The following report was released to the media by Honenu officials in light of continued arrests of suspects allegedly connected to the Price Tag operation. The report was released on Sunday, 9 Cheshvan.
Three Jewish youths were arrested this morning by detectives from the National Unit of Serious and International Crime Investigations. The three, residents of Hebron, Yad Binyamin and northern Israel, were arrested at various sites and brought to the National Unit of Serious and International Crime Investigations offices in Lod.
The youths had been arrested approximately eight months ago, two days after the murder of five members of the Fogel family, on the main highway in Wadi Ara. During a routine search policemen found a bottle of gasoline in their car and brought them in to the police station. The three explained that they were on their way to visit rabbis’ graves in the northern region of Israel and that the bottle of gasoline was kept in the car in case they ran out of gas.
After a short investigation the three were unconditionally released. Several days later the investigative file was transferred to the Yehuda and Shomron Central Police Unit, and they summoned the owner of the car to an investigation.
Approximately two months ago detectives from the Yehuda and Shomron Central Police Unit arrested the driver of the car for an additional investigation, at which he again denied all charges and was released. The driver is a Hebron resident, whose brother’s murderers were released in the framework of the Shalit Deal.
During the past few weeks, with the transfer of ‘price tag’ cases to the special investigative staff set up by the National Unit of Serious and International Crime Investigations, the investigators decided to summon the owner of the car for an additional investigation.
This morning, eight months after the first arrest, the three youths were arrested again, this time by the National Unit of Serious and International Crime Investigations, and the investigators are currently requesting that the court extend their remand on suspicion of crimes for which they had already been investigated then.
Honenu reports that, “The new investigative staff for what are now called ‘price tag’ incidents has lost all sense of proportion. The police are conducting themselves in a draconian manner. It is illogical for the change in investigative staff to be cause for arresting people again, when all of the claims against them were proven baseless. We hope that the court will put the police in their place and release the three youths.”
Sources close to the detainees reported that “These are desperate steps taken by the new investigative staff, which must justify its existence and the huge budget allocated to it. The National Unit of Serious and International Crime Investigations is looking for more media headlines in order to misrepresent the arrestees as suspects in ‘price tag’ incidents.”
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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One Response
The investigators clearly reflect the position of Israeli elites, that religious opponents of the state are an existential threat to the zionist movement and are acting accordingly. The Israeli ruling class has no problem with persecuting Muslims and wouldn’t be so upset if, for example, one group of Arabs attacked another group (especially if neither group was anti-Israel). However the Hareidim and Religious Nationalists are enemies of those who rule Eretz Yisrael, and the police are acting as one would expect in a country in which the role of the police is to root out elements opposed to the regime.