Four Jewish youths were detained on Monday, 3 Marcheshvan in raids carried out by the ISA (Israel Security Agency – Shin Bet) and the Central Unit of the Shai police raids in Ofakim, Tapuach and Yad Binyamin.

Two of the youths were transferred to the Central Unit of the Shai (Shomron-Yehuda) Police for interrogation. They are suspected of nationalistically motivated arson. The other two youths, both of them minors, were transferred to the ISA facilities in Petah Tikva. They are being denied a meeting with an attorney, a right usually denied only to terrorists. Youths who were detained by the ISA in May of 2014 reported that they were interrogated for 21 hours a day and suffered humiliation and physical abuse which led to one of them losing consciousness in the interrogation room.

In response to the detention Honenu attorney Adi Kedar, who is representing three of the detainees, said that, “Again the police and the ISA are using improper means, and it is all in order to justify the existence of the Jewish Department of the ISA and the Nationalistic Unit [of the Israeli Police]. During a time in which the security situation of Jerusalem’s citizens is deteriorating one would expect that the security forces and other resources would be devoted to thwarting the uncontrolled Arab terror.”

Following an urgent appeal filed on the detention and the ban on meeting with an attorney a deliberation was scheduled at the Jerusalem Magistrate Court before Judge Chen Avital. However the Central Unit of the Shai Police and the ISA requested that the deliberation be scheduled specifically at the Petah Tikva Magistrate Court, apparently because judges there are more sympathetic to the ISA.

Attorney Itamar Ben-Givir, who is representing one of the detainees, said in response, “The insistence of the ISA to hold the deliberation in Petah Tikva is surprising. The ISA is prohibited from showing a preference and selecting one court over another. In any event the time has come for the ISA to deal with genuine problems in Israel instead of persecuting Jewish youths. Before they hassle hilltop youth they should allot resources for dealing with the youth throwing fire bombs in Silwan and Beit Haninah.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)