Hevron: Jews injured by Arabs detained, court orders their release

Sunday, June 22, 2014, 20:51 Two young Jewish men were assaulted on Shabbat (Saturday, June 21) by a group of approximately 20 Arabs as they strolled near the Cave of the Patriarchs (Ma’arat HaMachpela) in Hevron. IDF forces who arrived on the scene extricated them thereby preventing a tragedy.
To the astonishment of the assaulted Jews, one of whom recently completely his army service, policemen who arrived on the scene detained them and brought them to the police station following a claim by the Arabs that the Jews had assaulted first. The medical condition of the assaulted Jews necessitated their evacuation to hospital for medical treatment. One of them suffered injuries to his legs and the other suffered a dislocated shoulder. Overnight they were released from hospital and then taken back to the police station where they were interrogated on suspicion of assault.
On the morning of Sunday, June 22 the assaulted Jews were brought to the Jerusalem Magistrate Court and the police requested a three-day extension on their remand. The police representative explained that even though three out of the many Arab assailants were detained also the Jews should be left in remand in order to verify if their testimony of the incident is correct.
Attorney Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is representing the Jewish detainees on behalf of Honenu, asserted that they had been assaulted by approximately 20 Arabs and that the police had not carried out even simple actions, such as examining the video records of the security cameras at the site, in order to verify the claim made by the assaulted Jews,.
Ben-Gvir also pleaded that the detention was not legal being as the police informed the detainees only on Sunday morning that they were being detained, when according to the law they should have been informed earlier. At the end of the deliberation Judge Yael Yitav accepted Ben-Gvir’s pleas, ruled that the likelihood that the assaulted Jews had committed the crime of assault was slight and released them on condition of a restraining order banning them from entering Hevron for 30 days.
Ben-Gvir stated that, “The Hevron Police should take stock of their actions. Jews were assaulted and injured, but the police detained them and brought them in for a remand extension. I must say that during parts of the deliberation there was a feeling that some authorities among the police have a short memory and have not taken into consideration that only a week and a half ago Arabs kidnapped three youths close to Hevron. It would be interesting to know what would have happened had the same 20 Arab assailants trapped the Jews in a house. The two young Jews were in a life threatening situation and the conduct of the police has legitimized the violence of the Arabs.”
Honenu responded: “If the Police Unit for Nationalist Crime with all of its extremely well-funded resources would focus on genuine nationalist crime then perhaps there would be no nationalist crime against Jews in the Land of Israel.”