The war between 20-year-old Tzviya Sariel and the law enforcement authorities is on once again, with her arrest at the Ramat Migron eviction two weeks ago.
Tzviya has sat in prison for two long periods in the past because of her refusal to recognize the judicial system’s right to restrict her mobility in the Land of Israel. She sat once for six weeks, and last year again for 3.5 months, after having been arrested for participating in Land of Israel demonstrations of one sort or another. Throughout both ordeals, she refused to cooperate with the courts or police, barely even speaking up in court in her defense.
Her last arrest occurred after she came, with a friend, to the scene of the police/army demolition of the Ramat Migron makeshift outpost two weeks ago. She says she did nothing wrong; the police claim that she violently resisted arrest and interfered with the police in the line of duty.
“They simply lie,” her father David told Israel National News. “Today she had her fourth court hearing, and the next one will be on Wednesday. Either her mother will be there or myself; if I am there, I plan to say that I will cooperate with the courts on one condition: that the accusing policeman take a lie-detector test. There are many people who were there who can testify that she did nothing wrong, but that doesn’t stop the police from claiming whatever they want.”
David admits that if he takes this approach, it will not be to the liking of his daughter: “She – and my wife backs her up on this – refuses to cooperate with the courts. She says one thing, and she said it again today: ‘I did nothing wrong, and just like you arrested me for nothing, you should now release me.’ Today they claimed that they need her fingerprints, and that she refuses to cooperate – even though all they have to do is take the prints by force, like they did the other times.”
In addition to her freedom, Tzviya may well be sacrificing a semester of her studies. She began a tour guide course last year, “which she loves,” her father said, but she may lose a semester, or more, if she continues to refuse to cooperate. “She lives with her truth,” David says, “and that is that a Jew is allowed to be in the Land of Israel and she did nothing wrong, and she is willing to give up a lot for that.”
Degrading Body Check
Meanwhile, the girl who was arrested with her has been released – and has since filed a complaint with the Department for the Investigation of Policemen. She says that both she and Tzviya were made to undergo a humiliating body check. Orit Strook, of the Yesha Civil Rights Organization, explained to Israel National News:
“Some years ago [March 1992 – ed.], the Knesset passed a Basic Law, entitled, ‘Human Dignity and Freedom,’ according to which, one’s body is his own and may not be abused. The police have no right to physically check one’s body, unless the case is one in which this is specifically permitted, such as when it is suspected that the person is concealing something to do with a crime. This is clearly not the case here, and we hope to work with the police to ensure that this type of body check on young girls – which has happened many times in the past with young Land of Israel protestors – will not recur.”
Meanwhile, the complaint by one of the two latest victims is in police hands, and the complainant has agreed – unlike other previous victims – to come forward and testify when summoned.