ISRAELI POLICE ARREST YOUTHS AS PART OF GOV'T CRACKDOWN AGAINST W. BANK JEWS

Israeljustice.com

  JERUSALEM -- As part of a government crackdown, Israeli police have arrested Jewish youths caught hanging posters in the West Bank.  
    Defense Minister Ehud Barak has pledged to crackdown on Jewish settlers as part of a campaign against Jews in Judea and Samaria.  
    "We must be more severe in punishments meted out to lawbreakers in Judea and Samaria," Barak said during the cabinet meeting on Dec. 14.  
    The policy, which includes openly pressuring judges to keep suspects in jail and impose harsh sentences, has also focused heavily on arresting youths.  
    On Dec. 17, three youths were stopped and one was remanded into custody after police followed them as they hung posters on billboards advertising outpost activities on Hanukah. The youths were stopped at the entrance to the Jewish community of Efrat.  
    "They [police] followed us the minute we started putting up posters," one of the youths said. "They followed us from the Gush Etzion junction to Efrat. At the entrance, the police officer asked us to identify ourselves and then they arrested one of us."  
    The youth said that his friend was still custody on Dec. 18 because "he was wanted for an investigation."  
    Youth who live in the hilltop outposts have been dubbed "hilltop youths" by law enforcement agencies and have been criticized as dissident youth who are active in protesting government policies such as the recent expulsion of 10 Jewish families from the Beth Hashalom Peace House in Hebron.  
    On Dec. 4, special police forces violently evicted approximately 200 Jews from the house and sealed it off while the Jerusalem District Court decides contested ownership of the home by the former Arab owners. Two hours earlier, Barak met with Hebron Jewish community leader Rabbi Moshe Levinger and agreed to allow the residents to remain in the house until noon on Dec. 15.  
    At least 20 people were injured during the eviction and at least another 20 arrested in the aftermath when people blocked roads in Jerusalem and in other areas of the West Bank.  
    Barak also ordered the expulsion of Land of Israel Faithful leader Daniella Weiss from Judea and Samaria for one month.  
    On Dec. 10, the Organization for Civil Rights in Judea and Samaria, released a report citing police statistics which showed that Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria are routinely discriminated against by law enforcement agencies including the state prosecution, the judiciary and the police.  
    The report said there were four times as many police officers in Judea and Samaria then in the crime-ridden central Israeli cities of Netanya and Acre. The report also showed that police are 80 percent more likely to open criminal investigations against Jews in Judea and Samaria than in the rest of the country even when no complaint against them has been filed.