The IDF Civil Administration gave Arabs permission to plow land which they claim in fields adjacent to the Jewish community of Eish Kodesh in the Shiloh Bloc region of Shomron. Residents of Eish Kodesh were understandably concerned, based upon incidents in the past in which Arabs plowing land they claim within the area of Eish Kodesh have threatened residents. Therefore residents protested the presence of the Arabs so close to their homes. On the afternoon of Wednesday, 9 Teves, a resident of Eish Kodesh was detained at the time that Arabs plowed the above-mentioned fields. According to the police she is suspected of disturbing a policeman in the line of duty and entering a closed military zone, misdemeanors which do not constitute grounds for detention. However the police immediately informed her that she was detained and being taken to the police station.

Honenu notes that despite the fact that she was detained at approximately 13:00, only at approximately 19:30 was she interrogated. She reports that during the entire time she was held in a cell without minimal facilities and was not given food. After a short interrogation she was released on condition of a restraining order banning her from the Arab towns Jalud and Kusra.

Honenu deplores the conduct of the police and is certain that the detention of the woman without just cause for six hours was deliberate harassment, being as she was released a short time after her interrogation. “We don’t understand how the police can be so cruel to a Jewish woman, a mother, whose only ‘crime’ was that she protested allowing Arabs [who present a possible threat] into Jewish communities.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)