Shmuel (Zangi) Meidad; Photo credit: Honenu
Sunday, December 20, 2020, 18:04 The Jerusalem Magistrates Court rejected the police request and ordered the release of the three youths who were detained in Hevron on Shabbat (yesterday). At the deliberation the police requested a five-day detention for the youths. At the conclusion of the deliberation Judge Elazar Bialin accepted the opinion of Honenu Attorney Adi Keidar, who represented the youths, and ordered their release on condition of posting bail and an order distancing them from the individuals involved with the case. In his decision, Judge Bialin noted that the acts attributed to the youths and the charges against them were vague, and that detaining them for five days was unjustified.
The youths were detained on Shabbat, near the Tel Romeida neighborhood of Hevron, as Jewish residents protested that Arabs who had assaulted a Jewish youth had not been detained. The incident began with an argument between Arab youths and the Jewish youth. At some point Arab adults joined the disturbance and severely assaulted the youth. Nearby soldiers who protected the youth were also assaulted by the Arabs. Policemen from the Hevron Police who arrived on the scene prevented the soldiers from detaining the Arabs. The assaulted youth and other residents from the Jewish Community of Hevron objected, and at some point the policemen detained two youths who were protesting the refusal to detain the Arab assailants.
At the court deliberation, the police representative confirmed that complaints had been filed also against the Arabs. When Honenu Attorney Adi Keidar asked whether the Arabs had been detained, the representative admitted that no Arab had been detained yet. When asked concerning the claim that the youths had been brutally detained, the representative replied that the case would be transferred to the Police Investigation Unit for examination.
Honenu Attorney Adi Keidar: “We are pleased with the court’s decision, which prevented a libel against the three youths who had been brutally detained through no fault of their own. The detention was tendentious and an abandonment of Jews in the City of our Forefathers.”