Court orders Homesh detainees released

Sunday, March 26, 2017, 15:36 On the afternoon of Sunday, March 26, Petah Tikva Magistrate Court Judge Meirav Kefir accepted the opinion of Honenu Attorney Aharon Roza and released the six Jews detained at Homesh on Saturday night (March 25), after Shabbat, The group was detained on suspicion of entering the area of Homesh, one of the four communities in the northern Shomron destroyed in the 2005 Disengagement Plan, violating the Disengagement Law and disturbing a policeman in the the line of duty.
Honenu Attorney Aharon Roza, who represented the six detainees, disagreed with the claim by the police that an individual who violates the Disengagement Law poses a danger, and demanded the release of all of the detainees. Judge Kefir rejected the police demand to extend the remand of all six detainees by two days and ruled that they will be distanced from the area of Homesh for 30 days and required to post 500 NIS bail.
Honenu Attorney Aharon Roza: “The detention in Homesh, and the subsequent demand for a remand extension, were superfluous and illegal. No-one presented to the detainees a closed military zone order, and once it was clarified to them that they must leave the site, they did so quickly. Proportionality is an essential component of police operations. It would be best if in the future the police did not make the option of detention their first choice. The court rightfully released the detainees.”
The six detainees, some of whom are married, were detained at the close of Shabbat. Honenu’s legal headquarters received a report that while a group staying at the site was eating the final meal of Shabbat, army and police forces arrived at Homesh, but did not catch the entire group.
Homesh was destroyed as part of the 2005 Disengagement Plan. Since then a a public campaign, in which Knesset Members and Ministers calling for canceling the Disengagement Law and rebuilding Homesh are taking part, has been waged in support of Homesh.