Honenu: Police raid right-wing conference, arrest five

Group dedicated to providing legal services to right-wing activists says arrested were picked up on charges of violating restraining orders.

By TOVAH LAZAROFF
Updated: AUGUST 28, 2015 23:22
Handcuffs [Illustrative] (photo credit: INIMAGE)
Handcuffs [Illustrative]
(photo credit: INIMAGE)
Police raided a right-wing conference in the Nof Ayalon community on Thursday arresting five people, according to the nongovernmental organization Honenu.
The five were picked up on charges of violating restraining orders, said a spokesman for Honenu whose group is dedicated to providing legal services to right-wing activists.
The meeting was focused on the police crackdown on the activists and the use of administrative detention as well as other legal tools against them.
Hebron activist Baruch Marzel charged that the actions of the officers at Nof Ayalon proved that Israel is a police state. It’s amazing that they could just come in broad daylight and frighten an entire population, he said.
The police had no comment about the raid, which occurred in Nof Ayalon, a community within the Green Line.
In the last month security forces in Israel and the West Bank have arrested dozens of right-wing activists. They are searching for the perpetrators of the July 31 arson attack in the Palestinian village of Duma that killed a father and his toddler son. It assumed that the attack was carried out by extreme right-wing activists.
In addition to the raid, police and Border Police arrested two activists in the Old City of Jerusalem, according to Honenu. They also arrested four activists in the West Bank in raids on outposts in the Binyamin region of the West Bank, including the Balladim outpost near the Kochav Hashahar settlement as well as Maoz Esther and Geulat Zion near the Shiloh settlement, according to the NGO. The civil administration also razed some structures in Maoz Esther and confiscated equipment in the Balladim, according to a security source.
The source added that activists in Maoz Esther threw stones at security forces and set tires on fire.