ISRAELI POLICE ARREST YOUTH AND FORCE THEM TO PROFANE SABBATH

Israeljustice.com

  JERUSALEM -- In the latest crackdown on West Bank Jews, Israeli police arrested a teenager and forced him to profane the Sabbath as part of a campaign to roundup and investigate youth who protest against the government.  
    "Plain-clothed detectives came from behind and arrested me at 9.30 on Shabbat [the Sabbath] morning," the youth said. "They took me to the police station and held me until the end of Shabbat. They wanted to keep me until the investigation on Sunday but then they released me."  
    The youth said he was arrested at the Netzer outpost, located in the Etzion bloc of Jewish communities, and forced to ride in a police car to the police station at the Etzion junction, despite the fact that he would only be investigated by a detective who was off-duty on Saturday.  
    "They follow us and monitor our cell phones," he said. "They wanted to hold me another day until the detective arrives from Hebron but then they released me."  
    The teenager said the police are looking to roundup and investigate teenagers who protested against the violent police eviction of about 200 Jews from the Peace House in Hebron on Dec. 4, during which 25 people were injured.  
    The police crackdown on Jewish dissidents comes in the wake of a pledge by Defense Minister Ehud Barak to impose harsher punishments against 300,000 Jews in the West Bank.  
    "We must be more severe in punishments meted out to lawbreakers in Judea and Samaria," Barak said during the cabinet meeting on Dec. 14.  
    At least 30 people have since been arrested for blocking roads in Judea and Samaria to protest the eviction in Hebron, about twenty teenagers were arrested during the eviction and it its aftermath and administrative expulsion orders forcing residents from their homes in Judea and Samaria have been issued.