Honenu, Helping People

Honenu Tevet תשע"ג December 2012

Honenu's 24 hour hot line receives many calls all the time from people who need aid and defence. While all around us, there are those who attempt to weaken Israel, Honenu stands for truth and justice. The following are just a few of the cases Honenu has worked on recently. See more examples on the Honenu website.

Oz Zion Dismantled

On Friday Dec. 28, two hours before the Sabbath, troops arrived at the Oz Zion outpost in Binyamin, near Bet El, in an attempt to dismantle it. Hundreds of guests had joined the residents for a very special spiritual weekend. Calls were made to Knesset members and other people of influence to prevent the desecration of the Sabbath and the forces left. A 15 year old yeshiva high school student was arrested and accused of attacking a policeman although the boy and his friends said that the opposite is true. He was released on Saturday night. Although police requested that the youth be put under house arrest, he was allowed to return to his Yeshiva on condition that he stay in the Yeshiva for two days and keep away from Oz Zion for five days. The buildings of Oz Zion were destroyed on Saturday night.

Spies?

This week a plea bargain was reached with a group originally accused of espionage. The events began slightly over one year ago when the Israeli Defense Minister announced his intent to destroy several “illegal neighborhoods” including Mitzpeh Yitzhar of Yitzhar and Ramat Gilad, an outpost adjacent to Karnei Shomron. During the days before the planned destruction, right-wing activists in the areas scheduled for destruction, organized a group to relay information about the location of soldiers who intended to carry out the destruction. Several days later the GSS and the Israeli Police raided an apartment in Kiryat Moshe, Jerusalem which was suspected of being the headquarters for the flow of information regarding movement of the army and for planning demonstrations against the destruction. Several right-wing activists who were in the apartment were detained. Children aged 4-5 were present in the apartment at the time. Two other people who were thought to be a part of the group, were detained later. The charges against them were changed from espionage to “collecting information of military value” . For the duration of a year the five defendants have been under house arrest with severe restrictions, among them a long term ban on usage of telephone, internet or any other means of communication. Some of the restrictions had been eased over the course of the the year. Honenu, which has assisted the defendants with legal counsel since the beginning of the case, states; “We have mixed feelings about the outcome of the case. On one hand we are pleased that the showcase trial conducted against our clients has ended with the Attorney General's office dropping most of the charges, but on the other hand this has been a mark of disgrace for the Israeli legal system which for the first time has made use against Jews of the “collecting information of military value” clause dating from the era of the British Mandate.” Some of the group will spend several months in prison and others will do community service.

Crime or Persecution

On Tuesday, Dec. 25, policemen from Hebron detained two Jewish youths near the Avraham Aveinu neighborhood in Hebron. The two were taken to the Hebron police station where they were told that they were accused of spilling cola out of their car onto an Arab pedestrian. The two detainees denied the chatges. They were released several hours later.

Old City Suspects

Honenu has been involved with many cases of people, dressed in similar religious garb, being searched as they walked through the Old City. Some of these have been residents of hilltops and Judean and Samarian communities and some have been students at local yeshivas. Police claimed that these pedestrians were carrying knives. In one case, the person's bag was searched twice. In the first search of his bag, nothing was found. When he was brought into the police statiion his bag was searched again and a knife was found. He immediately denied that the knife was his and said that it was planted in his bag. He further pointed out that it was not found during the first search of his bag and stated that his fingerprints would not be found on the knife since he had never touched it. More and more people are reporting similar stories of searches and in many cases knives that are unfamiliar to those being searched are being found.

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