New Police Policy? Yitzhar Residents Arrested After Midnight

Arutz Sheva ^ | 18/08/11 | Elad Benari

[Eleutheria5]

As part of the many measures being taken lately against residents in the Samaria (Shomron) Jewish community of Yitzhar, the police and the military have adopted a new policy: arresting residents who come home after midnight.

One of them is Elchanan Gruner, a resident of Yitzhar and a member of the Honenu legal aid association.

“We came on Monday at 12:15am,” Gruner told Arutz Sheva’s Hebrew website on Wednesday. A Border Police jeep stood at the entrance to the community, stopped us and asked us for identity cards. We asked why, they said that there are all kinds of suspicions related to ‘price tag’ operations. This reality of continued harassment has been ongoing for six months.”

Yitzhar, which has long been the victim of zealous police and IDF attention, has been especially targeted by the Israeli security forces in recent months. Some of its residents have been driven away from the community by restraining orders, and two residents were recently arrested for allegedly torching Arab cars. They were released and then summoned again for questioning.

Gruner told Arutz Sheva that on Monday night, after twenty minutes all the people who had been detained were released except for him.

“They let everyone go but me,” he recalled. “I asked what was happening and they claimed that I am banned from Judea and Samaria. I told them it was a mistake, and they took me to the Tapuach intersection and searched me. Then a cop from Ariel arrived, and I told him I was not banned from Judea and Samaria. He checked and said that an administrative order was put out against me. Then he checked again and suddenly told me that I was not banned and am free to go.”

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[Eleutheria5]

Ehud Barak must go.