Posted on 06/20/2006 11:19:48 AM PDT by Nachum
Eran Sternberg, director of Arutz Sheva's televised programming, was forcibly detained and questioned by General Security Services (GSS) on Tuesday. They warned him that he "had best be careful."
The GSS (Israel's domestic intelligence agency) claimed that Sternberg engaged in violent incitement against officers of the law. Sternberg, who was the former spokesman for the Gaza Coast Regional Council before the uprooting of the Jewish communities of Gaza, vehemently denies the allegations.
Sternberg, 31 and a father of four, currently lives in Yad Binyamin, between Beit Shemesh and Ashdod, together with his expelled neighbors from the former northern Gush Katif community of Ganei Tal.
This morning (Tuesday) at 6:00 a.m., three state agents arrived at the Sternberg home and forcibly arrested Eran. He was released after 20 minutes of interrogation, at the end of which Sternberg said his interrogators told him that they do not have clear evidence of the alleged incitement. Nonetheless, according to Sternberg, the GSS agents concluded with a warning that he was "walking a bad path" and that he "had best be careful."
Speaking with Arutz Sheva after his release, Sternberg said, "I have not been involved in any sort of violence against the police and I will not be involved in anything related to violence. It is all lies and deception." He also emphasized that whatever he may have said, it is nothing in comparison with public statements made by the Left.
Member of Knesset Aryeh Eldad (National Union-NRP) said the police and GSS were abusing their authority, in order to silence government critics. It is absurd that law enforcement agencies were silencing Jewish dissent while "Arabs who praise the actions of terrorists walk around free," Eldad said.
The Movement for the Whole Land of Israel and representatives of the Nahalal Forum, grassroots movements of secular and labor Zionist activists, reacted with rage at what they called "the false arrest" of Eran Sternberg.
Tzafrir Ronen, a spokesman for the Nahalal group, said: Eran Sternberg is a public figure, a journalist, a television station manager - his words represent a clear, loud voice in favor of democracy. Olmert is the one violating democracy. We all remember how, after he and Ariel Sharon swore to respect the referendum among the Likud voters, he contemptuously trampled it and charged ahead to the cheers of the protective media. Who is the violator of the law and democracy? By what right does the GSS arrest a journalist? Did the GSS take the time to arrest Professor Sternhal, who called for the terrorists to murder settlers? Has the GSS become a completely political organization? Has it lost the understanding of its role?
Ronen compared Sternberg to the socialist pioneers of the early Zionist movement who founded kibbutzes such as Ein Harod, Degania, Hanita and Kinneret.
"We, people of the labor settlement movement, the Nahalal Forum, stand behind [Sternberg] and we condemn the attempts to shut voices by the current regime of darkness in Israel," Ronen declared, adding, "Instead of fighting against the enemies of Israel, against the 1,000 rockets that have landed on the towns surrounding Gaza and Sderot, the 'hero' Olmert and 'Generalissimo' Peretz choose to arrest the nation's pioneers. You will not succeed in strangling pioneering and Zionist Israel...."
If this had happened in the USA it would probably be called police harassment. Nontheless I'm curious if they have anything specific Sternberg stated that was fishy.
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