The State Attorney's Office filed an indictment against a Jewish youth who placed a sign at the entrance to the Bat Ayin community in Gush Etzion, warning against the entry of the Israel Police into the town. The sign caricatures the ubiquitous red warning billboards placed at Palestinian Authority Areas A and B entry points that warn Israelis that entry to these areas is forbidden, and liable to endanger their lives.
"This road leads to the locality of Bat Ayin; there is no entrance to the Israel Police," the sign reads. "You are harming the security of the residents of the locality, you murdered one of our children ... enter at your own risk, see you have been warned."
The indictment alleges that "in his above-mentioned acts, the defendant threatened police officers and tried to threaten all the station police officers with unlawful bodily harm or to the bodies of other police officers in order to intimidate or taunt them."
Another section attributes to the suspect interfering with a police officer in the performance of his duties: "The police officer asked the defendant to identify himself, then the defendant started walking in the direction of Bat Ayin away from the policeman, running in the wadi towards Bat Ayin until he disappeared."
Regarding these acts, the prosecution claimed: "The defendant committed an act with intent to interfere with a police officer in the performance of his lawful duty."
Advocate David Halevi, who represents the defendant on behalf of the Honenu organization, responded: "The indictment that was filed is outrageous and insane. In a proper democracy that sanctifies freedom of expression and protest, such an indictment should not have been filed at all. It is doubtful whether the indictment will stand the legal test.
"In any case, it is very difficult to be free of the impression that the indictment is entirely tainted with blatant selective enforcement and points to the rapacity and lack of restraint by the enforcement bodies, just because the sign was aimed at the police. We have no doubt that our client will be acquitted in this case, at the end of the day."
