Judge’s decision, now cleared for publication
Monday, October 20, 2025, 16:36 Two months ago, approximately 20 Yehuda and Shomron residents were detained by the GSS at a demonstration opposite a GSS facility. The residents were protesting the persecution by the GSS of Yehuda and Shomron residents. The detainees were held by the GSS under harsh conditions, and some of them were barred from meeting with an attorney for several days. With Honenu’s assistance, all of the detainees were released without being indicted for any offense. Simultaneous to their detention, a gag order was imposed on the incident of which the detainees were suspected. The GSS also issued an anomalous order preventing Honenu’s attorneys from representing more than one detainee at each hearing. The Petah Tikva Magistrates Court canceled the order.
At a hearing on the order, Judge Zohar Divon Segal censured the GSS for their attempt to prevent detainees from receiving legal counsel: “[The request to approve the order] damages the integrity of the judicial process, and at best it is an attempt to obtain a contradictory judicial decision. In simple words, it uses the ‘it might work’ method. When such a drastic step is requested, the intent is to prevent an individual from receiving representation by an attorney, and the investigating unit must justify the request with substantial arguments before any other hearing. The court expressed great astonishment at the request itself, which is anomalous by all accounts. To the best of my knowledge, with all due caution, I will say that I am not aware of a similar request being requested in significantly more serious cases that have been brought before the court, including cases brought before the court after the seventh of October of terrorists who had attacked Israeli citizens.”
Honenu Attorney Avichai Hajbi, who represented a detainee at the hearing, stated, “The court said aloud what we all have known for a long time: When Jewish detainees are involved, the GSS has their own laws. The time has come for someone to remind the GSS that no authority may violate the law, not even someone who pretends to act in the name of the law.”
Honenu obtained permission to publish the details presented in this article.