Outpost activist held for violating restraining order

By REBECCA ANNA STOIL
At age 24, Yehoyariv Meguri is already a weathered right-wing activist. His arrest early Tuesday under suspicion that he violated an IDF-issued restraining order was not the first time that the Givat Arusi resident has spent time in police lockups. Meguri was arrested after he emphasized that he had no intention of leaving his home, despite receiving a restraining order last Monday barring him from the West Bank, according to police. Later Tuesday, Meguri claimed before the Kafr Saba Magistrates Court that he never received the restraining order, rather it was given to his wife, who never mentioned it to him. Nine days ago, police distributed 11 restraining orders against right-wing activists who were determined to constitute a "danger to security and to public order in the area" during the upcoming evacuation of the illegal outposts. Issued by OC Central Command Maj.-Gen. Yair Naveh, the restraining orders were handed out by the Judea and Samaria District Police in the settlements of Yitzhar, Eilon Moreh and Karnei Shomron. The restraining orders forbid the activists from staying anywhere in the West Bank except Ma'aleh Adumim in the coming months. Meguri's home, located three kilometers from the settlement of Har Bracha, is one of 12 illegal outposts for which Defense Minister Amir Peretz signed eviction orders in mid-May. Although all 11 of the activists who received the restraining orders had the option of appealing within four days, Meguri never issued a challenge to the order. Following his arrest, Meguri was taken before the Kafr Saba Magistrates Court for a remand extension, where the judge gave him four days to appeal the order or to leave the West Bank. Meguri first made headlines when he was arrested in 2003 by Military Police under suspicion of involvement in an alleged Jewish terror cell. The cell - known as the Bat Ayin gang - allegedly planned to bomb an Arab girls' school. Although one cell member claimed that Meguri, then in the middle of his mandatory IDF service in the Nahal Haredi Battalion, was involved in the plans, Meguri was later released, after police and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) failed to find enough evidence to indict him for involvement in the group.