In the famous novel The Trial, written by Franz Kafka, an innocent man is suddenly arrested and accused of crimes that he did not commit. He is thrown into prison and no one comes to his aid. Afraid of the authorities, his family and friends all abandon him. Even his lawyer accepts his guilt as a fact and barely goes through the motions of defending him. Overnight, the hero of the novel finds himself in a nightmarish world where everything has flipped upside down. The State that he cherished has transformed into a cold, uncaring enemy, and there is no where to turn for salvation.



Though I read Kafka?s book dozens of years ago in my youth, its frightening scenes flashed through my mind as I sat in a Jerusalem courtroom last month. I was there to hear prosecuting attorneys explain why the managers of the Arutz-7 radio station should be served harsh punishments, including time in prison. While the prosecutor (a young woman who looked like she was just out of law school) read out an almost two-hour summation of similar cases and sentences, the defendants sat in stunned, Kafka-like silence, as if unable to utter a word. The lawyer for the defendant acted politely, in a very professional manner, respecting the rules of the court. A character witness was allowed to testify on behalf of Yaakov Katz (Ketzelah), describing his heroism and spirit of self-sacrifice during the Yom Kippur War, and letters of recommendation were submitted for the other equally upstanding and patriotic defendants, but no one put up a fight, no one protested the absurdity and insanity and injustice of the whole despicable circus - just like in Kafka?s horrifying tale.



I sat in the back row of the crowded courtroom, reading a special prayer based on Pitom HaKetoret, designed to stop plagues against Am Yisrael. Yes, there are times, like in Kafka?s novel, when a government and system of justice can turn into a plague against the very citizens whom they are supposed to protect.



What was on trial, I realized, was not a pirate radio station, or the issue of broadcasting from sea or from shore. It wasn?t even the defendants who were on trial, Rabbi Zalman Melamed and his wife, Yaakov Katz, Yoel Tzur, Adir Zik, Haggai Segal and others. On trial were the things they represented, the ideals they believed in. First and foremost, the Land of Israel was on trial. The Torah was on trial. The settlement movement, Zionism, patriotism and the spirit of self-sacrifice were on trial. Democracy and the right of Free Speech and Freedom of Expression were on trial, as well.



Even the prosecutor had to admit that the defendants were respected leaders of the community with a long list of national contributions to their credit. Hearing this brief outburst of sanity, I breathed easier. ?But for this very reason,? she said, tightening the Kafkaesque web, ?their punishment should be even harsher for their disdain of the law.?



The only comfort I could find was recalling a Gemara at the very end of tractate Sotah. In the times just preceding the Mashiach, it says, prices will soar, children will be at odds with their parents, chutzpah will be rampant, the Torah scholars will be scorned, and truth will disappear. Judging from these forecasts, and from the trial of Arutz-7, we are on the right course toward Redemption, as upside down as it may seem.



But tachlis (practically), what can we do to help right this terrible wrong? Cynically, I suggested to one of the court workers that Arutz-7 should have moved their broadcasting facilities across the street from Beit El to Ramallah. In Ramallah, a radio station can broadcast whatever it wants, including round-the-clock incitement against Jews and the Jewish State, and no one does anything to stop it, not the Israeli police, not the Attorney General, not the prime minister, not even all of the Israeli judges and all the Israeli courts.



If Arafat wouldn?t agree to hosting a bunch of patriotic settlers in Ramallah, then certainly our peace partner in Jordan would let Arutz-7 set up an antenna on one of their mountains for a few hundred thousand dollars a year.



For my part, I am ready to join the Arutz-7 defendants. Though I was never a manager of the station, I did have my own interview show on the air. In fact, if all of the show hosts were to appear at the Jerusalem court and demand to be put on trial too, it might help expose the travesty of justice that is being perpetrated in the name of the law. I am talking about Minister of Tourism Rabbi Benny Elon, and Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, and Rabbi Dov Lior, and Rabbi Dov Halperin, and Rabbi Simcha HaKohen Kook, and former Chief Rabbis, Rabbi Meir Lau Rabbi Mordechai Eliahu, to name just a few.



And we should, in all fairness, be joined by everyone who enjoyed air-time on Arutz 7 to further their personal or political interests - like Arik Sharon, and Bibi Netanyahu, and Ehud Olmert, and Minister of Education Limor Livnat, and the President of Israel, too. For all of the Oslo years when the Labor Party was in power, Arutz-7 was the only media outlet loyal to the Likud. Where are they now?



And since we are inviting people to join our demonstration, why not invite all of Arutz-7?s hundreds of thousands of listeners, too? After all, the managers of Arutz-7, who are on trial and who face heavy fines and possibly years in prison, did what they did for us - so that we could listen to Torah lectures, and enjoy holy music, and hear an objective presentation of the news.



They didn?t buy a boat for themselves - they did it for us. In fact, we gave them the money to do it. Remember all of those marathon radio fundraisers? We were the ones who paid for the microphones, transmitters, and for the captain of the ship. So we are the ones, the hundreds-of-thousands of Arutz-7 listeners, who should be on trial, not them.



Maybe if we all get together, Arik, Bibi and all the rest of us, and stand outside the Jerusalem Courthouse, carrying signs that say, ?PUT ME IN JAIL TOO,? maybe if enough of us come, we can turn a Kafkaesque nightmare into a victory for Torah, for the Land of Israel, for real democracy, and for the Right of Free Speech.