Ariel and Emuna Dahari; Photo courtesy of the family
Thursday, July 13, 2023, 8:08 Ariel Dahari, a newlywed 21-year-old who had been a Shomron resident until he got married, has been coping with prolonged and incessant persecution by the security system for the past seven years. Dahari received his first administrative order in 2016 and since then has been served with a total of 18 highly restrictive administrative orders including house arrest, prohibition to contact family members and close friends, and confinement to his current community of residence, Nof Ayalon, for over a year.
Although Dahari’s parents live in Nof Ayalon, he spent, or at least tried to spend, much of his free time in the Yehuda and Shomron regions. He relates how the harassment began when he was only 14 years old: “Since 2016 I have been going around Yehuda and Shomron. I was in Bat Ayin for a while, in Yitzhar, and other places. Even then, I had already received two orders banning me from entering Yehuda and Shomron, and I couldn’t attend the yeshiva where I had started, in Nahaliel. I have been allowed to enter Yehuda and Shomron for only about a year and a half out of the past seven years. For the rest of the time, I was banned. After I was released from administrative detention a year ago, police officers came to my house every night, sometimes twice a night. They knocked at two at night with flashlights. I told them that they should call, and said, ‘You know that I’m at home.’ But they don’t care.”
Approximately one year ago, Dahari got engaged to Emuna Gruen, a Jerusalem resident. The GOC of the Home Front Command, Major-General Rafi Milo, signed restrictive orders that severely disrupted their wedding preparations. Dahari described the difficulties that they faced: “For the past year, I have been under an order confining me to Nof Ayalon. After Emuna and I got engaged, I was not allowed to make contact with her brother or visit her parents’ home. I was allowed to leave my community only to meet with a premarital counselor (madrich hatanim) – other than that, nothing. They didn’t allow me to take care of any of the arrangements for the wedding, not clothes, and not supplies or furnishings for the apartment. They allowed me to leave to run errands only after Honenu Attorney Adi Keidar made many requests on my behalf, and even then, only to a particular place. I also had to be available by telephone, and I was under surveillance. We postponed our engagement party twice because they wouldn’t allow me to go to Jerusalem. We signed a rental lease for a housing unit in Yad Binyamin, and we were forced to cancel it because the administrative order confining me to Nof Ayalon was extended.”
Ariel Dahari married Emuna Gruen last January, and the couple hoped that the harassment would then stop. However, in April, the administrative order confining him to Nof Ayalon was extended by six months, forcing the couple to find an apartment and employment in that community. Dahari detailed how the security system continued to persecute him even after his wedding: “I’m under the order for another two months, and therefore we are forced to continue living in Nof Ayalon, even though there isn’t a large housing selection. In the beginning, they allowed us to visit my wife’s parents in Jerusalem once a month. For the past four months, they haven’t allowed us. I can’t work outside of the community, and there aren’t a lot of jobs here, so I can’t earn a normal living. I thought that after I got married, they would leave me alone to live my life as a normal person. The security system is trying to ruin our lives and isn’t allowing us to maintain even a bit of a routine.”
Two months ago, Dahari’s father suddenly passed away. Even so, the harassment continued: “They suggested that I [sit shiva] in a synagogue, without any place to sleep or anything. They didn’t allow me to choose where to sit shiva, the most basic thing to allow a mourner.”
Despite the severe persecution, Dahari is refusing to give up and promises to continue his efforts in support of Yehuda and Shomron communities and their residents: “We will not relinquish our hold on our Land because of an order. We will continue to build it and make it flourish everywhere. We pray that the security system will correct their ways, stop the persecution of us, and invest all of their resources in the war on the Arab enemy, the genuine enemy of all of us.”
Approximately one month ago, Honenu Attorney Adi Keidar filed a petition on behalf of Dahari with the High Court of Justice against the administrative order.