Tuesday, August 30, 2022, 19:48 This morning (Tuesday) in Ramat Migron, five residents, three adults and two minors, were detained during the destruction of three houses. They were taken to the Central Unit of Yehuda and Shomron Police Station where GSS agents conducted warning conversations with some of the detainees, which is not the usual procedure. Later, the adults were taken to a hearing at the Jerusalem Magistrates Court. The minors were taken to the Jerusalem Juvenile Magistrates Court.
In court, the police demanded that the detainees be distanced from Ramat Migron for 14 days. Honenu Attorney Nati Rom, who represented the detainees, stated that the demand by the police was outrageous and did not distinguish between the detainees. Likewise, from the time that the order indicating that the site was a closed military zone was presented and the detention, only several minutes passed, which did not allow anyone present to leave the site of their own accord. Furthermore, most of the detainees were permanent residents of Ramat Migron on whom the closed military zone order is not binding. Rom also stated that the detainees do not pose any danger that would justify their being distanced from the site.
The Jerusalem Magistrates Court accepted Rom’s claims, ordered the police to immediately release the three adult detainees, and classified Ramat Migron as a closed military zone for the next two days. The Jerusalem Juvenile Magistrates Court made a similar decision and ordered the release of the two minors.
Honenu Attorney Nati Rom, who is representing the detainees, spoke after the courts’ decision to release them: “More destruction and another brutal detention in Ramat Migron. Some of the detainees had tried to film the police brutality and were assaulted and detained. They refused to sign the two-week distancing order, and rightly so. The use by the Israel Police of distancing orders and warning conversations with the GSS as penalization is unacceptable. We are pleased that the courts released the detainees and rejected the police demand to distance them from Ramat Migron for 14 days.”
After they were detained, the detainees were taken to the Central Unit of Yehuda and Shomron Police Station, where they informed the policemen that they would not cooperate due to the involvement of the police with the death of their friend, Ahuvia Sandak, z”l, who was tragically killed in a police car chase in December 2020. The car Ahuvia was in with four other boys overturned when the police car collided with it from behind. “We refuse to cooperate with the Central Unit of Yehuda and Shomron Police who murdered our friend Ahuvia Sandak,” said the detainees.
Ramat Migron residents reported severe police brutality during the destruction, including excessive force used on women and children. Cell phones were confiscated from residents and others who came to the site to document the destruction. Four residents were injured, one of them a 17-year-old minor whose head and arms were injured.
For two similar incidents in Ramat Migron in November 2021, please click here and here.