Daniella Weiss released from house arrest pending trial

Weiss has been charged with assaulting a police officer, interfering with a police investigation and hindering a police officer in the performance of his duty.

By DAN IZENBERG, YAAKOV LAPPIN, TOVAH LAZAROFF
weiss 88 (photo credit: )
weiss 88
(photo credit: )
The house arrest of former Kedumim mayor Daniella Weiss was lifted on Sunday, but the Kfar Saba Magistrate's Court ordered her to remain within the settlement for seven days, when her trial is due to begin. Weiss has been charged with assaulting a police officer, interfering with a police investigation and hindering a police officer in the performance of his duty. She was arrested Thursday after officers came to her home while chasing men they suspected had been involved in setting fire to a Palestinian field near Kedumim in Samaria. According to police, Weiss attacked officers who were examining a vehicle parked outside her home that they believed had been driven by the fire suspects. Weiss attacked the officers as they were preparing the vehicle to be towed away, according to police. Police also arrested two young men found on the roof of Weiss's home on suspicion of being involved in setting the fire, as well as a third suspect they found elsewhere in the settlement. One of the men has been placed under house arrested until this Wednesday. Two others had their custodies extended until next Monday as the police investigation continues. Weiss told The Jerusalem Post she was innocent of all charges, as were the young men who were with her. She said she was in her home when she saw the officers surrounding a car parked outside and went out to see what was going on. "They asked me who owned it," Weiss said. "I said, 'Let me look inside.' I tried to open the doors." At that point, she said, an officer told her to stop and then they arrested her. Weiss believes the Palestinians themselves set fire to the fields, which she said were near the Shvut Ami outpost. Settlers have been trying to establish an outpost at the site over the past year. Last Thursday morning, when they had almost completed the construction of two wooden structures, security forces came and demolished the buildings. Since then, activists have worked on rebuilding them. Weiss said the Palestinians had hoped the fire would spread to Shvut Ami and thus dissuade the settlers from rebuilding. "They do not want them to be there," she said. Weiss said her arrest was part of a plan by the security forces to break the settler leadership so they would be unable to combat government plans to withdraw from more of Judea and Samaria.