GSS hassles Gemara class

Sunday, March 4, 2018, 8:47 A Gemara class held at the Adei Ad synagogue is regularly interrupted by policemen who demand the names and ID numbers of the participants. Hadar Sarid, an Adei Ad resident, explained how the policemen arrive every evening and interrogate the students, asking them questions about themselves and their activities at the site.
“The class is held after evening prayers, and has been going well for about a year. All we do is learn Torah and then return home,” said Sarid. “This class bothers the Shabak. There is a group of youth here whom they do not like who sit together every evening. That is a problem as far as they are concerned, and they try to be tough and disrupt this class in any way that they can. That’s the story.”
Hadar stated that Itiel Zuaretz, an Adei Ad resident who was distanced two months ago from Yehuda and Shomron for six months, had been a dominant figure in the class, until his distancing. Despite his absence the class continues to be held, although many of the participants receive phone calls from GSS (Shabak) agents threatening them that if they dare to come to the class, they will all be distanced.
“There are testimonies from the group that the Shabak called and threatened them. They come to the synagogue, disturb us in the middle of the class, demand an ID card from each participant, and demand, ‘Who are you?’, ‘And who are you?,’ and ‘What are you doing here?’. [The approach of the GSS is:] There are guys here with long payot, so let’s work against them. They [the GSS] want to create something for themselves to do.”
Sarid stressed that there are no criminals or individuals with a criminal police record or convictions in Adei Ad and that the class was started by Adei Ad residents who want to learn Torah. Sarid added that, “There is a system here that is hostile towards people who want to learn Torah.”
Shmuel (Zangi) Meidad, the director of Honenu, stated that, “It is simply shocking how policemen in the State of Israel trample Jewish values, enter a synagogue bare-headed, interrupt a Torah class without cause, and when that is pointed out to them, they reply with crude language that denigrates the uniforms they wear. With this sort of conduct it is no wonder that there are neither sufficient forces nor resources to deal with the genuine enemy.”