Wednesday, January 9, 2019, 14:02
Update: 14:19 Eye-witnesses at the yeshiva: The police forces have entered the Beit Midrash (religious study hall). They are demanding that each student give his name and then immediately issuing in his name a written summons to the Ariel Police for the same day.
Police in the Beit Midrash; Video credit: Elyashuv Har-Shalom
In the early afternoon on Wednesday, January 9, police forces under the command of Officer Shai DeCosta, the interrogations officer of the Central Unit of the Yehuda and Shomron Police, raided the yeshiva in Rechalim. The policemen distributed summonses to interrogation to all of the yeshiva students. Over 30 out of the approximately 80 students at the yeshiva have already been questioned in preliminary inquiries and interrogated about a rock-throwing incident.
The policemen entered the yeshiva illegally, without a warrant permitting them to enter a private space, and after the staff warned them that their entry was illegal and disruptive of the studies of the students. Honenu sent a letter to the police warning them of a possible civil suit.
Honenu leveled criticism at the raid: “The police should decide what they want to do. Currently there are five youths in interrogation rooms. Are they no longer suspects? They should be released. The police are still using the ‘succeed’ method*. Can it be that 80 youths threw a stone together? The police have gone insane and are acting illegally. We call on Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan to wake up and put a stop to the trampling of the rights of children in educational institutions.”
Honenu Attorney Adi Keidar: “We regard with severity the illegal conduct of the police. They are systematically violating ordinances of the law. We explicitly clarified to them that entry to a private space and to living quarters must be carried out according to a warrant. Despite the warning, the police raided the yeshiva.
“The students are already terrified by the goings-on of the past two months and we expect [this raid] to be investigated immediately by the Police Investigation Unit.”
Attorney Itamar Ben Gvir: “The arrival of policemen to distribute summonses in an educational institution is a new low for police and GSS conduct in this case. Beyond the damage to the educational achievements of the students, this [raid] has caused trauma and is in violation of the Youth Law and other laws and international accords. When minors are summoned to interrogation it must be done properly and not in an atrocious raid on an educational institution.”
* Here, Honenu Attorney Adi Keidar described the ‘succeed’ method: “The GSS is conducting the investigation by the ‘succeed’ method: They detain minors, put them in the GSS dungeons and separate them from the outside world. Did it succeed? [In extracting confessions] Great! It didn’t succeed? Then bring more minors [to the dungeons]. Maybe that will succeed. Who is going to put an end to this injustice?”