Contrary to the position of her court-appointed attorney, the judge ordered the girl to undergo psychiatric testing.
"What's next?" asks Shmuel Medad, head of the Honenu civil rights organization. "Forced injections for prisoners who don't cooperate? We are truly turning into a dictatorial regime."
In a closed-door hearing yesterday in a Kfar Saba court, the defendant - known publicly only as T., because of her age - said she wants to be tried only by a "Jewish" court, in a court governed not by "British laws," but rather by Torah edicts. Until then, she said, she would not agree to cooperate with court authorities.
In light of T.'s position, her court-appointed lawyer requested to be released from her position. The court refused this request, ordering her to continue to represent her client at least through the stage of psychiatric testing. The judge ordered the next hearing for the second week of November, after the psychiatric testing, but thus far no such test has been held.
T. was originally arrested several weeks ago when she tried to enter the now-destroyed Shomron community of Sa-Nur to resist the expulsion. As she was being dragged by a female soldier, the latter was cut by a knife that fell out of the girl's pocket. The Prosecution originally accused her of willfully stabbing the soldier, but these charges were dropped when the soldier herself said that she was cut accidentally. T. was later freed with no restrictions, but was arrested the next day, Sept. 15, when she again entered Sa-Nur - and has been in prison ever since.
Her mother, contacted by Arutz-7, said, "She simply refuses to cooperate with this corrupt and sick system, and so she remains in prison until the end of the proceedings against her - whenever that is. Her spirit is very high, and she takes everything well, even though she is basically alone in prison [aside from the other inmates in the N'vei Tirzah Women's Prison - ed.]... She spends much time reading and learning."
T. can call home once a day, and her family visits her once a week. "The visits are restricted to only two adults and three children," her mother said, "but we have a large family. So this week we asked for a special family visit, and finally after much delay, they granted it to us - but only for a half-hour."
Asked her own opinion on her daughter's incarceration, the woman said, "Of course I want her out - even today! But I also strengthen her hand in her uncompromising struggle - and at the end, they'll see that she is strong, and they'll throw her out of there."
It has been noted that T.'s position should be seen in the context of the current debate over the proper religious-Zionist attitude towards the State and its organs. Leading rabbis and thinkers in this sector have repeatedly said that the youth who led the struggle against the Disengagement Plan must prepare themselves for leadership positions in Israel, turning the State into a truly Jewish country, with courts, public education, government offices and the Knesset running according to Torah values and laws. As such, it is said, T.'s struggle - and similar ones waged by other young arrestees in the last several weeks - is simply a first step in this direction.