Police raid and detentions in Yitzhar

Wednesday, March 22, 2017, 10:51 At 3:00 AM on Wednesday. March 22, police forces, including dozens of Yassam (Special Forces) police, border police and detectives from the Department of Nationalist Crime in the Central Unit of the Yehuda and Shomron Police, woke up students in the dorms and raided Yeshivat Od Yosef Chai in Yitzhar. Two students were detained and released several hours later. Another youth was served with an administrative order distancing him from Yehuda and Shomron for three months and with an order prohibiting him to make contact with approximately 20 specific individuals. During the past year the youth has been served with several administrative distancing orders.
The police also detained a minor they stated was wanted for interrogation. He was taken to the Central Unit of the Yehuda and Shomron Police and after interrogation released on bail.
A minor was detained during the raid on suspicion of assaulting policemen. The students reported that Yassam and border policemen used force on them, shoved them and hit them. The minor was taken to the Ariel Police Station, interrogated and released to house arrest.
On the same morning Arabs from the village of Madama arrived with a border police escort to plow land in the northern hills of Yitzhar. The police demanded that a 14-year-old youth leave the area, but refused to show him a legally binding order justifying their demand. The minor was detained at the site and released a short time later.
Honenu: “We deplore the police raids on educational institutions in the middle of the night. Waking up students and violating their basic human rights is not acceptable. This raid was not for the purpose of investigating serious cases. There is the impression that the police treat educational institutions in the Jewish sector in a way that they would not dare use with other sectors. A state which wants to be democratic does not conduct itself in such a manner.”
Yeshivat Od Yosef Chai: “The Jewish Department of the GSS continues to strive to turn good Jews away from the system and to cause them to understand that the system pursues them only because of their appearance and their beliefs.”
Another representative of the yeshiva: “We see the same conduct in the persecution of the pre-military academy in Eli, and of other people and institutions that dare to express opinions that are not in line with the prevailing opinions present in the corridors of the Supreme Court of Israel.”