Release of detainee who was falsely detained for alleged threats

Thursday, November 20, 2014, 9:01 Moshe Ben-Zikri, a Lehava (The Organization for Prevention of Assimilation in the Holy Land) activist in Eilat, was detained after he asked an Arab gas station manager in the city to break off his relationships with two Jewish women. The Arab claimed that Ben-Zikri threatened him A recording of their meeting proved that it was a false complaint.
Moshe Ben-Zikri, a long time activist against assimilation, was detained on Tuesday, November 18, by the Eilat Police following a complaint by an Arab gas station manager in the city whom he had asked to break off his relationships with two Jewish women.
On Tuesday Ben-Zikri went to the gas station which the Arab manages, began to talk with him and requested that he break off his relationships with Jewish women. When the Arab manager asked Ben-Zikri to leave, he left. The Arab manager then called the police and complained that Ben-Zikri threatened to murder him. A short while later Ben-Zikri was detained at the entrance of his daughter’s pre-school and taken in for interrogation. Ben Zikri’s recording of the conversation refuted the Arab’s claims and Ben Zikri was released with a a restraining order banning him from approaching the Arab complainant for 15 days.
In the recorded conversation Ben-Zikri is heard explaining to the Arab that his relationship with one of the employees subordinate to him at the gas station is against the law and that if he doesn’t break it off a complaint will be filed against him and he is liable to be fired. Additionally Ben-Zikri is heard explaining to the Arab manager and the Jewish employee with him in the office that a relationship between an Arab and a Jew is against Islam and against Judaism. The recording proved that there was no threat of murder and that Ben-Zikri left as soon as he was asked to do so.
Honenu, which assisted Ben-Zikri, responded that, “The policy according to which every false complaint by an Arab against a Jew is turned into the ‘holy of holies’ by the police is a disaster. It is regretful that in the State of Israel someone who expresses his opinion against assimilation finds himself in remand.”