Posted on 05/15/22
| News Source: Arutz-7
A Charedi man spent Shabbos in jail, after he tried to immerse himself in a spring near the city of Beitar Illit, south of Jerusalem.
Israeli police arrested the man Friday afternoon outside of the predominantly haredi city of Beitar Illit, after he and a friend – both residents of the city – went hiking towards a nearby spring, intended to use the spring as a mikva, or ritual bath.
Security forces deployed to the area spotted the two approaching Palestinian Authority-controlled territory, and notified police, who dispatched officers to arrest the young men.
While one man managed to evade police, the other was arrested and accused of damaging a local security fence and crossing into Palestinian Authority-controlled territory without authorization.
The man was interrogated and forced to spend the Sabbath in jail.
On Saturday night, police requested that the Jerusalem Magistrates Court extend the arrest by four days, but the judge, Justice Shmuel Herbst, denied the request and ordered the young man freed with no restrictions imposed on his movement and without bail. Justice Herbst also excoriated Judea and Samaria district police for their handling of the case, and their claim that the “presence of Jews in the field could raise concerns for general public safety.”
“Reading Israel’s Declaration of Independence teaches us that this is a Jewish state,” Herbst wrote in his response to the police department’s request, “which was established for the Jewish people; the fact that a Jew is in a particular place does not create safety concerns for the general population.”