Two youths from Jewish communities in the Shomron, arrested on Sunday and remanded for three days, will now remain in prison until Thursday. Ariella Sandroy of Yitzhar spoke with Arutz-7 this morning about the arrest of her son:
"The police accuse them of having cut down hundreds of Arab-owned olive trees last month. But it's a completely political arrest, because they have absolutely nothing to do with cutting down those trees. Rather, my son and his friend are very involved in building the Mitzpeh Yitzhar outpost, which the government wants to bring down - and so the police found a good way of 'getting rid' of them."
Ms. Sandroy said that the cutting-down of the olive trees was "totally a staged affair. After all, two men could not cut down 600 trees by themselves in such a short time, and without anyone hearing anything. It's simply impossible. It would take days of work! In addition, the trees were cut down in a professional manner, to enable them to grow back quickly; this was simply a frame-up of the Jews who live nearby." She acknowledged that both the Jewish residents of Yitzhar and the army were pleased that there would be no olive harvest in the village this year, as the harvesting endangers the Jewish residents by enabling the Arabs to approach and reconnoiter the Jewish towns: "For the army, it was a welcome development, as it usually has to dedicate many resources to these olive harvests."
Ariella expressed the hope that, in the court session on Thursday, "the judge's eyes will open and he will see that the boys have nothing to do with what they are accused of. There is no evidence against them, either; the police found no knives, no saws, nothing - so they collected the shoes of all the boys to see if the footprints match. The shoes are the only evidence they have against them."
"The police accuse them of having cut down hundreds of Arab-owned olive trees last month. But it's a completely political arrest, because they have absolutely nothing to do with cutting down those trees. Rather, my son and his friend are very involved in building the Mitzpeh Yitzhar outpost, which the government wants to bring down - and so the police found a good way of 'getting rid' of them."
Ms. Sandroy said that the cutting-down of the olive trees was "totally a staged affair. After all, two men could not cut down 600 trees by themselves in such a short time, and without anyone hearing anything. It's simply impossible. It would take days of work! In addition, the trees were cut down in a professional manner, to enable them to grow back quickly; this was simply a frame-up of the Jews who live nearby." She acknowledged that both the Jewish residents of Yitzhar and the army were pleased that there would be no olive harvest in the village this year, as the harvesting endangers the Jewish residents by enabling the Arabs to approach and reconnoiter the Jewish towns: "For the army, it was a welcome development, as it usually has to dedicate many resources to these olive harvests."
Ariella expressed the hope that, in the court session on Thursday, "the judge's eyes will open and he will see that the boys have nothing to do with what they are accused of. There is no evidence against them, either; the police found no knives, no saws, nothing - so they collected the shoes of all the boys to see if the footprints match. The shoes are the only evidence they have against them."