Police, GSS to compensate three youths

Thursday, October 31, 2019, 8:48 The Jerusalem Magistrates Court ruled that in accordance with an agreement between the sides authorizing it to decide compensation based on a compromise, the Israeli Police and the GSS must pay three youths over 7,000 NIS in compensation for illegally summoning them to warning conversations by the GSS.
The youths were not told that they were being brought to GSS conversations and that they had the right not to report to the conversations. One of the youths was summoned by telephone by a policeman at the police station, giving him the impression that the matter was a police interrogation. The youth was also under the impression that if he did not report to the interrogation that a court order, permissible by law, would be issued against him.
During the phone call the policeman presented himself as “Turgeman from the police. I need you to come in for interrogation today.” The youth attempted to verify whether or not the speaker really was a policeman, and in response the policeman replied: “No problem. So you want us to come, detain you and take you in? It’s on me.” The youth also asked for what he was being interrogated. The policeman replied: “The interrogation. I’ll tell you when you arrive at the station… I have to tell you that you are summoned for interrogation. That’s all.”
It was only when the youth arrived at the police station for what he thought was a police interrogation that he discovered that there was no interrogation at all and that the phone call was merely designed to bring him in for a GSS conversation, to which he was not obligated to report.
The second youth was detained in full view of passers-by on the street, as the policemen refused to tell him the cause for the detention. When the youth arrived at the police station the GSS had a warning conversation with him and illegally served him with an administrative order.
The third youth was detained without authorization for the purpose of serving him with an administrative order. When he arrived at the police station he also discovered that the matter at hand was a GSS warning conversation.
Honenu Attorney Menashe Yado, who is representing the three youths: “Right-wing activists must fight tooth and nail for their rights, especially against the authorities and the GSS, who are using the police stations as a place for warning conversations and policemen to summon activists to these conversations. We welcome the court’s decision, but there is a long way ahead of us, a long and constant fight.”