Honenu Atty. Rom; Photo credit: Ishi Hazani, Studio Mirkam
Wednesday, March 1, 2023, 16:25 Wednesday morning, five Yehuda and Shomron residents were detained on suspicion of committing illegal actions at a demonstration that day protesting worsening terror in the area following an attack in Hawara on Sunday. At a Jerusalem Magistrates Court hearing, the police asked the court to extend their remand by seven days. The court only partially accepted the request and extended the remand by two days.
Also, on Tuesday, an Elon Moreh resident was detained at his home under a court order and released at the police station several hours later, after it turned out that he had not been at the demonstration and the court order was baseless. Honenu Attorneys Nati Rom, Daniel Shimshilashvili, and Asaf Gonen are representing the detainees.
Honenu Attorney Nati Rom reacted to the court decision on the remand extension and said, “During the hearing, two additional Yehuda and Shomron residents were detained when they arrived to visit their detained friends in court. This is neither customary nor acceptable, and it indicates the great pressure that the Yehuda and Shomron Police are under. As a result, they are staging detentions for the media. We saw at the hearing that there is no indication that the detainees did anything forbidden, but rather that they were at an event at which 400 people were present. Unfortunately, the police and the GSS are falsely detaining people. In a country under the rule of law, detentions such as these would not happen. The police must search for and apprehend perpetrators of illegal acts. However, there are no grounds to detain people through no fault of their own.
Honenu Attorney Daniel Shimshilashvili stated, “We are witnesses to some of the long-standing conduct of the Israel Police in their coordination of the Yehuda and Shomron Police against citizens whose only ‘fault’ is their desire to live their lives in their own way. Today in court, the police had no answers to the difficult questions that arose. It was not for no reason that the court extended the detainees’ remand by only two days. I believe that my client will be released and not indicted.”
Honenu Attorney Asaf Gonen said, “It is intolerable that the Israel Police in their desire to satisfy the media and others are going on a detention campaign without presenting to the court even weak evidence that provides the grounds necessary to detain my client. The police must bring evidence that my client did indeed actively participate in acts of violence and was not merely at the scene. At the hearing, the police could not point to any evidence of violent acts on the part of my client. They should not have detained him.”