HaRav Shalom Wolpe and Shabtai Weintraub who were accused of encouraging soldiers to refuse an order, were acquitted last December in the Jerusalem District Court on charges of soliciting and inciting disobedience. The state appealed the acquittal, but on Tuesday, 1 Rosh Chodesh Marcheshvan, the appeal was rejected.

It will be recalled that this is a case in which the rabbi is accused of distributing monetary prizes to soldiers who agreed to refuse orders. In 2009 it was reported that during a ceremony of the soldiers of the Shimshon Battalion, two soldiers raised a sign that read, “Shimshon Battalion does not evacuate Chomesh.”

The two were tried and sentenced to 20 days in prison. Rabbi Wolpe and Weintraub held a special ceremony in honor of the Award for the Prisoner of Zion during which they gave the soldier’s family certificates of honor and even NIS 1,100 for each day they were punished. Later on, they even spoke in praise of soldiers and claimed that they would give him a reward for every soldier in a similar situation.

Prof. Aviad HaCohen, who represented Rabbi Wolpe, said: “This is the probable and reasonable result, as we said in the District Court hearing, we do not make the state’s security worse, but rather strict and respectful of the equally important value of freedom of expression, Only the level of probability of “near certainty” of harm to state security may justify restriction of freedom of expression, and in our case there was no such concern.

Attorney Yitzhak Bam, who represented Shabtai Weintraub, said: “This is a significant day for freedom of expression. However, freedom of expression as a right is not self-evident. The fact is that a precedent-setting indictment has been filed against this offense, with all the leftists since Yeshayahu Leibowitz enjoying immunity. Even after the acquittal of the defendants in the Magistrate’s Court, the Jerusalem District Attorney presented himself at the appeal hearing and sought to convict the defendants in a precedent-setting manner. Freedom of speech is a right that must be fought every day. And we are struggling.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)