In what most view as a miscarriage of justice, Gilad Farm resident Itai Zar spent a month jail, officially waiting for the social workers to complete an evaluation that would permit his release on bail. His crime surrounds the removal of residents of Gilad Farm in Shomron, a community that has been a sore point for the government for some time.

Zar, who according to all who know him, is a law-abiding citizen, a person who rejects violence as a means to an end. Nevertheless, he stands accused of puncturing the tire(s) of a border police vehicle, as well as threatening border police with a knife.

There are many witnesses who have stated openly Zar was not involved in any such actions, but there are border policemen who are telling a different story. Zar told Galei Tzahal (Army Radio) on Thursday morning that he is confident he will prove his innocence, adding there is a simply reason authorities, who usually run to have a suspect submit to a polygraph exam refuse to do so here, since they know the border police are not telling a true story.

“I am law-abiding and I do not break the law” he explained. “Anyone who still has a bit of Jewish pride and believes in settling the land, who does not subscribe to the government’s agenda, must be broken. That is what they are trying to do to me…This is a Bolshevik regime… they compelled me to sit in jail hoping to break me”.

Zar explained half jokingly that he is among the nation’s 1,000 most dangerous criminals, since his release from jail demands he wear an electronic handcuff ankle bracelet to monitor his activities, one of a 1,000 criminals nationwide. He also had to put down NIS 20,000 in cash and a 15,000 bond, and was remanded to the Jerusalem home of his parents, in the Pisgat Ze’ev neighborhood, banned from returning home.

He spoke of the loss of a livelihood while in jail, and now, unable to return home to work in the five month until his trial begins.

Zar concluded by telling politicians they “forget who the true enemy is”, reminding them he was among the soldiers fighting in the Second Lebanon War and those in the emergency call-up for Operation Cast Lead.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)