Wednesday, June 8, 2022, 14:15 Honenu Attorney Adi Keidar, who is assisting the group: “Students touring Lod were attacked by a group of rioting Arabs. Police arrived on the scene after the attack, and the students described in detail to them what had happened. The following morning, at dawn, their guide, a normative individual, a father of four children, a teacher and an educator, was detained (see video clip below) and handcuffed in front of his wife, through no fault of his own. He was released after interrogation early in the morning. Apparently, the police have not learned their lesson and are continuing to defend Arabs, pursuing the victims and not the perpetrators. The security of citizens continues to deteriorate.”
A group of Jewish students from an educational institution in the south of Israel was brutally attacked several times by Arabs, including with tear gas, while on a tour of the Ramat Eshkol neighborhood of Lod on Tuesday, June 7. The students were forced to flee and take cover in a nearby synagogue. Police forces arrived on the scene, rescued the group, and escorted them out of the city. The police did not detain any of the assailants.
At dawn the following morning (Wednesday) the police raided the home of the students’ rabbi in the south of Israel and the home of the group’s guide in Lod. The rabbi was with the students on their trip and therefore was not at home at the time of the raid. He scheduled an interrogation at the Lod Police Station for later in the day. The guide was handcuffed at his home in front of his wife, taken to the Lod Police Station, interrogated there, and then conditionally released.
Honenu Attorney Adi Keidar filed an appeal, summarized below, with the Rishon LeTzion Magistrates Court demanding the cancellation of the conditions on the grounds that from the start, the police did not handle the incident according to the law.
Summary of the appeal:
When policemen arrived on the scene, the guide gave them his personal details and when he returned home, he filed a complaint with the Israel Police on their website. To his shock, many policemen arrived at his home at dawn and detained him on suspicion of “causing damage”. The police continue to handle situations exactly as they did before Operation Guardian of the Walls. However, they very quickly sent five policemen to detain a victim at dawn. Policemen at the station refused to allow the guide to speak privately to his attorney, forcing them to hold a discussion in their presence.
Under interrogation, the guide denied all charges and clarified that he and the group of students were attacked, and it is not clear how the police received the opposite impression. Also, although he was dazed by the tear gas sprayed by the attackers, the guide tried with non-violent means to stop the attack. At the end of his interrogation, the guide was required to sign on release conditions, to which he expressed his opposition. If he had not signed on the conditions, he would have been held in remand.
The conditions include distancing from Ben Yehuda Street and a ban on making contact with the others involved in the incident. His home is on the street that he is forbidden to enter! This is atrocious treatment by the police: the interrogation, the remand, and also the release conditions themselves. The appellant stated that the conduct of the police from the start of the incident until the end has been illegal, outrageous, and indicates that the police have taken a dangerous stance abandoning the Jewish residents of Lod, as if nothing has been learned from the painful past.
In conclusion, this case should be immediately closed due to lack of guilt, and the sooner the better. The honorable court is requested to order the cancellation of all of the release conditions.
Detention of the guide in Lod; Video credit: Odeya Poris