Tel Aviv-Yafo city council member Hadas Ragulski today contacted the Attorney General, Adv. Gali Baharav-Miara, and Police Commissioner Daniel Levi, demanding action regarding telephone alert lines she says are used to thwart arrests of haredi draft evaders.
In her letter, she urgently requested an order to block two telephone hotlines used to summon crowds to scenes of arrests of haredi draft evaders in order to prevent military police from arresting them.
Hadas noted in her letter that she previously contacted cellular providers on the matter, but they replied that they are not authorized to disconnect or block communications services based solely on a third-party request.
The companies made clear that such action can only be carried out by court order or a binding instruction from an authorized agency. Hadas wrote that publicly available information published over the past year indicates the lines operate as an organized telephone alert network in cases of arrests to disrupt military law enforcement.
In her appeal, Hadas requests opening a criminal investigation against the operators of the lines, locating the distribution network and the numbers used to operate them, and issuing orders that they be blocked immediately.
She alleges the activity may give rise to serious criminal offenses, including obstruction of justice, interfering with a police officer, and interfering with the execution of lawful arrest warrants.
Hadas wrote to the Attorney General and the police commissioner, "There is no place to wait for the next incident, in which police, soldiers or civilians will be harmed as a result of an organized crowd mobilized via civilian communications infrastructure. It is unacceptable that draft evaders benefit from a telephone alert mechanism that helps them escape the law while the companies wait for a court order and the authorities have not yet acted to issue it."