Indictments and summons to court sessions are being mailed these days to an estimated 400 people, mainly youths - a result of the anti-disengagement activities of this past spring and summer.
Many of the youths are unsure as to how to proceed. They are turning to the Honenu organization, which has several suggestions - but these have not yet been implemented.
Throughout the months preceding the expulsion from Gush Katif and northern Shomron, beginning roughly in February, hundreds of youths were arrested in the course of protesting the planned disengagement. Most were arrested while blocking roads, and were even held in prison for various amounts of time. A special wing in the Maasiyahu Prison in Ramle was even set up for the disengagement protestors.
Coming to their rescue was largely Honenu, a voluntary legal rights organization. Honenu had been established four years earlier to help citizens whose spontaneous acts of self-defense in life-threatening situations had embroiled them in legal trouble.
Honenu hired lawyers, at group discounted rates, to represent the protesting youths and others at the first stage of their arrest, trying to help them avoid being incarcerated until the end of the proceedings and other restrictions. The lawyers advised them regarding such issues as whether to identify themselves and the like.
The young inmates forged close ties as they experienced jail together "for the cause," and for the most part drew much admiration for their ideals and behavior while in prison. The commander of the Maasiyahu Prison reportedly told MK Effie Eitam that he hoped his own children would grow up like them.
One yeshiva high school junior who spent eight days in prison after passively participating in a road-blocking wrote on the Ynet Hebrew news site,
"I'll tell you frankly: I wasn't supposed to be [arrested]. I was arrested for nothing. Really. But I'm not sorry for one second that I was there! To me, those 'law-breakers' gave so much... The Sabbath that I had there in prison - I don't remember such a Shabbat in my life. Such righteous boys and girls! What an amazing and uplifting Kabbalat Shabbat [Friday evening prayer service]! ... I don't think there was one person there who hadn't gone on the face-to-face campaign [of meeting people in their homes and explaining to them about Gush Katif, Judaism, etc. - ed.] at least five times. So whoever thinks that these road-blockers don't care about the People of Israel should sit on the side and learn from them about true love of their fellow Jew. Even in jail they tried to do the face-to-face campaign. We did it with the jailers, with other prisoners, with police officers, etc."
Now, however, the situation has changed: the arrestees are no longer "together," their plight is no longer of great public interest, and Honenu's funds cannot be stretched to cover all the legal fees that are now arising.
Shmuel "Zangy" Medad, the founder and head of Honenu, told Arutz-7,
"We simply do not have enough money. At the first stage, our help was critical, because people were in shock over being arrested, and they needed immediate help, to avoid being jailed until the end of proceedings and the like. We would like to continue our help, but we simply can't - it's too much... But we can help now in other ways: For one thing, one who receives a court summons can take lawyers from among those who are still in our pool, at discounted prices [roughly a third to a quarter of normal lawyers' fees]. Or, of course, he or she can take a public defender; this is free, and some of them are of high quality. In that case, we can advise him on what he needs to be eligible for such representation. Or if he wants to defend himself, we have lawyers who can advise him."
Medad then said that a fourth option exists:
"We don't officially recommend it, but it's important to mention - and that is for the defendant to state straight out that he or she does not recognize the courts because of their non-Jewish orientation. We know that only isolated individuals are able to take this approach, however."
One of them is Medad's wife Ettie, who was taken yesterday by force to a court in Kfar Saba - a day earlier than her scheduled court date, sentenced to a three-month suspended sentence, and released. She spent most of the month of August this year in prison on two-year-old charges related to alleged "child neglect" having to do with her protest against the eviction of a widow from her hilltop home. She said at the time that she prefers to "sit in jail, despite the suffering my family and children will face, rather than cooperate with the evils perpetrated against our people. I will not cooperate with the forces who are expelling David Hatuel... [or that] permitted the eviction of Livnat Ozeri and the destruction of her home, [or] with the forces that are planning to build a casino in Elei Sinai. If this is the price we have to pay, so be it."
Clearly, however, only a small number are willing to take this approach, and Medad says that within a few days, he hopes to have a meeting of all of them to decide on a joint strategy.
Others who have been helped by Honenu would like to enlist the organization's help in holding another gathering - of those who are not willing to take the above approach. The mother of one young defendant said that she was told by the Rabbi of Yitzhar, David Dudkevitch, that there must be a group strategy for those in the "mainstream" who don't wish to clash directly with the legal system.
One man close to the matter, a resident of Kedumim who is in close contact with Honenu, told Arutz-7 that he would like to organize such a strategy:
"It's a realistic goal, but it has to be organized by a group. My idea is that we all saw and all agree that the system is corrupt and has to be changed - but it can't be done overnight. We also have to recognize that there are still some individuals, even in the system, who can be convinced when they see that something is wrong. Last week, for instance, a report was issued showing how unfairly all the disengagement protestors were treated - and it made some waves. We have to keep the pressure on; we have to lead to a situation where there is much scrutiny, both here and abroad, of their decisions; we have to show the judges reports and investigations, asking questions like, 'How do you expect me to cooperate with a system that does this and this?'; and of course we have to aggressively contest the actual charges. We need to hold a press conference that will present this position and turn it into news, and then meet together and make decisions."
For some of the defendants, the above might be too late, as their court dates are coming up in the coming days. "We might be able to push off the court date," one mother said, "and if so, the [above-mentioned] strategy is the way we would like to go."
The people mentioned in this article are in contact with one another, and hope to work together to implement their strategy for the benefit of as many of the young defendants as possible.
Medad said, "Keep in mind that after the Yamit/Sinai expulsion in 1982, then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin closed all the files against the protestors - but Sharon has not done this. He has been sending a consistent message ever since he first announced his disengagement plan that he wants to break the national-religious-settler camp. But he won't succeed. The tide is turning against him, and people believe in our way. We believe that the State of Israel is a great thing, and we thank G-d for it - but the way is now open for it to become a truly Jewish state. For this, we have to struggle."