Honenu Attys. HaLevi, Keidar, Rom, Haber; Photo credit: Honenu
For more posts about Arab rioting and Jewish detainees, please see here.
Thursday, May 13, 2021, 15:48 On Thursday, May 13, the Rishon LeTzion Magistrates Court ordered the release from remand of four Lod detainees who had risked their lives and were forced to use their personal weapons defending the residents and houses of their neighborhood. The court rejected the police request to release them to house arrest and ordered them released on condition of posting bail. At the conclusion of the deliberation, the police requested an appeal to the district court, but after agreeing that the detainees would be distanced from Lod for several days, changed their minds about appealing the release conditions.
Out of concern for the lives of the detainees and their families, the court imposed a gag order on any detail liable to reveal their identities.
In court, it was revealed that the investigations officer gave an order not to investigate the rioters, only the Jews who had defended their lives and those of residents of the Jewish neighborhood in Lod. Also, the body-cams on the policemen were not examined, due to lack of time and human resources, and no actions were taken to locate the rioters who were seen in videos of the incidents.
Furthermore, during the deliberation, the police representative said that the testimony of the detainees had been reinforced during the time they were in remand.
Prior to the deliberation, Honenu Attorneys Adi Keidar, Chai Haber, David HaLevi and Nati Rom, who represented the detainees, stated their intent to demand an unconditional release. “The police came to court with a request to conditionally release the detainees. We will argue the point and base our claim on self defense. We will demand that the restrictive conditions be canceled.”
Update 16:51 Rishon LeTzion Magistrates Court Judge Tal Aner immediately released an individual detained last night in Lod and also ordered his Lederman pocketknife returned to him. In his decision, Judge Aner censured the police: “I did not find a reasonable cause that the suspect had committed any crime. Therefore there had been no grounds to detain him, and consequently no grounds for setting release conditions for him.”
Honenu Attorney Nati Rom, who represented the detainee, stated, “Unfortunately the Israeli Police decided on mass detentions of Jews in Lod. Instead of detaining the rioters, they detained the defenders. We are pleased that the court ruled that there had been no grounds for the detention, and ordered the immediate release of the detainee and returned the tools that had been confiscated from him. We hope that more people will come and protect the heroes of Lod and that the Israeli Police will start detaining the rioters, the shooters, and the stabbers, and put an end to the violence.
“The court ruled that no crime had been committed at all and there had been no grounds for the detention. This was a false detention. Instead of dealing with the rioters, the Israeli Police are falsely detaining Jews.”