Left: Ariel Gruner, one of the men forced to leave his home and family for six months with only three days’ warning and no legal charges.
On Sunday the Cabinet decided to further strengthen rural and urban communities in the Negev and the Galilee by supporting groups of young people who are prepared to move to these areas in order to bolster existing communities. (Item 9 of cabinet meeting communique from Oct. 11)
Netanyahu’s government appears to be continuing the plan of transferring Jews from Judea and the Shomron to other parts of Israel, in accordance with illegal international demands, and as expected. This continued surrender of sovereignty and territory, and population transfers will bring more war, not peace.
As we have seen many times through the years, Israel’s enemies are not looking for a redress of grievances, but for victory over Israel. Consequently every surrender weakens Israel and strengthens its enemies. Legitimate grievances by Israelis, both Arabs and Jews, should be addressed and rectified as far as possible, but the demands of Fatah, the PLO, Hamas, the Arab League, Iran and so on are not legitimate grievances and should be treated as acts of hostility against Israel. There should be no negotiation or appeasement in the face of demands on territory or Israeli sovereignty within its borders, which extend all the way to the Jordan river.
Israeljustice.com — JERUSALEM — Israel’s military has served administrative expulsion orders to three Jewish residents of the West Bank community of Yitzhar.
Israeli Army Central District Commander Maj.-Gen. Gadi Shamni signed administrative orders to evict three Jews from their homes in the northern Samarian community of Yitzhar and to distance them from Judea and Samaria for six months.
The three, Akiva HaCohen, 25, Ariel Groner, 24 and Eliav Eliyahu, 19, haven’t been charged with any crime.
Army officials said the administrative orders were issued after “information was received of their involvement in violent and illegal activity and in light of the genuine danger foreseen from them to security and the public order.
“This is not connected to the olive harvest,” HaCohen said. “They [the police] said this is connected to confrontations between Jews and Arabs and the eviction from and destruction of outposts.”
HaCohen, a father of four together with his wife, Ayelet Hashachar, who is in her ninth month, said that he had not yet decided how he was going to respond to the order.
HaCohen said he drove to the central Israeli city of Petah Tikva on the morning of October 11 to purchase building materials. As he got out of his car to pay the parking, he was surrounded by four police officers who served him the administrative expulsion order. Another eight police officers remained in the police vehicles.
The order allows three days for HaCohen to appeal and one week to leave his home for six months or face imprisonment.
“This is anti-democratic and is discrimination against Jews,” HaCohen said. “What about the left-wing and the Arabs?”
HaCohen and Groner, also a father of four with a newborn, are not newcomers to this scenario. HaCohen was expelled from his home in Yitzhar in October 2006 for over three months after sitting in jail for attempting to enter the now destroyed Gush Katif in the Gaza Strip in August 2005.
In August 2007, Groner was jailed for two months for breaking an administrative expulsion order from Yitzhar and was then ordered to live under house arrest in a mobile home in the scorching Beit Shean valley without air conditioning for three months. He was then forbidden from returning to Judea and Samaria for another three months.
In previous years, security forces said they served the administrative orders during the Palestinian olive harvest to prevent confrontations between Jews and Arabs but by October, the harvest is almost complete.
“It’s not connected to the olives,” Daniella Weiss, one of the leaders of the Land of Israel Faithful Movement said. “It’s connected to the eviction of outposts and to [Defense Minister Ehud Barak] who wants to destroy them.”
The Land of Israel Faithful Movement issued a statement criticizing the government for its use of undemocratic tools and for failing to tell HaCohen, Groner or Eliyahu why they were expelled from their homes.
“We sharply and unambiguously condemn these expulsion orders,” the statement said. “We demand that the Government of Israel, a nationalist government, immediately stop the erroneous use of these undemocratic tools that are reminiscent of dark periods in our history.”
And more information from Israel National News (A7)…
(IsraelNN.com) In response to the abrupt announcement that three activists may not return to their homes in Samaria for six months, residents say leftists have taken over the army’s Central Command.
Early Monday morning, IDF Central District Commander Maj.-Gen. Gadi Shamni issued orders banning two prominent Land of Israel activists from returning to their homes, or anywhere in the Shomron (Samaria), for the next six months. The two are Ariel Gruner and Akiva HaCohen, both fathers of four children and residents of Yitzhar in the Shomron.
This is not the first time for either of them: In July 2006, Gruner – whose youngest son is now ten days old – was placed in prison for seven weeks under administrative detention orders generally employed against Arab terrorists. He was then placed under “caravan arrest” in a small Jordan Valley community for three months, followed by a three-month ban on entering Judea and Samaria. In August 2008, HaCohen was banned from the Shomron, where he lives, for four months.
A Third Expellee
Several hours later, Shamni issued similar orders against a third Yitzhar resident, Eliav Eliyahu, 19, who has been married for less than a year.The official explanation for the latest orders: “Information has been received of their involvement in violent and illegal activity… and in light of the genuine danger foreseen from them to security and public order.”
The Shomron Residents Committee responded, “This decision by Gen. Shamni to distance two young men from their families for six months with the weak excuse of ‘danger’ is an evil, arbitrary, cruel and brutal move. The radical left has taken over the top brass of the Central Command, making intolerable use of their authority and power, and the Prime Minister and the Cabinet ministers of the nationalist camp must put an end to this phenomenon.”
Worse Conditions than Prisoners
David Ha’ivri, Director of the Shomron Liaison Office, said: “The forced banishment of men who are providers for their families causes unfair damage to their income and disrupts their families’ well-being… If there is credible evidence of any wrongdoing, let a trial take place; extrajudicial moves have no place in Israel’s legal system. Moreover, we demand that all expenses such as loss of livelihood, etc., be covered by the State.”Yitzhar spokesman Yigal Amitai noted that jailed prisoners are provided with room and board, and their families are also provided for in some form, whereas “in this case, it appears that as far as the State is concerned, these activists can simply evaporate; there is no provision for alternative housing or sustenance.”
Undemocratic Tools
The Land of Israel Faithful Movement stated: “We sharply and unambiguously condemn these distancing orders. We demand that the Government of Israel – a nationalist government – put an immediate halt to this wrongful use of these non-democratic tools that are reminiscent of dark periods in our history.”MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) criticized what he called the “thought police,” and asked why it is that pro-Arab activists and anarchists in the Bil’in and Naalin protests “who throw rocks at soldiers” never receive such orders.
