It's official.  The Halamish brothers of eastern Gush Etzion will not have to enter prison before Passover.  So ruled the Supreme Court on Monday morning.



The two brothers, Danny and Itzik Halamish, who claim total innocence of the charges on which they were convicted, were to have begun their 7- and 8-month prison terms, respectively, this past Thursday.  However, Jerusalem District Court Judge Moshe Ravid issued a temporary stay against their incarceration, explaining that he did not understand why their request for same had been turned down in lower courts with no explanation.

Today (Monday), the Supreme Court gave more weight to the temporary orders, ruling that the prison sentence need not begin until President Peres replies to their request for a pardon.  The State has been given 15 days to respond to the ruling.

The Committee for the Release of Itzik and Danny issued a statement wishing "the Halamish family, all the activists and the entire Nation of Israel a happy Pesach. This is obviously not the end of the story, but Itzik and Danny will at least be home with their family for Pesach, please G-d. Stay tuned for more updates."

The Case

The two brothers, members of the emergency security team of the community of Maaleh Rechavam, were convicted of shooting at Arabs who infiltrated the town's fields.  They have maintained all along that they did not shoot at all, even though the Arabs attacked them.



The incident occurred in February 2004.  When the Arab gang entered the fields, the local security officer called two members of the local fast-response security team - Danny Halamish, 35, and his brother Yitzchak, 28 - and the three went out to banish the Arabs from the fields where Jewish children play.  The mob attacked the three with rocks and sticks, and then surrounded them.  The security officer shot at the ground in front of the Arabs, and then he and the Halamish brothers retreated. 



"The next thing we knew," Danny Halamish told Arutz-7, "the police came to arrest us - after the Arabs claimed that we had attacked them!... I have nothing to confess, since we did not shoot.  But even more importantly: I have no intention of apologizing for having gone out to protect Jews.  Even if I have to sit in prison for a few months, I will not say that it is wrong to do what I did.  What do we have a State for, if not to protect ourselves?  The State has lost its way..."



Danny, married with two children, says that though his legal position is solid, "the courts have taken the strange position that because we didn't make certain claims at the right time, our conviction stands. This is unheard of..."  In addition, the police fired the guns afterwards, thereby neutralizing the brothers' claim that the guns had not been fired.

For more details, see these Arutz-7 stories:

Two Brothers on Their Way to Jail for Protecting Jewish Town

Activist Groups Unite to Thwart Halamish Jailing