'Ex-mayor charged with assaulting police'

Right-wing activist Weiss brought to court over charges she tried to obstruct policemen from carrying out their duties.

By JPOST.COM STAFF, TOVAH LAZAROFF, ABE SELIG
outpost 224.88 (photo credit: AP)
outpost 224.88
(photo credit: AP)
Former Kedumim mayor and right-wing activist Daniella Weiss was charged in the Kfar Saba Magistrate's Court on Friday with assaulting police officers and perverting the course of justice, Channel 10 reported. According to the report, police arrived near Weiss's home on Thursday in search of right-wing activists suspected of setting a Palestinian olive grove alight near the village of Kadum. When policemen attempted to inspect a car which they believed had been used by the activists, Weiss allegedly attacked them, and tried to prevent them from continuing their investigation. Weiss was released to house arrest and the court will rule Sunday on the police request that she be remanded in custody until the end of legal proceedings. Police also arrested at least seven others after Thursday's incident, in what settlers have charged is a "witch-hunt" in the aftermath of last week's attack on left-wing professor Ze'ev Sternhell. The incident followed the evacuation and destruction by security forces of the two temporary structures situated at the Shvut Ami outpost, just outside of Kedumim in Samaria, erected last year by the Eretz Yisrael Faithful group. After the two structures were destroyed, police said, settlers torched fields belonging to Palestinians. The fire threatened a nearby IDF base and police station near Kadum before being brought under control. Nadia Matar, of Women in Green and the Eretz Yisrael Faithful, said that she knew nothing of the blaze and that Weiss was not near Shvut Ami at the time of its evacuation. But police said they spotted a car driving away from the blaze, which they then found parked near Weiss's home. According to police, when officers approached the home, Weiss and an unidentified woman described as between 50 and 60 years old, came out of the house and attempted to stop police from coming inside. "Weiss and the other woman forcefully interfered with our investigation and attacked officers physically," Poleg told The Jerusalem Post. "They were both arrested and charged with interfering with a police investigation and assault of an officer, and have been taken to the Neveh Tirtza Women's Prison." Poleg also said that when police went into the home, two young men from the Kiryat Arba settlement - suspects in the arson - were discovered hiding in Weiss's attic, and were also arrested. A third man found outside the home, from Adei Ad, was also taken into custody. Matar, however, said Weiss only yelled at the officers and had not attacked them in any way. Weiss's husband Amnon, who was detained Thursday and then released in the evening, said he was in his home office when police came to their door and said they were looking for suspects. Startled, he asked, "What suspects, in connection with what?" They searched the home, found the two young men, and had Weiss sign a statement that the officers had caused no harm. But later, he said, they returned. A police commander asked who he was and an officer responded, "Weiss's husband." The commander then ordered him arrested. On Wednesday, Amnon Weiss noted, the security forces were nowhere to be found when Palestinians threw rocks at Israeli cars on a road near their home, but on Thursday they found time to harass him. Matar said Thursday's arrests were "premeditated" and were part of a deliberate crackdown by the police on right-wing activists, to combat the criticism hurled at the security forces this week that they were being too easy on the settlers and it was this leniency that had contributed to the attack on Sternhell. Police are investigating whether right-wing extremists planted the pipe-bomb outside Sternhell's home that lightly wounded him last week. "Now there is a witch-hunt taking place," said Matar. She said that in making these arrests the police deliberately targeted the Eretz Yisrael Faithful group, whose sole "crime," she said, was to support Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria.