Noam Federman, who is imprisoned in the same Shikmah Prison from which nuclear-reactor traitor Mordechai Vanunu was freed today, has appealed against his administrative detention sentence - but his wife Elisheva admits that it is barely more than a show, "just like the imprisonment itself. We wrote in the appeal that we don't even know exactly what we are appealing. No facts have been presented, no witnesses, no testimony - this is administrative detention with no charges. We cannot defend ourselves against it, and we can never even know when the sentence itself will end. The GSS claims that it has secret information that it cannot divulge - but the judge has no way of knowing or judging if the information is true. He doesn't call witnesses or hear our side, such as whether Noam has an alibi or not - and that's why we think that this is all a show." She emphasized that there are currently no Israelis in administrative detention, including Israeli-Arabs, other than her husband.
Elisheva said that the public protests are important in that they show that we "want to live in a democratic country that grants basic rights, such as the right to be informed of the nature of charges against him and to be able to confront the witnesses against him. The public thus shows that it will not accept this. I think that the public in Judea, Samaria and Gaza especially understands this, and especially with the intentions to do what we warned about, i.e., giving over large areas of the Land of Israel to the Arabs - I think that if people dare to object very strongly, then they are liable to also find themselves in administrative detention together with Noam."
"I call upon the public not to despair and not to give up," Elisheva Federman said. "Although all our efforts suffered a setback last month when the sentence was renewed for another six months, we must continue to fight this injustice until we are successful, for two reasons: So that Noam will be released, and so that there won't be many more people in similar situations."
Elisheva noted that the President has no legal standing in this case, as there was no trial and conviction, "but he can make his opinion known, just like several MKs have done. What astonishes me is that MK Michael Eitan, head of the Knesset Law Committee, invited me two separate times to his committee, which made recommendations regarding the conditions of imprisonment - but both times, the Shabak and the Prison Service simply ignore these recommendations. It's hard to believe that there are organizations in this country that feel that they are simply above the law and answerable to no one."
Elisheva said that the public protests are important in that they show that we "want to live in a democratic country that grants basic rights, such as the right to be informed of the nature of charges against him and to be able to confront the witnesses against him. The public thus shows that it will not accept this. I think that the public in Judea, Samaria and Gaza especially understands this, and especially with the intentions to do what we warned about, i.e., giving over large areas of the Land of Israel to the Arabs - I think that if people dare to object very strongly, then they are liable to also find themselves in administrative detention together with Noam."
"I call upon the public not to despair and not to give up," Elisheva Federman said. "Although all our efforts suffered a setback last month when the sentence was renewed for another six months, we must continue to fight this injustice until we are successful, for two reasons: So that Noam will be released, and so that there won't be many more people in similar situations."
Elisheva noted that the President has no legal standing in this case, as there was no trial and conviction, "but he can make his opinion known, just like several MKs have done. What astonishes me is that MK Michael Eitan, head of the Knesset Law Committee, invited me two separate times to his committee, which made recommendations regarding the conditions of imprisonment - but both times, the Shabak and the Prison Service simply ignore these recommendations. It's hard to believe that there are organizations in this country that feel that they are simply above the law and answerable to no one."