Of the more than 400 people arrested yesterday evening, over 200 were questioned over the night and released. Many will apparently be indicted.
However, some 150, mostly teenagers, still remain - mainly because they refuse to identify themselves. They are thus continuing the program that began with the road-blockings - attempting to show that massive arrests will shut down the police department, the courts, and the jails, and will make the disengagement an impossible mission.
Atty. Amikam Hadar has been hired by the Honenu legal organization to represent many of the detainees. At 11:30 AM, he said that since his arrival at the courthouse more than three hours earlier to begin dealing with his clients, none of the hearings had gotten underway. Police investigators explained that they had been up all night dealing with related matters, but Hadar said that was no excuse.
The police plan to ask for an extension of the youths' custody for another 2-3 days.
Two of the leaders of "National Home" - the organization responsible for last night's mass protests - were ordered released from prison today, after they were arrested two days ago. The two are Shai Malka and Ariel Vangrover. The court ordered them freed with restrictions, but their actual release has been held up to allow the Prosecution to appeal the decision.
In the Petach Tikvah courthouse this morning, some of the detainees managed to cut off the phone lines, but this mishap was overcome within a short time.
Public Security Minister Gideon Ezra insisted this morning, "The police did not fail." Police Commissioner Moshe Karadi similarly said that the protestors had failed in attaining their goal of disrupting national traffic. He said that the 400 arrests attest to the efficiency of the police force.
Crime reporter Buki Naeh of Yediot Acharonoto, however, wrote today, "When the Israel Police want to do something, it does it, and when it does not want to, it does not. The events of yesterday raise the suspicion that there is no chance in the world that the police will be able to fulfill the mission of the disengagement."
M., one of the leading members of last night's events, told Arutz-7 today of his satisfaction at yesterday's results: "We already knew about the vast numbers of soldiers who will not fulfill expulsion orders, but we were surprised to see last night that many of the policemen, as well, did not exactly give their all to evacuating us. Many of them showed us clearly in various ways, even if not 100% overtly, that they were with us..."
M. said that there were some policemen who took the opposite approach and actually violated the law: "I saw one policeman beating a youngster, and the boy pleaded with him, 'Stop hitting me, just arrest me!' - but the policeman did not stop. As citizens, we have the prerogative of violating the law if we're willing to pay the price, but policemen do not have this privilege. They may arrest people, but may not beat them unless it's necessary to make the arrest - which it clearly wasn't in this case. We have the names of those policemen who violated the law, and we plan to go all the way in filing complaints against them... But in general, the policemen's behavior pleasantly surprised us."
"Our plan is clear. We don't even need a centralized organization to carry it out; everyone can read the plan [in Hebrew, at www.baitle.org], and all it needs is a group of 30-40 people who get together and decide to do it... We love our brothers in Gush Katif, and if someone dares to close up the area and prevent a grandmother from visiting her grandchildren there, then we will stop up the country until we thwart this... We know that when it comes down to it, there will be even more people involved. Many people said that they didn't want to get arrested last night when it is still in the 'experimental' stage - but that when it comes down to the real thing, if areas in Israel are closed down, they will certainly be willing to get arrested. I can give you an example from myself: Of my entire family, only two of us got arrested - but at the real thing, we will all go out, no question about it. You can do the multiplication yourself... Until there are detention camps with tens of thousands of people, it won't stop; and everyone realizes that Israel's police can't run camps like that and also carry out the disengagement at once."
However, some 150, mostly teenagers, still remain - mainly because they refuse to identify themselves. They are thus continuing the program that began with the road-blockings - attempting to show that massive arrests will shut down the police department, the courts, and the jails, and will make the disengagement an impossible mission.
Atty. Amikam Hadar has been hired by the Honenu legal organization to represent many of the detainees. At 11:30 AM, he said that since his arrival at the courthouse more than three hours earlier to begin dealing with his clients, none of the hearings had gotten underway. Police investigators explained that they had been up all night dealing with related matters, but Hadar said that was no excuse.
The police plan to ask for an extension of the youths' custody for another 2-3 days.
Two of the leaders of "National Home" - the organization responsible for last night's mass protests - were ordered released from prison today, after they were arrested two days ago. The two are Shai Malka and Ariel Vangrover. The court ordered them freed with restrictions, but their actual release has been held up to allow the Prosecution to appeal the decision.
In the Petach Tikvah courthouse this morning, some of the detainees managed to cut off the phone lines, but this mishap was overcome within a short time.
Public Security Minister Gideon Ezra insisted this morning, "The police did not fail." Police Commissioner Moshe Karadi similarly said that the protestors had failed in attaining their goal of disrupting national traffic. He said that the 400 arrests attest to the efficiency of the police force.
Crime reporter Buki Naeh of Yediot Acharonoto, however, wrote today, "When the Israel Police want to do something, it does it, and when it does not want to, it does not. The events of yesterday raise the suspicion that there is no chance in the world that the police will be able to fulfill the mission of the disengagement."
M., one of the leading members of last night's events, told Arutz-7 today of his satisfaction at yesterday's results: "We already knew about the vast numbers of soldiers who will not fulfill expulsion orders, but we were surprised to see last night that many of the policemen, as well, did not exactly give their all to evacuating us. Many of them showed us clearly in various ways, even if not 100% overtly, that they were with us..."
M. said that there were some policemen who took the opposite approach and actually violated the law: "I saw one policeman beating a youngster, and the boy pleaded with him, 'Stop hitting me, just arrest me!' - but the policeman did not stop. As citizens, we have the prerogative of violating the law if we're willing to pay the price, but policemen do not have this privilege. They may arrest people, but may not beat them unless it's necessary to make the arrest - which it clearly wasn't in this case. We have the names of those policemen who violated the law, and we plan to go all the way in filing complaints against them... But in general, the policemen's behavior pleasantly surprised us."
"Our plan is clear. We don't even need a centralized organization to carry it out; everyone can read the plan [in Hebrew, at www.baitle.org], and all it needs is a group of 30-40 people who get together and decide to do it... We love our brothers in Gush Katif, and if someone dares to close up the area and prevent a grandmother from visiting her grandchildren there, then we will stop up the country until we thwart this... We know that when it comes down to it, there will be even more people involved. Many people said that they didn't want to get arrested last night when it is still in the 'experimental' stage - but that when it comes down to the real thing, if areas in Israel are closed down, they will certainly be willing to get arrested. I can give you an example from myself: Of my entire family, only two of us got arrested - but at the real thing, we will all go out, no question about it. You can do the multiplication yourself... Until there are detention camps with tens of thousands of people, it won't stop; and everyone realizes that Israel's police can't run camps like that and also carry out the disengagement at once."