Tzvia Sariel
Age: 18
Whereabouts: Neve Tirza Prison
Tzvia Sariel has been in prison for three months without formal charges.
Her crime: She refuses to cooperate with police who arrested her at a protest in her community of Elon Moreh in northern Samaria.
In December 2007, the army and police forced Elon Moreh to allow Arabs to pick olives in the Jewish community. Tzvia and a few of her friends tried to stop the Arabs, and the girls were immediately arrested. None of the Arabs were injured. Tzvia, disenchanted with the lack of civil rights to Jews who live in Judea and Samaria, refused to identify herself. Still, she was forced to give her fingerprints. Then, she was thrown into solitary confinement in a cell without heat in the middle of the winter. She was also denied full visitation rights and until recently, telephone rights. Authorities said she would stay in prison indefinitely. Despite all this, she still refuses to cooperate.
On Feb. 27, Tzvia was brought to court where witnesses failed to identify her as the girl accused of pushing three Arabs. Still, Kfar Saba Magistrate Navah Bechor sent Tzvia back to jail until the next hearing on March 5. The treatment of Zviya is not exceptional. Since 2005, when the Israeli government planned the expulsion of the nearly 10,000 Jews from the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria, authorities drafted regulations that reserved special penalties for Jewish protesters. More than 700 indictments, many of them involving minors, were issued against those who protested the government destruction of Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza
Strip.
When residents of Sderot blocked the Tel Aviv highway in February in anger over the government’s refusal to stop Hamas missile gunners, police stood by respectfully. When Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria, protesting the government’s expulsion policy, tried to do the same, they were beaten and thrown into prison.
It is clear that Tzvia has been denied her civil rights, and we ask you to help free her immediately. As a first step, we request that you telephone — rather than e-mail — the Israeli Embassy or the Israeli consulate nearest you and demand to know why Tzvia is still in prison. Explain that you are bringing your concerns about this matter to the attention of your representative in Washington.
Today’s news brings further evidence of the ongoing violation of Jewish Civil Rights in Israel:
Story: Jewish Civilian Faces Arrest After Shooting at Lynch Mob
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/125440
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, March 4th, 2008 and is filed under action.
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