The four arrested yeshiva students from the Givat Assaf Kollel earlier this week have been unconditionally released. They were taken into custody on suspicion of throwing rocks.

On Wednesday, 22 Shevat 5772, Yassam and border police raided the study hall of the kollel in Givat Assaf, claiming that several of the students had thrown rocks on a nearby road. The policemen detained four of the students for interrogation and conducted themselves violently towards the others who protested the detention and the manner in which it was carried out.

The head of the kollel and the rest of the students vouch that the students had been in the study hall from the early hours of the morning until their arrest and that there is absolutely no basis to the accusations of the border police.

The arrestees told Honenu that during the interrogation, which took place at the Binyamin Police Station, a border police officer entered the room in order to record how they looked and how they were dressed. The arrestees surmise that that was in order to coordinate their identification between all of the policemen who participated in the raid.

The arrested students told Honenu attorney Adi Kedar, who handled their case, that they were denied food throughout the entire interrogation, which had been lengthy.

During the interrogation the arrestees heard from the interrogators at the police station that the identifications made by the border policemen were not reliable and in the end, all of the arrestees were unconditionally released.

Conversation with the ISA

During their stay at the police station one of the students was called to a conversation with ISA (Israel Security Agency – Shin Bet) agents, according to one of the policemen who was present. The yeshiva student who was summoned to the conversation reported to Honenu that during the conversation an ISA agent attempted to get him to talk by various means. The ISA agent claimed that he should talk and not be embarrassed of his ideology. The agent also claimed that there was no real disagreement between them and that he reasons that the learning a kollel student does is important and contributes to the State of Israel. The interrogator did not relate directly to any specific act of the suspect. When the ISA agent did not receive the cooperation which he had expected, he switched to a barrage of threats: “If you do anything, I’ll fight you to the end, you and all of your friends. When I promise, I fulfill my promises. We’ll be sure to make your lives bitter…”

Honenu reports that, “The absurdity of this case is nothing new. For a long time already the forces entrusted with keeping law and order have been steadily increasing their abuse on individuals whose only crime is being a Jew.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)