Wednesday, October 24, 2018, 14:38 Avraham Tzvi Rabin, a 16-year old minor who
Screenshot of letter to GOC Central Command
recently received his tenth administrative order in 18 months, could not withstand the constant harassment of his family by the police, and in protest transferred the address at which he would fulfill his house arrest order to that of the street on which Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked resides in Tel Aviv. The minor did inform the GOC of the Central Command, who signed his administrative house arrest order, that he was changing the location of his house arrest. See below a translation of the message.
On Tuesday, October 23, when his order took affect at night, the minor arrived at a location close to the home of Justice Minister Shaked. Security notified the police, who detained the minor on the grounds that he had violated the order. Minister Shaked returned home as the minor was being detained. The minor called out to her to cancel the administrative orders.
In mid-October, Honenu Attorney Moshe Yado wrote a letter to the GOC on behalf of the minor, requesting that the order either be canceled or converted to an administrative detention order: “The minor has had enough of the order and requests that it be canceled, and if not, then he and his parents are requesting that he be sent to administrative detention, so as not to disrupt the lives of the entire family, and not to put the youth in a position of risking violating the order and having a criminal case opened against him.”
Yado also stated that, “Every day policemen raid the minor’s home in the middle of the night and wake up the entire family in order to verify that the minor is at home. As a result of this the lives of the entire family have become a continuous nightmare.”
Furthermore: “The extreme demand that the minor sign in every afternoon at the police station, which takes him approximately two hours on public transportation, there and back, is breaking him and destroying any hope of his having a normal daily schedule.”
A recent incident illustrates the extent of the disruption. Rabin was detained, however the Jerusalem Juvenile Magistrates Court decided to release him. As he was leaving the courthouse, Rabin received his tenth administrative order as mentioned above.
Two days after the order was served policemen arrived at the minor’s home in order to verify that he was fulfilling it. During the check the minor told them that he did not intend to follow the order and left his home after them. The policemen detained him. However the Jerusalem Magistrates Court released him, again, because he had not actually violated the order.
Last Shabbat a letter written by Rabin about what has been happening to him over the past few years was published in the Hebrew weekly “Olam Katan”. He described how the saga of the administrative orders began. He stated that he was not at all a “hilltop youth”, but rather visited friends from time to time at an outpost. At one of the times he asked one of the policemen who arrived at the site not to behave violently. The policeman assaulted him and broke his arm. Then Rabin was detained for the first time for “assaulting a policeman”.
In his letter Rabin described how he received his first administrative order after a video clip in which the above-mentioned policeman broke his arm was publicized. After that Rabin received eight administrative orders, including house arrest orders effective at night, which prevented him from attending his high school yeshiva on a regular basis. The last administrative order, the tenth within18 months, which includes house arrest at night and a requirement to report to the police station in Jerusalem every day, was for him the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Rabin wrote: “I understood that I would not be able to withstand this order. I told the policemen that I could not fulfill the order and that they should take me to jail. That was preferable to me over the conditions of the order.” Following that statement Rabin was detained. However the judge who tried his case ruled that, “This is an order that immeasurably violates freedom.”
Shortly a deliberation will take place on the case of the minor. Honenu Attorney David HaLevi will represent the minor.
Photo: Screenshot of the message the minor sent to the GOC of the Central Command
Translation of the text by Honenu:
Urgent Notification of Change of Place
Avraham Tzvi Rabin
pikud.haoref.1 [Central Command]
I, Avraham Tzvi Rabin, ID no. ********* am notifying you that due to the situation in which they [the police] come every day at late hours to verify that I am fulfilling the house arrest order and due to the fact that I have been suffering from this for a long time and because this disturbs my entire family when they [the policemen] wake them up every night when they ring the bell loudly, without showing any consideration for the fact that all in all we are people and my parents cannot stand it any more, I hereby inform you that I am transferring my administrative house arrest to Tel Aviv, the Ramat Tel HaHayal neighborhood, Atarot Street, in a tent which I am pitching there. I also request that they [the policemen] no longer come to disturb my family at my parents’ home, because I have moved to the location I mentioned above. This letter is in addition to the letter my attorney, Menashe Yado, already sent to you, which you did not answer.