"Yitzhar residents clash with the police," read the headlines - but there's much more to the story, according to the residents. The dry facts are that an Arab resident of a village near Yitzhar in the upper-Shomron area near Shechem arrived in the Jewish town yesterday, accompanied by policemen, pointed to some sheep he claimed were stolen from him, and began taking them away, with the encouragement of the police. The Jewish residents nearby protested, and violence ensued; five Jews were arrested and are awaiting a hearing today.
Yitzhar's Rabbi David Dudkevitch told Arutz-7's Amatzia HaEitan last night what actually happened: "Police cars arrived in our town this morning, without explaining what they were doing here. Suddenly, in the afternoon, they secretly brought in an Arab in one of the patrol cars, and brought him over to one of the flocks - purchased with his own money, and they were born here. The Arab pointed arbitrarily to some of the sheep, based on I don't know what, and said they belong to him. The police suddenly became the executive branch of government, and told him to take the sheep - without speaking to anyone, not to the owner of the flock, or the secretary of Yitzhar, no one. Some of the Jews who were there at the time called the owners, and told the Arab not to take the sheep and ran after him to take the sheep back."
HaEitan: "They told him - that's probably quite an understatement..."
Rabbi Dudkevitch: To the best of my knowledge - and I made a very comprehensive check; I don't know what your sources are - the only thing they did was to run after the Arab, and he then abandoned the sheep and left the sheep. This is to the best of my knowledge, though I couldn't speak to all of them because five of them were arrested... The police acted with total brutality, dealing blows to anyone who came close to the area. There is one high-ranking officer in the area who always makes trouble for us, acting like a sheriff, giving orders to make arrests, etc. We have complained about him many times; he makes trouble for both us and the police force. There is no question that the sheep belonged to the Jew - but even if not, since when does the police take action based on the complaints of one side without even hearing out the other side? I protest this way of working, and I said as much to the police, then and afterwards."
Arutz-7's Yosef Meiri later asked some fill-in questions: "Why is it that the police act this way towards you, and similarly towards the Jews of Hevron? How do you explain this?"
Rabbi Dudkevitch: "In Hevron and in Yitzhar, where there are no fences, we live a little differently than in other parts of Judea and Samaria. We are very involved with the Arabs who live very close to us, and the nature of things is that there are many more clashes. This leads to more police involvement. We used to complain that the police acted like the UN, but now we wish they would act that way; they often act as if they were on the Arab side altogether... In other areas, such as Beit El and Kedumim, you can barely know that you're living in Yesha; you never see Arabs and have nothing to do with them. If you have to expand, then a few people like Ketzaleh or others get involved, and then you put caravans within the newly-moved fences. But here we don't have fences; things are done differently..."
YM: "Which do you think is better?"
Rabbi Dudkevitch: "Thank G-d we have all different types of Jews, to do all different types of necessary things. If everyone was the same, we wouldn't need so many of us..."
YM: "On another topic, what do you recommend that the NRP do in the current political situation?"
Rabbi Dudkevitch: "They didn't ask me, but if they did, I would say the same that all the other rabbis say to do [i.e., to quit the government]. Rabbis throughout history said that we can cooperate with those who don't believe in Torah - but there is a limit. If I have a partner who does all sorts of good things with my money, but also buys pig meat with it, then I have no choice but to put my foot down and quit the partnership. I actually think the NRP should have quit long ago over other religious issues; for them to sit in the same government as Tommy Lapid [of the anti-religious Shinui party] and to tolerate some of the stuff that he says, but then to protest when leading rabbis state their opinion - this is simply wrong."
Yitzhar's Rabbi David Dudkevitch told Arutz-7's Amatzia HaEitan last night what actually happened: "Police cars arrived in our town this morning, without explaining what they were doing here. Suddenly, in the afternoon, they secretly brought in an Arab in one of the patrol cars, and brought him over to one of the flocks - purchased with his own money, and they were born here. The Arab pointed arbitrarily to some of the sheep, based on I don't know what, and said they belong to him. The police suddenly became the executive branch of government, and told him to take the sheep - without speaking to anyone, not to the owner of the flock, or the secretary of Yitzhar, no one. Some of the Jews who were there at the time called the owners, and told the Arab not to take the sheep and ran after him to take the sheep back."
HaEitan: "They told him - that's probably quite an understatement..."
Rabbi Dudkevitch: To the best of my knowledge - and I made a very comprehensive check; I don't know what your sources are - the only thing they did was to run after the Arab, and he then abandoned the sheep and left the sheep. This is to the best of my knowledge, though I couldn't speak to all of them because five of them were arrested... The police acted with total brutality, dealing blows to anyone who came close to the area. There is one high-ranking officer in the area who always makes trouble for us, acting like a sheriff, giving orders to make arrests, etc. We have complained about him many times; he makes trouble for both us and the police force. There is no question that the sheep belonged to the Jew - but even if not, since when does the police take action based on the complaints of one side without even hearing out the other side? I protest this way of working, and I said as much to the police, then and afterwards."
Arutz-7's Yosef Meiri later asked some fill-in questions: "Why is it that the police act this way towards you, and similarly towards the Jews of Hevron? How do you explain this?"
Rabbi Dudkevitch: "In Hevron and in Yitzhar, where there are no fences, we live a little differently than in other parts of Judea and Samaria. We are very involved with the Arabs who live very close to us, and the nature of things is that there are many more clashes. This leads to more police involvement. We used to complain that the police acted like the UN, but now we wish they would act that way; they often act as if they were on the Arab side altogether... In other areas, such as Beit El and Kedumim, you can barely know that you're living in Yesha; you never see Arabs and have nothing to do with them. If you have to expand, then a few people like Ketzaleh or others get involved, and then you put caravans within the newly-moved fences. But here we don't have fences; things are done differently..."
YM: "Which do you think is better?"
Rabbi Dudkevitch: "Thank G-d we have all different types of Jews, to do all different types of necessary things. If everyone was the same, we wouldn't need so many of us..."
YM: "On another topic, what do you recommend that the NRP do in the current political situation?"
Rabbi Dudkevitch: "They didn't ask me, but if they did, I would say the same that all the other rabbis say to do [i.e., to quit the government]. Rabbis throughout history said that we can cooperate with those who don't believe in Torah - but there is a limit. If I have a partner who does all sorts of good things with my money, but also buys pig meat with it, then I have no choice but to put my foot down and quit the partnership. I actually think the NRP should have quit long ago over other religious issues; for them to sit in the same government as Tommy Lapid [of the anti-religious Shinui party] and to tolerate some of the stuff that he says, but then to protest when leading rabbis state their opinion - this is simply wrong."