Honenu Attorney Keidar; Photo credit: Honenu
Monday, January 2, 2023, 19:21 This morning (Monday), Ariel Dahari, a young Shomron resident engaged to be married in three weeks, received an administrative order signed by the GOC of the Home Front Command, Major-General Rafi Milo. The order, which prohibits Dahari from leaving the community in which his parents live, was issued immediately after a similar order imposed on him expired.
Honenu Attorney Adi Keidar, who is representing Dahari, stated in reaction to the order, “The GSS persecution of hilltop youths is intolerable. They are driven by improper motives, including a lack of justice and balance in the operations of the Jewish Department of the GSS and also the Yehuda and Shomron Police. In this instance, instead of showing humanity and consideration for someone who is trying to establish his own home, they are continuing to harass him. We will petition against the decision.”
To that end, Keidar sent a letter to Major-General Milo and requested that he immediately cancel the order: “As you know, my client in this matter is busy with the final preparations for his wedding, which is planned for January 26, in Jerusalem. At midnight last night, the restrictive order issued to my client expired, and with that, we hoped that the prolonged harassment of my client and his family was over. We hoped that now he would be able to set his sights on the future and build his home with his wife in peace and quiet.
“Despite the desire of my client to put the residual effects [of the harassment] behind him, you chose to renew the abuse of my client and impose severe restrictions on him, without a trial and without having any evidence, during the most exciting and celebratory time of his life. The restrictions are liable to de facto interfere with building a home together with his wife, Ms. Emuna Yehudit Gruen. This conduct constitutes a direct continuation of the draconian policy that has been applied to [my client] for the past few years One of the record lows [in the treatment of my client] occurred only recently when he was required to change the arrangements for his engagement party and postpone it due to the intransigence of the system that did not allow it to be held as planned at the home of the Gruen family in Jerusalem. The regretful saga caused by that policy is certainly well known to you.”
Keidar cited the persecution of Dahari: “The order claims, in vague language, that [my client] ‘continues to pose a significant threat to the security of the State’. It should be clarified that my client denies the claim that he was involved in any violent activity, and it is clear that there is no updated information with regard to such activity, because recently, my client has been under stringent administrative restrictions and does not leave the gates of Nof Ayalon without specific permission from you, which is given very sparingly. The undersigned is well aware of the tight surveillance that the law enforcement authorities impose on my client and his friends who number among those called ‘hilltop youth’. It is obvious to everyone that if there were any evidence at all of his involvement in violent activity or alternatively, any violation of the administrative restrictive conditions, then criminal proceedings would be started against him.”
Keidar explained that because of his upcoming wedding, Dahari’s confinement to the community in which his parents live is unreasonable: “With regard to restricting [my client] to Nof Ayalon, this situation cannot in any way remain standing. [My client] and his wife will not be able to live in [my client’s] mother’s house. Alternative housing in the community is not available due to the lack of apartments available for rent, certainly not in the short time left before the wedding. A few weeks ago, the young couple closed with a landlord in Yad Binyamin for the rental of a housing unit as newlyweds. All of my client’s possession are already packed in preparation for the move to the new apartment. Photographs of the packed cartons in the Dahari’s salon in Nof Ayalon are attached.
At least the young couple should be allowed to live in Yad Binyamin. My client is busy with the last preparations before his wedding. Restricting him [to staying in Nof Ayalon] prevents him from carrying out the most simple and necessary tasks he must do at this time: registering the wedding with the rabbinate, purchasing furniture and appliances, setting up the new apartment, attending the tasting at the wedding hall, and many more. All this is before we mention the wedding itself and its date, the [seven] days of ‘sheva brachot’ during which a party is held with different relatives and friends every day. It is absolutely impossible to accomplish all of the abovementioned under the current restrictions! Likewise, it should be clarified that advance notification of every move and action and submitting a specific request for every time [my client leaves] Nof Ayalon is within the realm of impossible, as is maintaining the order and all of its conditions. My client must be allowed to leave for all of the abovementioned reasons, the necessary preparations for the wedding, the wedding, and the ‘sheva brachot’, and he must also be allowed to freely visit the bride’s parents’ home in Jerusalem for Shabbat, as is customary in traditional families,” concluded Keidar.