Eliezer was one of several people arrested May 16 in the first organized
traffic disruptions to protest the government plan to force more than 9,000
Jews out of their homes this summer and turn over their communities to the
Palestinian Authority (PA).
She was in jail for a month until the courts accepted her request to be
placed under house arrest in Kibbutz Rosh Tzurim, in Gush Etzion south of
Jerusalem. She had volunteered there when she moved to Israel from France
in 1963 and has friends there. The judge prohibited her from returning to
her husband and three children in Netanya because "the police and
prosecutor said I am an extremist and a danger to society," she said.
"In Europe, blocking roads and burning tires is a legitimate democratic
expression." Eliezer said. "We took into account the danger to motorists so
we burned the first tire on the shoulder. We started to burn a second tire
when the police came," she explained.
They handcuffed her and shackled her legs when she was taken to Maasiyahu
Prison where she stayed for a month with five young girls.
Eliezer, who teaches piano and volunteers to help sick and old people in
Netanya, said the prison guards treated her reasonably and even felt
sympathy for her opinions. Her complaints were reserved for the police who
she charged with forcing her to go to a court hearing at the same time her
family was to visit.
"Visitors are allowed for half an hour a day. My hearing was for 9 a.m.,
but the police forgot to take me. They came at 2 p.m. to take me, and I
showed them their mistake and that I wouldn't be in jail when my family
came to visit, but they didn't care. They said if I didn't listen to them
they would take me by force. Of course, there was no hearing, but my family
waited for me and I saw them when I returned."
Eliezer said she does not regret what she did and that her jailing has
strengthened the determination of her friends and neighbors to fight the
planned evacuation. "People have given up their lives for our land, and
this is the minimum we can do when the government wants to give the land to
our enemies," she declared.
She worries more about the fate of the residents of the 25 Jewish
communities that the government wants to abandon more than about her
possible sentence. "I don't think about the trial. I worry about the
sentence on those under the threat of expulsion."
She said she received strength from being with the teenage girls in jail
with her. "We learned all night on the holiday of Shavuot, and I saw the
sunrise and heard the birds. We had finished reciting Psalms and I told the
girls, 'The government cannot break our spirit. We have seen the sunrise,
and we will see the redemption.'"
traffic disruptions to protest the government plan to force more than 9,000
Jews out of their homes this summer and turn over their communities to the
Palestinian Authority (PA).
She was in jail for a month until the courts accepted her request to be
placed under house arrest in Kibbutz Rosh Tzurim, in Gush Etzion south of
Jerusalem. She had volunteered there when she moved to Israel from France
in 1963 and has friends there. The judge prohibited her from returning to
her husband and three children in Netanya because "the police and
prosecutor said I am an extremist and a danger to society," she said.
"In Europe, blocking roads and burning tires is a legitimate democratic
expression." Eliezer said. "We took into account the danger to motorists so
we burned the first tire on the shoulder. We started to burn a second tire
when the police came," she explained.
They handcuffed her and shackled her legs when she was taken to Maasiyahu
Prison where she stayed for a month with five young girls.
Eliezer, who teaches piano and volunteers to help sick and old people in
Netanya, said the prison guards treated her reasonably and even felt
sympathy for her opinions. Her complaints were reserved for the police who
she charged with forcing her to go to a court hearing at the same time her
family was to visit.
"Visitors are allowed for half an hour a day. My hearing was for 9 a.m.,
but the police forgot to take me. They came at 2 p.m. to take me, and I
showed them their mistake and that I wouldn't be in jail when my family
came to visit, but they didn't care. They said if I didn't listen to them
they would take me by force. Of course, there was no hearing, but my family
waited for me and I saw them when I returned."
Eliezer said she does not regret what she did and that her jailing has
strengthened the determination of her friends and neighbors to fight the
planned evacuation. "People have given up their lives for our land, and
this is the minimum we can do when the government wants to give the land to
our enemies," she declared.
She worries more about the fate of the residents of the 25 Jewish
communities that the government wants to abandon more than about her
possible sentence. "I don't think about the trial. I worry about the
sentence on those under the threat of expulsion."
She said she received strength from being with the teenage girls in jail
with her. "We learned all night on the holiday of Shavuot, and I saw the
sunrise and heard the birds. We had finished reciting Psalms and I told the
girls, 'The government cannot break our spirit. We have seen the sunrise,
and we will see the redemption.'"