Chaim Perlman, who was referred to by authorities as the suspected "Jewish terrorist" - stabber of Arabs - was released to house arrest last week, after the court decided that there was no evidence justifying his arrest. But the story has not come to an end. Despite his continuous silence throughout the interrogations, the security services are continuing to try and pressure Perlman to talk.
Sunday and Monday, Perlman was called to the Petach Tikvah headquarters of the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) for what turned out to be hours of silence from his side, and many attempts to break this silence by his interrogators. Israel National News TV spoke with Eliyahu, Chaim's father, as they were leaving the second day of questioning.
"Again they're interrogating and there's nothing to investigate," explained Perlman. "Chaim is silent, so there's nothing to interrogate about.... We got here and waited an hour and a half until they started the interrogation. During the two hours of questioning he fell asleep a few times..."
On Sunday the questioning became somewhat theatrical as the interrogators started singing songs, which included names of leading right wing activists. The only success of the security agents in that case, was that they made Chaim laugh. "They need to do something, they've tried everything" says Eliyahu Perlman. "They decided to do something new so they sang to him... at least it made Chaim laugh."
Upon leaving the police station, Israel National TV met David Sitbon. Sitbon was under arrest for two weeks, suspected for withholding information regarding Perlman. According to an order of the security services, Sitbon and Perlman are not allowed to communicate with one another. Sitbon says that the interrogations are continuing although he has nothing new to say: "During my house arrest they called me in here every single day, and today again. I have nothing to say more than what I said already, and so I'm surprised as to why they keep on calling me in."