ben-Gvir in Hebrew, in front of the Jerusalem District Court. See here for the video clip on Honenu’s Hebrew Facebook page. The following is a translation, by Honenu, of a transcription of the interview.
Ben-Gvir: I think that we are returning to very, very difficult days. I am reminded of the days before the Expulsion from Gush Katif, when the legal system and in effect the police and the Attorney General’s office completely changed their policies. This is what is happening now. [The police] detained two youths, one of whom had in his bag a few nails and a felt-tipped pen. What crime is this – what are we talking about here? What are we talking about here? At this rate they will detain any boy with a pencil case because there is suspicion of [an intended] “Price Tag” incident. The police have no shame. They send out announcements to all the newspapers: We apprehended youths with “Price Tag” paraphernalia. I ask myself, what exactly are the police thinking when they send out these announcements?
We came here, to the [Jerusalem] District Court in order to appeal the decision of the [Jerusalem] Magistrate Court. Indeed the magistrate court judge, of course, did not accept all of the police requests and she extended the remand by only one day. We think that also this one day is superfluous.
In the State of Israel youths are allowed to walk around with felt-tipped pens and nails. Yes, they attend yeshiva in Yitzhar. Yes, they have peyot. Yes, they are maybe what is called ‘hilltop youth’, but in the State of Israel that is not cause for extending a remand. This is also a message for the politicians in our [nationalist] camp, because it seems to me that their conduct, their harsh, often unjustified criticism of this youth sometimes leads some of the judges to various [unjustified] decisions. They [the police] detain them, violate their rights and – Here I call on all of the politicians in our camp to stop [the unwarranted criticism of nationalist youth]! We at Honenu have been working around the clock this past week in order to release these youths and we say that these youths also have citizens’ rights in the State of Israel.
Interviewer, INN: We see that the majority of the detainees are released, so either attorney Ben-Gvir is a very good attorney or someone in the police is trying to fool us.
Ben-Gvir: I think that the second option is correct. Of course I would be very happy about the first option, however the second option is more obvious, more precise and also has an unpleasant significance to the Israeli public. The police are simply conducting themselves according to a bizarre policy of detentions. This past week I handled cases which are simply unbelievable. Children carrying stickers were detained. Children were detained for knocking on doors. Someone called out at policemen and was detained. This is a policy the likes of which we do not remember. And I do ask, where are the citizens’ rights? Where is everyone who yells and screams and argues in the name of democracy in the State of Israel, everyone who is in favor of freedom of expression for every single terrorist? Something has happened to us.