Ahuvia Sandak, z”l
See here for a list of posts connected to the Ahuvia Sandak case.
Tuesday, February 2, 2021, 14:32 On Tuesday, February 2, at the Jerusalem Magistrates Court, a Tzfat resident was indicted over involvement with putting up a protest sign at the entrance to Bat Ayin. The sign was placed to mark 30 days since the death of Ahuvia Sandak, z”l, a Bat Ayin resident. Ahuvia was killed in a police car chase and the sign protests the conduct of the policemen involved with the incident. The wording, which resembled the signs the IDF places at the entrances to Areas A and B throughout Yehuda and Shomron read: “You are damaging the security of the community’s residents. You murdered one of our children. Upon your entry you endanger yourselves! You have been warned! This road leads to the community of Bat Ayin. Police not admitted.” See here and here for additional incidents involving protest signs in Tel Aviv and Yitzhar.
One of the charges in the indictment concerns threats related to placing the sign: “In the above-mentioned acts, the defendant threatened policemen and attempted to threaten all of the policemen of the station with harming them or other policemen and that was for the purpose of intimidating or provoking them.”
Honenu Attorney David HaLevi, who is representing the activist, strongly criticized the indictment: “The indictment is outrageous and insane. In a democratic country which reveres freedom of expression and protest, an indictment of this type should not have been filed at all. It is doubtful that the indictment will withstand the court trial.
“In any event, it is very difficult to shake the impression that the indictment is completely tainted by selective law enforcement and points to heavy-handedness and lack of restraint by the authorities, only because the sign is directed at the police. We have no doubts that, in the end, our client will be exonerated in this case.
Honenu: “The indictment is a badge of shame for the State of Israel, which pretends to uphold freedom of expression and protest. At a time when wide areas of Israel are rife with life-endangering crime, the police are investing massive resources in silencing voices of protest, which do not approach criminal behavior by any standard. The Attorney General’s office bends over backwards in making excuses for not opening criminal cases against individuals who openly incite others to terror, but is quick to file illogical and unfounded indictments when it comes to protesting the death of Ahuvia.”