Eliya Ben-David; Photo credit: Ya’ir ֹUriel
Tuesday, February 11, 2020, 13:54 Two “garinim toranim” (groups of religious families living in a city with the intent to strengthening the Jewish community) in Nof HaGalil expressed their shock over the detention and called for the release of Eliya Ben-David. HaGarin HaTorani-Tzioni and Garin Torat HaChayim sent letters to Defense Minister Naftali Bennett, demanding that he immediately cancel the order issued to Eliya Ben-David, a resident of Nof HaGalil.
“We would like to express our shock over the administrative detention of a member of our community, and expect the Defense Minister not to cooperate with actions against the youth,” wrote the Torat HaChayim community in a letter.
The members of HaGarin HaTorani-Tzioni wrote in their letter: “We turn to you with a request to immediately cancel the administrative detention and release him as the judge ruled.” Additionally they wrote that administrative detention is an offensive practice and that Ben-David should be granted all of the rights to which suspects are entitled, if in fact he has violated the law.
Eliya Ben-David is a 19-year-old resident of Nof HaGalil. His father, Rabbi Golan Ben-David, is the principal of a Talmud Torah in the city and the family is well-known in the National-Religious community. On Monday, February 10, Eliya was detained under an administrative order signed by Defense Minister Bennett, minutes after he was released from remand by order of Central District Court Judge Ido Dorian Gamliel, who censured the police and the GSS in his decision.
The order states that the detention is for the duration of one month, and Ben-David will not be brought to trial.
Honenu Attorney Adi Keidar, who is representing the youth, : “The law enforcement system has reached a new low. Today the Central District Court ordered, while censuring the police and the GSS, the release of a suspect, and informed him that he was being released. During the deliberation the police and the GSS, without informing the court, came and clandestinely took him, and gave him an administrative order. The order is signed by no more and no less that the newly appointed Defense Minister, Naftali Bennett, who has joined the community of people who have won across-the-board condemnation from the Israeli public – the law enforcement system, the Attorney General’s office, the police and the GSS. Unfortunately the way things were done was inappropriate. We will appeal to the court for cancellation of the unjust order.”