"Imagine that you went for a walk near the house and suddenly people attacked you. You defended yourself, and one of the attackers was injured," a senior Judea and Samaria official tried this week to make accessible what was happening near the city of Ariel.
"Imagine that the next day, when you arrived to file a complaint, you were caught by police and taken to the GSS cellars.
Without seeing a lawyer, without understanding how you became murder suspects.
From being attacked you have become terrorists.
That's what happened to a completely normative person next to Ariel, and it's just as delusional as it sounds. "
The description of the incident, which took place about a week and a half ago between the settlement of Nofei Nehemia in Samaria and the city of Ariel, should be approached with caution, since an existing restraining order on the details of the investigation has been issued.
But even if only a small part of the claims heard in the right-wing and settlement environment are true - it is a Kafkaesque story.
"Another hill boy who quarreled with Palestinians," one can imagine the thought in the minds of quite a few people who heard about the case, "another extreme right-winger who was arrested, like many others."
But this story seems completely different.
"Preliminary report, a gathering of 40 Palestinians about a trip of Jews between the lands of Nehemiah and Ariel," was received on the cell phones of the TPS agency's initial report, "The Palestinians throw stones at the Jews (including children) and approach them with sticks.
The air was apparently fired for removal by the attacked hikers.
Forces on their way. "
A little while earlier, on the afternoon of Tuesday, June 21, G. (pseudonym) set off with about 18 boys.
According to various reports, it was a kind of preliminary tour of an estate movement in preparation for going up to the ground and establishing illegal outposts during the month of July.
Some of the boys were carrying pickaxes in their hands, apparently planning to break into a trail nearby.
C., a resident of the area, was excited.
His acquaintances say that since he moved to the area a few years ago, he has been particularly enthusiastic about establishing new outposts, and is happy to promote the issue.
According to the settlers, the entire tour was conducted on state lands in the city of Ariel;
According to the Palestinians, this is Palestinian land.
Either way, these are lands most of which are uncultivated.
Shortly after J and the young men began the tour, very close to the Ariel fence, several dozen Palestinians from the village of Eskaka, which is some distance from the area - across the road - also arrived.
In a video released by the Palestinians, the only one known from the incident, they are seen shouting harsh insults at the young Jews who are trying to stay away from them and not get into a confrontation.
"Come on, get out of here, you son of a bitch," screamed one of the rioters.
"Ya son of a big ***!".
"Did not flinch, despite the gun"
"I had returned from work a few minutes earlier, when I suddenly received a message: 'Urgent, I need the number of Rachel's (military security coordinator) of Rachelim," says G.'s neighbor. The same neighbor did not hesitate, jumped in his car and went to the scene. He was the first to reach the area where the commotion took place. "I entered an olive grove and heard noises.
Suddenly I was exposed to several dozen Palestinians armed with batons, iron rods and wood and one with an ax.
They ran towards me, immediately towards rocks, and I realized that joining C was life-threatening. "
"If he is guilty - he will go to jail for life, but that should be clarified in court."
Demonstration of support for Ariel,
The neighbor quickly retreated and returned to the road, where he saw a police vehicle carrying several YSM police officers.
"Suddenly I was exposed to a terrible spectacle. There were two groups with dozens of Palestinians, many more than those who chased after me, wrapping the group and pushing it towards Ariel's fence. I saw some attacking C, body on body. I could not get close to him, I felt that if I turned my back "Towards the rioters behind me, I will receive an ax or an iron bar to the head. Then I heard gunfire."
Ariel's security coordinator, who arrived at the scene, recognized the danger and opened fire into the air in order to repel the rioters.
At the same time, the neighbor and another person began to shout at the rioters in order to repel them.
"I saw blood in their eyes," says the neighbor.
"I'm armed, and they saw the gun on me, but despite that and the fact that there were cops with us - they did not shy away. They shouted Allah Akbar, curses that the lexicon does not recognize. Shocking things.
"I shouted at them. Waqf, waqf, stop. I was in survival mode and they saw it, they were a little put off, they realized we would not give up. Suddenly I saw four Palestinians retreating from the area carrying a wounded man. To the ambulance and then the story ended. "
At this point, police and army forces arrived to begin investigating what exactly happened, and then it also became clear that the wounded Palestinian had been stabbed to death.
From then on, a war of versions began between the Israelis who were attacked and the Palestinians.
About an hour after the incident, the far-left Yesh Din organization published an initial version of the incident: They claimed that the dead man, 27-year-old Ali Hassan from the village of Eskacha, was stabbed to death by a settler while on the village lands with his parents.
"It's not pleasant".
Landau,
"The young man and his parents were on their land near the fence of the Ariel settlement," it was claimed in the initial version sent to the media. "To the Palestinians, during which a settler pulled out a knife and stabbed the young man to death."
The next day, G. appeared to provide a complaint at the Ariel police station, a relatively short distance from where the incident occurred.
He did not expect for a moment what happened when he entered the station: handcuffs were placed by him and he was taken by the GSS for questioning. His right to a lawyer was denied.
For many days, G. underwent an intensive investigation at the Shin Bet on suspicion of murder. G.'s lawyer on behalf of the Honno organization, Adv. On the floor naked during his interrogation and forced to defecate on the floor. He said during the interrogation the man had a heartbreaking event.
The GSS denied the allegations on the part of G. and his men outright, saying that "the allegations regarding the denial of the detainee's rights and the descriptions mentioned are devoid of any basis and are intended to divert the discourse from serious suspicions and delegitimize service activity." To meet with his lawyer, and as of this writing he is still being questioned by the GSS.
He told the judge in one of his detention extensions that "if the investigation continues like this, I will also confess to the murder of Hitler."
"Attempt to distort reality"
Very significant factors in the Israeli public have been involved since the incident in an attempt to assist G., with the understanding that this is a particularly exceptional case.
"If he is guilty of murder, he should go to jail for life," all the sources we spoke to this week told us, "but there is no reason in the world to deprive him of basic rights like a meeting with a lawyer."
"Law Against Torture."
Raz,
Last Saturday night, hundreds demonstrated at the entrance to Ariel.
"What the police and the GSS are doing here hurts and endangers each of us.
"When we have to defend ourselves in a terrorist incident, we will have to think twice if we want to spend time in the GSS basements," said MK Simcha Rotman during the demonstration. Two showed up for another demonstration in front of the Knesset and demanded that what they define as torture be stopped immediately, and that the investigation be handed over to the Israel Police.
In an unusual way, members of the Yesha Council are also involved in the matter, who usually refrain from doing so. And are taken for GSS interrogation.
Such incidents should be under normal police investigation.
It is clear to any reasonable person that he was attacked.
Instead of stopping and treating the attackers, investigate the assailant.
Even without going into the details of the investigation, it can be understood that there is an unreasonable attempt to distort reality here. "
"G.'s lawyer also fails to understand why he was interrogated by the GSS. , But these are not terrorists or GSS targets.
Why did the GSS suddenly enter the picture and interrogate the suspect in such difficult conditions?
You did not attack a terrorist cell and there is no question of thwarting an attack here. "
In the face of the settlers' claims, the GSS emphasizes that "the investigation is conducted in accordance with the provisions of the law and is subject to strict judicial review."
One of the main reasons why the investigation was handed over to the GSS was the timing of G.'s arrival to file a complaint with the police, only a day after the incident, which raised question marks: if it was self-defense, why did G. not approach immediately and say so. And Jewish terrorism.However, after long days of interrogation, the assessment is strengthened that the event was not nationalistic on the part of C, which is encouraging for him, and therefore it is also possible that while reading these lines the event will be behind us.
"The goal is to break you"
The question of whether it is legitimate to use physical force against detainees - Jews or Palestinians - in security investigations is repeatedly on the agenda in Israel.
It is particularly tense when it comes to "using measures" - a laundered nickname for torture - in cases where it is not a ticking time bomb or thwarting terrorist activity.
These methods are not reserved only for Palestinian suspects;
The GSS 'Jewish Brigade has also been accused of using interrogation methods that are considered to be different in the wards - including preventing or delaying a meeting with a lawyer, an action that many believe disproportionately violates the basic rights of detainees, suspects and detainees.
"An interrogation is not a pleasant thing," says Menachem Landau, a former GSS official who is not impressed by the settlers' allegations of torture.
All investigations are supervised and filmed.
The interrogee will always come and say that he was tortured, but I do not buy these stories, without of course knowing the details of the incident.
Everything is recorded in a diary, everything else is nonsense. "
On the other hand, descriptions that emerge from interrogation rooms paint a particularly difficult picture, even if it is not about nail-biting as some readers may imagine.
Moshe Hess, who was arrested by the GSS in 2014 and interrogated for 20 days, half of them without meeting a lawyer, testifies that it was a dubious experience, to say the least. Trauma that remains with him to this day.This is one of the first times he recounts what happened to him in those days in the interrogation rooms.
Frequent confrontations and version wars.
Settlers against Palestinians in Judea and Samaria, Photo: Photo Archive: Miri Tzachi
"I was arrested for arson and another 20 counts that I do not remember what they are, but in practice I was questioned about nothing. I was humiliated, shouted at, but there was no specific incident," he says.
Hess, then a student at the Od Od Yosef Chai yeshiva, claims that at the same time, security officials marked the yeshiva where he studied and therefore sought him out.
He describes the arrest as a real trauma: “For ten days I have not met a living soul other than investigators and wardens.
"In the first days I was interrogated for most of the day, with very short breaks for a meal in the cell - where there is a mattress, a scabies blanket, a 'bullet bullet' and that's it. In interrogations you are handcuffed to the chair all the time, The goal is to break you psychologically. You are beaten, cursed. There was a nervous interrogator who demanded that I straighten my legs all the time, and when I instinctively moved my legs he kicked me, slapped me and punched me in the ribs. 20 days later, when I was released, it still hurt, Even though I received painkillers, the feeling is that you are treated like an animal, not like a human being.
"People do not understand what you are going through in these investigations, and the truth is I only told individuals what it was because it is an experience that is hard to share. You want to die, you do not want to live like this. When I came to the hearing after a few days People who love me know that there's something different about this crazy thing called the GSS investigation.
It should be understood that a person on a superhuman level is needed in order not to admit anything in these investigations. "
Hand too light on the trigger
Two politicians on both sides of the barricade found themselves sharing a common goal this week, in public defense of C.
"It does not matter if it is a Jew or a Palestinian. If there is torture, it is crossing a red line, and I do not care if it is a Jew or an Arab, a settler or a leftist - it must not happen," MK Musi Raz (Meretz) tells me.
"Also denial of rights like administrative detentions or prevention of lawyers. Murderers should be prosecuted and put in jail for life, but it should be proven in court. I do not accept the claim that people are arrested without trial and without meeting a lawyer. I have previously passed a bill to prevent torture, "Unfortunately, I was not able to cross parties. I would be happy for them to join such a move."
MK Itamar Ben Gvir (Religious Zionism) says that during his time as a lawyer, he represented a minor in the Duma case that the court rejected all the evidence against him and acquitted him due to GSS torture. "I am against torture.
The GSS is an important and good organization that there are those who investigate, but it goes a step too far with what is called 'special measures', a move that not only harms democracy but harms the organization - too many investigations you do not know if a person committed the act or not, because he "We will admit everything. We see too many incidents where the hand is too light on the trigger. Why ban meetings and approve investigations under torture? With all due respect, in most cases the Jewish department is involved, this is not terrorism."
"It's not terrorism."
Ben Gvir, Photo: Yonatan Zindel
Unlike Raz, however, Ben Gvir makes a distinction between Israelis and Palestinians, and argues that in the case of Arab terrorists, the gloves should be removed.
The GSS is working against terrorism, so I am not in favor of shaking hands.
"The problem is that the GSS is using its power in such cases. Take the story near Ariel - it does not justify torture in an investigation. This is not an investigation in which all the summers are over."
Meanwhile, while public figures are working for C, in the locality where he lives, they are trying to overcome the heavy shock.
"This is a person you can't help but connect with. A gentle guy who radiates a lot of warmth and love," says G.'s neighbor. "I was shocked when I heard that he was arrested and transferred to the GSS.
I was left speechless, I did not understand why the rioters were not stopped.
Understand, this is a sensitive, nice person, with amazing kindness.
What was he arrested for ?! ".
The neighbor himself has filed a complaint against the rioters and he hopes they will be prosecuted with them.
He tells of extremely difficult feelings.
"I went through a difficult week, I lost 4.5 kilos, I could not eat. This incident breaks my heart. I am a religious person, with an answer, and this week it was difficult for me to put on tefillin. How does a person full of compassion and love, who helps and supports, get into such a situation? Interrogation, but to get to a point where a person defecates on himself? We're not in Russia, we're in a democracy.
"I came to Israel from France during the attacks of the second intifada, my cousin was killed in a terrorist attack in Sbarro, I went through Operation Eitan in the army, but I was never as scared as in this incident. I was not with a company and six cartridges on me. You feel alone, alone, without backup. You're in mortal danger and considering whether to pull out the weapon. It's hallucinatory. Look what happened to G. Who knows if it could happen to me too? "They will accuse me of something I did not do. You never know, look what happened to my friend."
The GSS responded: "This is an investigation into a serious incident in which a Palestinian was killed. The investigation is under a restraining order and therefore we cannot comment on its details. The investigation is conducted in accordance with the law and is subject to strict judicial review in various proceedings and courts
. gag order".
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