Court: Yitzhar minor to remain under house arrest

Tuesday, July 5, 2016, 20:37 On the afternoon of Tuesday, July 5, Petah Tikva Magistrate Court Judge Erez Nurieli announced his decision on the Yitzhar minor currently banned from his home by administrative order.
The minor was detained before dawn on Friday, June 24 in a raid by large numbers of security forces on his home, where he had remained despite an order signed by the GOC of the Home Front Command requiring him to stay at an isolated farm in the south of Israel. The minor’s parents had not given their consent to the arrangement and are not acquainted with the owner of the farm, who, as it became apparent during a June 24 court deliberation, refused to receive the minor. Because he had remained at home, an indictment was served to the minor for violating a legal order.
Judge Nurieli ruled that the minor does not pose a danger by violating the order and that the magistrate court is not the suitable court for judging the legality of the order itself. He also ruled that as long as the administrative order is valid the minor will remain under house arrest, outside of Yehuda and Shomron, between the hours of 22:00 and 5:30 and sign-in at the nearest police station every day for 45 days.
Judge Nurieli ruled that by the afternoon of Tuesday, July 5, the address at which the minor is staying must be submitted, however Honenu Attorney Chai Haber requested a delay in carrying out the decision and announced that he will appeal the order with the district court because the minor has no place to stay. A delay was granted until the following afternoon.
Haber mentioned that throughout the past week the minor has been staying with family and friends, wandering from house to house, but no-one is willing to host him for more than one night due to the disruptiveness of the house checks. Every night the police arrived during the small hours of the night, making an excessive amount of noise, needlessly disturbing the hosts and their neighbors. On some nights the police came several times.
On June 24, during a deliberation at the Central District Court in Lod, the police representative gave an assurance that the police would conduct house checks at reasonable hours of the night. However when the minor was staying at his elderly grandparents’ home the police came at 4:00 A.M., rudely woke up the household, insulted the grandparents and said that they would come whenever they wanted to. The grandmother said afterwards that she found it very difficult to fall asleep and to function the day after the disruptive house check.
Someone else who hosted the minor in Givatayim said that the policemen rang the neighbors’ doorbell by accident and woke them up late at night. Afterwards the neighbors asked his wife if criminals were living at their house.
Honenu Attorney Chai Haber, who is representing the minor, stated that, “It is difficult to imagine that in 2016 a minor is thrown out of his house without an expert opinon being given by the youth probation service and on the basis of an administrative order issued without justification. This is a scandal. The minor has no place to stay and the rude, rough manner in which the police verify compliance with the house arrest conditions brings about a situation in which there is no-one willing to host the minor on a regular basis. The minor should be in his own home and I hope the the district court will accept our opinion and order the cancellation of the decision.”
“The requirements of the order, and now also of the court, are illogical,” say the minor’s family. “He has nowhere to stay. He is a 15-year old youth and when the police harass anyone who hosts him, how do they expect to find him a place to stay? He should be at his home in Yitzhar. It cannot be that because of an unjustified administrative order lacking any evidence he is banished from his home and his family. We will appeal and work towards the cancellation of the order.”
The minor’s family set up a tent in Jerusalem on Monday, July 4 in the Kiryat Moshe neighborhood near Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav Kook. Rabbis, other public figures, and residents of the neighborhood have come to the tent to express support for the family and protest the administrative order.