Why I decided to violate the administration expulsion order
Boaz Albert
In a special letter to the readers of Hakol Hayehudi, Boaz Albert explains why he decided to proudly violate the administration expulsion order and stay in his home in Yitzhar.
“Not only does the injustice motivate me to fight, but also the desire to stay in my home here in Yitzhar, in the hills of Shomron. Not for the State of Israel but for the Jewish nation, who’s Land this is.”
About a month ago police served an administrative order that forbids me to be Yitzhar for six months. The order was signed by the top commander, Major-General Nitzan Alon. This punishment does not specify my offences, except for the vague “security reasons.”
As I received the order I declared that I will not honor it. I stayed in my house and was arrested, released when it was pointed out that there was a technical mistake on the date of the order. Thereafter, I received a new, corrected order. I returned to my house, and now for over two weeks (ed: now it is close to a month), blatantly violating the order. As I write these lines I am still in my home. I believe that sooner or later I will be arrested again and jailed longer.
In my struggle I focus on two points: the injustice of the order and explanation of why we are here in the Land of Israel.
The injustice of the order:
First, there is a difference between the Israeli criminal justice and the administrative system:
The State of Israel claims to be a country of enlightened laws, which protect the individual’s civil rights, including the rights of a criminal suspect. The principle of the law is that a person is “innocent until proven guilty”. Until the conviction, the person is only a “suspect.”
I do not support the current secular Israeli law. We, Jews loyal to Torah, have a different criminal procedure. As it is written in Choshen Mishpat, in the laws of judges, ‘anyone who turns to the courts of the Gentiles is wicked and it is as if he cursed and raised his hand against our teacher Moses’ (Choshen Mishpat, Siman 26, se’if 1).
Now, “the law of the land is the law.” Until the laws of the Torah are enacted, we have to use the legal system that allows us to live without fear of criminals.
In order to convict a citizen of Israel, the prosecution must pass each of three stages:
First, the accused is called into the police station and the suspicions are explained to him. At this stage the suspect is entitled to refute the allegations and prove his innocence. Only if the police is not convinced do the criminal proceedings begin.
The next stage is the trial where the evidence against a person is presented. He and his lawyer can dispute it. Only if the court is convinced beyond any reasonable doubt, the defendant is convicted. Yet still the process is not complete…
In the next stage the convicted person is entitled to fight over the sentencing. Usually there is a significant difference between the state’s desired sentence and the court’s final decision.
Then, there is the right of appeal and other rights….
What is an administrative order by comparison?
The central military command of Judea and Samaria has the power to issue an order that restricts the movement of a resident without giving any explanation. The person against whom the order has been issued does not know what he is suspected of and therefore cannot dispute the allegations against him.
In theory, there is the right for an appeal, but in truth, there is none. This is because the head of the “Military Court of Appeals” is an officer below the rank of a major-general who signed the order. How could he contradict his higher-ups?
Further, the appeal has little effect when the victim has no idea what crimes he is appealing.
Administrative orders may be justified when there is a secret evidence against terrorists that the ShaBaK (Israeli FBI) cannot present in court for fear of compromising informers or such. But anything that does not endanger citizens merits regular criminal procedure.
In my case….
Using procedures designed for terrorists against Jews suspected of “public disturbances” or trivial property offenses is a morally corrupt. In my case, I am not even suspected that.
I’ve commited no crimes and no one tried pin one on me. I can only guess what the “the secret information”, the most threatening thing I have done, was writing my opinion in articles on Hakol Hayehudi and in various other public forums.
Order calls for expelling my family from our home, new schools for my six children, disrupting our income, distancing from our friends and surroundings. Since I am a farmer, who will tend my vineyard and land only a few weeks before the harvest?
Therefore, my struggle is not only the struggle of the people of Yitzhar, not even of the settlement enterprise: this is the struggle against a basic injustice.
The misunderstanding:
In addition to the basic injustice, there is another point:
The fundamental question is: “In whose name are we here in the Land of Judea and Samaria?”
Most Israeli politicians see the settlement in Judea and Samaria as a kind of experiment and Jewish presence here as a privilege. They hope to make a “political decision” about it in the future .
To Arabs, their attitude is completely different. No one even suggests that the Arabs be punished for their criminal violence. Even Arab terrorist murderers are freed before serving their full sentence because their criminal actions are ‘resistance to occupation.’
I see the matter differently.
I am here in Yitzhar in Shomron, because I am a part of the Jewish Nation and this is Our Land. For forty years the State of Israel has both supported and restricted the settlement movement. Politicians don’t see this Land as given us by G-d, but we do. Therefore, it is not because of the goodwill of the Israeli secular politicians we live here.
The Arabs, in contrast, are foreign invaders who will go back to their own lands. I firmly believe that this will happen.
Gush Katif was destroyed in 2005 because residents thought that were unable survive without the Army protection. They entrusted their fate to Israeli politicians and got exiled into the filthy depressing mobile home parks.
In Judea and Samaria, Israeli politicians prevent Jews from arming themselves and organizing anti-terrorist security. On the other hand, since 1995 “Oslo”, they provided Arabs 20,000 assault rifles and ammunition from Israeli Army warehouses. That is in addition to all the arms Arabs smuggled. Yet, military capability and training of the Jews in Judea and Samaria is far greater than in the War of Independence. Our enemy is much weaker.
Therefore, I am not afraid of the Arabs. I do not need Israeli Army to protect me and my family. I can protect myself. Residents of Yitzhar can protect our community and the residents of Judea and Samaria can control this area without Israeli Army’s help.
Therefore, I point to Army Command that it does not have the authority to ban me from here in the name of the State of Israel… They must realize that I live here not because of their consent. I am here in the name of the Jewish Nation.
Finally:
Because the Geneva Convention prohibits expulsion of a resident outside the occupied area, Major-General’s Nitzan Alon administrative expulsion order is confining me to the community of Shaarei Tikvah in Samaria…
Therefore, government treats ‘problematic’ settlers according to international law and our relationship is that of ‘an occupier’ and the ‘occupied Jewish population.’
Justice of my side and with G-d’s help it will all turn out for the best.
Topic: Persecution of Boaz Albert by bolsheviks in Israel (Read 8522 times)