Civil rights is a major issue in Israel, where the Left worries about justice for Palestinians and the Right is concerned about Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria and those who support them.

Right wingers say that as the Sharon government turned from Right to Left, followed by the Olmert government, which is essentially left-wing, concern for the civil rights of those who oppose the government’s policies has been trampled under horses at Amona, smothered under administrative detention orders, and charged with sedition for attempting peaceful protests.

Using history as a guide, leaders of the nationalist camp say that when their side loses its civil rights, another withdrawal cannot be far behind.

According to a report from Israeljustice.com, one of the reasons the rights of nationalist camp are in jeopardy is that, for the past two years, Israel’s domestic security agency, the GSS or Shabak, has been operating a secret unit designed to monitor and infiltrate opposition to the government’s withdrawal policy from Judea, Samaria, and Gaza.

Existence of the Israel Security Agency (ISA) unit was exposed by Likud MK Michael Eitan, former chairman of the Constitution and Law Committee.

According to Mr. Eitan, the secret unit was established in February 2005, as the Sharon government prepared for withdrawal from Gaza and northern Samaria and the expulsion of about 10,000 Jews from their homes and communities. Established as a special unit in the Justice Ministry, it was authorized to infiltrate protest groups and designed to monitor the Internet.

While the government still refuses to acknowledge the ISA unit, Mr. Eitan told Israeljustice.com that the secret intelligence unit was discussed in a closed emergency session of the Knesset Constitution and Law Committee on March 1, 2005. Elli Rodan, editor of Israeljustice.com, said he recently received a transcript of the hearing.

According to the transcript, the unit was meant to determine whether dissent or civil disobedience constituted incitement or sedition, punishable by five years in prison under Israeli law.

According to Mr. Rodan, over the past year, about 700 Israelis have been indicted in connection with the protest campaign against the Sharon government’s disengagement plan. Several of the indictments came as a result of newspaper articles or letters critical of officials who directed the withdrawal.

Many right wingers say that behavior long exhibited by left-wing groups, such as labor unions, became unacceptable only when adopted by right-wing groups who opposed the disengagement.

In fact, the prosecution of three alleged leaders of the campaign against the disengagement may be a test of Jewish civil rights in Israel.

"The court has to define the boundaries of a democratic fight and the boundaries of the legality of demonstrations, and not any civilian who decides on different boundaries. The court has to clarify what is allowed and what is forbidden when you demonstrate in Israel," said prosecutor Dan Bahat. "Freedom of expression does not protect all the freedom to shut down all the systems, and this freedom does not protect the shutdown of an entire country."

Shai Malka, Ariel Vangrover, and Adiel Sharabi, leaders of the Bayit Leumi (National Home) movement, have been charged with sedition in connection with the blocking of several Israeli highways on May 16, 2005. The prosecution said the three defendants, arrested on the eve of the protest, had planned several attempts to halt traffic.

Although Mr. Bahat said their behavior "marked a revolt against the government," many right-wingers point out that blocking highway traffic is a tactic often used by Israeli labor unions.

Judge Rachel Shalev-Gertal did not accept the prosecution’s insistence that the three defendants were the sole architects of the campaign against the disengagement.

"There was a widespread readiness to protest against the disengagement. Where were you?" she asked Mr. Bahat. "People were standing on every corner. Are you saying that only because of Bayit Leumi they went out to protest?"

The defendants have accused the state of selective prosecution, showing that members of the state-financed Council of Jewish Settlements in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza—most of them with high-level political connections—organized the largest protests, including an aborted attempt by 40,000 people to enter Gaza in an effort to stop the government expulsion.

Ms. Shalev-Gertal agreed. "The entire community knew that [the Yesha Council] wanted to prevent the disengagement," she told Mr. Bahat.

If found guilty of sedition, the defendants face five years in prison. Their attorney, Ido Stouber, called sedition "the darling of every dark regime."

"Every verbal expression can be construed as sedition," he said, explaining that, at present in Israel, the charge is open to the prosecutorial and police interpretation. He called on the legislature to rectify this.

"Who to indict and who not to indict—this is appropriate for a mandatory regime, but not for a democratic government. The use here of indictment on sedition for road-blocking is political and meant to destroy the right to protest," said Mr. Stouber.

Many right-wingers believe a similar tactic is at work in Israel’s General Security Service (Shabak) decision, once again, to issue administrative detention orders to right-wing activists, placing them under house arrest or barring them altogether from their homes in Judea and Samaria.

Administrative detention, a holdover from the British Mandate in which suspected criminals can be arrested without being charged or given the opportunity to refute the evidence against them, has usually been used by Israel against Palestinians who are considered likely to engage in terrorist activities against Jews. It has been used against right-wing Jews whenever the government is considering relinquishing land, giving rise to right-wing suspicions that, despite its claims to the contrary, the Olmert government is preparing a unilateral withdrawal from all or parts of Judea and Samaria.

There does not seem to be any evidence that the Israeli legal establishment has used administrative detention against any left-wing groups.

These right- and left-wing perspectives on civil rights knocked against each other last month following an incident that probably would have evinced a yawn anywhere else in the world. Perhaps only in Hebron would a verbal argument between two women—a spat that never progressed beyond a few salty words—serve to inspire editorials, the establishment of an investigatory panel by the prime minister, and a comparison by a Yad Vashem official between that squabble and the Holocaust.

The incident between the Jewish Hebron resident, Yifat Alkobi, a mother of five, and her Palestinian-Arab neighbor, identified in the Israeli press only as Mrs. Abu-Isha, actually took place last summer. In a nutshell, Mrs. Alkobi, who resides in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood of Hebron, said Mrs. Abu-Isha spat at her, and, in retaliation, Mrs. Alkobi called Mrs. Abu-Isha a "sharmuta," Arabic for "slut" or "prostitute."

According to David Wilder, the spokesman for the Jewish community of Hebron, the incident was caught on tape by a protester from B’tselem, a far –left organization whose stated goals are "to document and inform the Israeli public and policymakers about human rights violations against Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza Strip." The group has been identified with those demanding the forcible evacuation of all of Judea and Samaria.

The tape, which lasts about one minute, shows only Mrs. Alkobi’s outburst and nothing of the spitting episode, which Mrs. Alkobi said provoked her.

When B’tselem posted the video on YNET last month, it was immediately shown on Israeli television and became the subject of numerous reports throughout the Israeli and European media.

Several members of the left-wing government cabinet pushed through a motion to establish a committee to make sure the law is enforced in such situations, although no one was certain what law could keep neighbors from calling each other names.

The committee, headed by Defense Minister Amir Peretz, is considering new procedures "to combat settler violence against Palestinians." Those on the committee include Labor Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh, Kadima Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, Kadima Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter, and Kadima Interior Minister Roni Bar-On. Representatives from the prosecutor’s office, the police, and the IDF have also been asked to contribute.

The proposals they are considering include increased use of restraining orders against residents of Yesha as well as legal actions against educational institutions that "incite teenagers to break the law or act violently against security forces."

Pragmatically, these suggestions mean an increased number of Jews either sentenced to house arrest or barred from their homes in Yesha without charges, trial, or the opportunity to refute the evidence against them. The schools risk having their budgets slashed.

There are currently some 1,000 Israeli policemen serving in Judea and Samaria, charged with handling Palestinian security and criminal offenses in the Israeli-controlled areas. Mr. Peretz’s committee said the government now will post specially trained police in so-called "friction zones," where they will be deployed for "prolonged periods."

Yesha spokeswoman Emily Amrusi noted that these proposals were made public the same day a Palestinian suicide bomber murdered three Jews in Eilat. "On a day when Israelis were killed by a terror attack, the defense minister should not focus on Israeli violence against Palestinians," she said, adding that, from Mr. Peretz’s words, she could "smell the bitter whiff of primaries."

"It’s imperative that the security establishment tackle strategic and terror threats rather than sow hatred and division within the nation," she said.

Mr. Peretz said he was concerned because, in the video of the argument between Mrs. Alkobi and Mrs. Abu-Isha, an IDF soldier was seen standing to the side. Mr. Peretz said he feared viewers might have the impression "that the harassment was taking place with IDF approval." Mr. Peretz pointed out that the IDF does not have the authority to implement the law, a duty that falls within the purview of the police.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who faces several criminal investigations for corruption and political investigations for the way he waged the war against Hezbollah last summer and whose popular support, according to polls, is about three percent, said he was "embarrassed" by what he saw in the video.

"This was a malicious provocation, brutality, arrogance, and contempt that it is impossible to come to terms with," he said, calling on settlement leaders also to condemn Mrs. Alkobi.

Apparently none did, and when asked about the incident, police said they had been unaware of the confrontation between the two women until they saw the film on YNET.

According to press reports, Mrs. Alkobi was summoned by the police for interrogation and threatened with arrest if she refused to present herself.

According to Mr. Wilder, after being questioned by the police, Mrs. Alkobi was permitted to return home without any restrictions. Mrs. Alkobi has since filed a complaint against Mrs. Abu-Isha, charging the Palestinian woman with attacking her.

But that did not mean the spate of stories quieted, leaving some observers to wonder what all the fuss was about.

"Alas, cursing in Israel is nothing new," said Mr. Wilder. "Only shouting and cursing between Jews and Arabs in Hebron is a cause célèbre. Mind you, Yifat didn’t threaten her neighbors. She didn’t take up arms against them, or shoot or stab anyone. She didn’t enter anyone’s home and turn it upside down. She did no damage to property. All she did was raise her voice and use some salty language."

Mr. Wilder pointed that, over the year, Mrs. Alkobi has suffered from terrorism. For two years, her home was under almost constant attack from Arab snipers, and, a few years ago, a terrorist’s bullet missed her daughter’s head by a few centimeters.

Mr. Wilder accused Peace Now and other radical, left-wing organizations, such as the International Solidarity Movement, Christian Peacemaker Teams, B’tselem, and Machsom Watch, of deliberately staging numerous provocations at the entrance to the Tel Rumeida neighborhood, attempting to draw Jewish residents into violent encounters with the local Arabs, which are then filmed, edited, and "fed to an unsympathetic media."

"Their goal is to dehumanize Hebron Jews," said Mr. Wilder.

One of the harshest attacks against Mrs. Alkobi came from former Shinui Party MK and commentator Yosef (Tommy) Lapid. Mr. Lapid and his party, which received no seats in the last Knesset election, are best known for their virulently anti-religious views.

Now head of the Yad Vashem Council, Mr. Lapid, a Holocaust survivor, wrote in an op-ed, published in The Jerusalem Post, that Mrs. Alkobi reminded him of an antisemitic neighbor in his native Hungary who, before his family escaped, "used to stand at the entrance to her home and curse us every time we went into the street—just like Yifat Alkobi."

He ended his op-ed with a plea for the Israeli army and police to "put and end to the Jewish barbarism of Hebron."

Mr. Lapid said he was not comparing Mrs. Alkobi’s behavior to that of those who operated the crematoria or perpetrated the pogroms, "but rather to the persecution, hounding, stone-throwing, undermining of livelihood, scare tactics, spitting, and contempt."

"It was all of these things that made our lives in the Diaspora so bitter and harrowing, even before they began the wholesale killing of Jews. I was afraid to go to school because a little antisemite lay in wait on the way and beat us. In what way is a Palestinian child in Hebron any different," said Mr. Lapid.

Mr. Wilder said Mr. Lapid had confused the perpetrators with the victims in Hebron.

One of the major problems, said Mr. Wilder, is that most Israelis do not understand that Tel Rumeida is a pressure cooker where Jewish children walking home from school are periodically attacked by local Arab youths on the road.

"Sometimes people lose control and use language not usually part of their everyday vocabulary," said Mr. Wilder. "Should ‘nice Jewish ladies’ use coarse language? It’s certainly not polite, but I’ve heard worse."

In Hebron, where approximately 500 Jews (and another 6500 in neighboring Kiryat Arba) live surrounded by 130,000 Palestinians, violence is not uncommon. Numerous Jewish residents and soldiers have been killed in Hebron in the last six years, including 10-month old Shalhevet Tehiya Pas, who was murdered by a sniper in 2001 as her parents held her in a playground at the entrance to the Avraham Avinu neighborhood.

According to Mr. Wilder, in January, Palestinians unsuccessfully attempted to infiltrate a Jewish home in Hebron. Historically, such break-ins often resulted in the murder of the Jewish residents.

Palestinians and their Jewish supporters in groups such as B’tselem contend that Jewish attacks on Palestinians, such as stone-throwing, assaults, and verbal harassment, have become daily occurrences.

Asked by Arutz Sheva why he did not see name-calling between the two women as just a simple squabble, Mr. Lapid said, "You and I and everyone knows that is not the case."

National Union MK Dr. Aryeh Eldad disagreed. "If a woman cursing in Hebron reminds Tommy of the Holocaust, he is not fit to lead the Yad Vashem Council," Dr. Eldad told Arutz 7

"It cannot be that the head of the Yad Vashem Council would compare a small neighbors’ dispute to the Nazi persecution of the Jews," said Dr. Eldad.

The right-wing organization, the Coalition to Save the People and the Land, called on Yad Vashem to fire Mr. Lapid, but Estee Yaari, a spokeswoman for the Holocaust memorial, said Mr. Lapid’s remarks were written by him personally and in no way reflect the position of Yad Vashem.

Ms. Yaari noted that Mr. Lapid’s position with Yad Vashem is as part of a public advisory body that is not under the auspices of Yad Vashem. Mr. Lapid was appointed by Mr. Olmert, and, she said, only the prime minister can replace him.

Asked why the film of the incident was held for six months before it was released, Mr. Wilder insisted there was "one reason and one reason only for the fuss."

"The prime minister is facing several criminal investigations. The defense minister is holding onto his job by the skin of his teeth. Both of them are looking for a good way to distract public attention from their woes, and, together with a very left-wing media, they found their solution in Yifat Alkobi’s tongue lashing," he said.

A little over a week after the video was shown, unidentified vandals, believed to be from one of the Arab neighborhoods in Hebron, damaged Jesse’s Tomb in Tel Rumeida, stole the tzedaka box, ripped the mezuzah from the door at the entrance to the grave, and broke the memorial candle device.

Jesse’s Tomb is the site traditionally accepted as the final resting place of King David’s father.

Although the police said they are investigating, they have no suspects.

"This is what happens when the politicians focus on a Hebron Jew who yelled at her neighbor," said Dr. Aaron Lerner of the IMRA news agency.

One day after the Alkobi-Abu-Isha video was made public, 150 Peace Now activists held a demonstration outside Hebron to protest Mrs. Alkobi’s outburst.

The left-wing protesters tried to enter Hebron, despite an IDF order issued earlier in the day against holding the demonstration inside Hebron. Ruling that the demonstration was a security threat, police stopped the protesters on the outskirts of the city.

Instead, the protesters were allowed to hold their demonstration at the Okafim Junction, north of Hebron.

Peace Now Director-General, Yariv Oppenheimer called the police "cowards" and accused them of failing to enforce the law against the Jewish residents of Yesha.

When a group of right-wing activists organized a counter-demonstration, a scuffle broke out between the two groups after one side hurled epithets at the other. Police were called to break up the fight, but apparently not to stop either side from calling out insults.

Mr. Wilder expressed mock surprise. "Isn’t it now going to be the case that anyone who yells at a neighbor is going to be investigated by a cabinet committee set up by the prime minister?" he said.

Some right-wingers demanded to know why the Peace Now demonstrators were not treated in a similar manner to the way in which police reacted to protesters who opposed the "disengagement."

Commenting in the Jerusalem Post on a story about the demonstration, Adina Kutnicki of Bergen County, NJ wrote: "Peace Now/Death Now members should be arrested and detained in the same way that right wingers who democratically demonstrated against the expulsion were. Will these hard-left activists be placed behind barbed wire, thrown out of their vehicles and buses, be throttled by the police? It seems to me that the laws in Israel are defined by who is doing the demonstrating. Labor strikers, students, and leftists can demonstrate without fear, but right-wingers are a different matter."

Like Ms. Kutnicki, an increasing number on the Israeli Right maintain that left-wing politicians, including those who dominate the justice and police departments, maintain one set of standards for the Left and another one entirely for the Right.

Last month, the Right claimed a moral victory when an 11-year-old Hebron boy was awarded $350 in damages in his case against a policeman who bent his fingers, causing him "pain and suffering."

The case dated back to an incident that occurred in April 2005 when Hebron residents were protesting against the decision to allow an Arab family with a strong terrorist background to move into a house adjacent to the Avraham Avinu neighborhood.

During the protest, the boy climbed on top of a fence, and the police officer ordered him down. According to the child’s court testimony, when he obeyed the officer, "the policeman bent back two fingers on my right hand, for no reason. He bent them back, and it hurt, and I cried."

The boy’s testimony was corroborated by two adult Hebron residents who witnessed the incident.

The policeman maintained that the boy began crying while he was still on top of the fence, but Jerusalem District Court Justice Moshe Bar-Am rejected that version, ruling that the policeman had acted against the child "after he got down from the fence, without any reason or justification."

The judge said the boy’s behavior was "inappropriate," but, he ruled, "certainly a police officer can be expected to show patience and restraint towards those who disobey legal orders, and certainly towards little children."

The judge was not, however, persuaded that the police officer’s behavior was "premeditated and intended to hurt." Rather, he said, the policeman’s action "must be seen as a momentary lapse and a spontaneous, though unacceptable, reaction towards one who knowingly violated a clear order."

For the boy, the son of right-wing activist Noam Federman, the episode—and the monetary award—was an example of following in his father’s footsteps. Arrested more than 40 times for his activities, Mr. Federman has not only been exonerated most of the time, he has won money from left-wing individuals on the police force, as well as from the government itself.

For example, after being arrested and placed under administrative detention and house arrest for more than a year, Mr. Federman sued the government for false arrest and was awarded 100,000 shekels (almost $25,000) in damages.

At the beginning of January, a policeman once again presented Mr. Federman with a detention warrant, demanding that he come to the police station. Mr. Federman told the officer that the warrant had been revoked and if he were forcibly detained, he would sue the police. Nevertheless, the police took him, kept him at the station for four hours, and then released him when they realized their error.

The next day, Mr. Federman was again taken by the police, only to be released after 40 minutes.

Mr. Federman filed suit against the police in the Jerusalem District Court and won almost $5,000 in damages for false arrest.

Mr. Federman, the son of Lechi fighter David Federman and brother of Eli Federman, who, as a security guard in Tel Aviv in May 2002, shot and killed an approaching suicide terrorist before anyone could be hurt, is the father of eight. His wife, Elisheva, was convicted two years ago of "child neglect" for bringing her baby in the rain to a demonstration against the police destruction of the house of the widow of terrorist victim Nati Ozeri.

After years of successfully defending himself and his family in court, Mr. Federman finally decided to go to law school, but despite passing the bar, the State of Israel has refused to grant him a license to practice law. The official explanation, he said, is that he has had "too many brushes with the law."

His studies, however, have not gone to waste. He has written several pamphlets designed to explain to nationalist-camp activists what their rights are should they be arrested and jailed.

He has also filed a Supreme Court suit against the state’s refusal to license him, based on claims of discrimination. He pointed out that one Israeli Arab who admitted to having planned terrorist crimes, such as the kidnapping of soldiers, and another who was convicted of spying for Syria, have received their law licenses.

"They can practice law in Israel, and I can’t," said Mr. Federman.

Inspired by Mr. Federman and others, many right-wing activists and their supporters have built cases with solid evidence against their abusers in the police department. While at one time, all the policemen had to do to avoid detection was remove their nametags (illegal, according to Israeli law) and confiscate cameras and film, the proliferation of tiny, digital recording devices has made that impossible.

At the beginning of January, the trial of a policeman accused of choking a Gush Katif teenager during an anti-"Disengagement" protest in 2005, got underway. The incident took place at the Kisufim Crossing just weeks before the expulsion.

The picture of the Border Guard policeman fiercely gouging his fingers into the neck of Elad Cohen of Netzer Hazani was widely circulated, but identifying the abuser, who had removed his nametag, took some time.

Some victims of the police attacks in Amona last year are also seeking to bring the perpetrators to justice. One year after the bloody incident at Amona, during which some 4,000 predominantly young protesters demonstrating against the destruction of the community, were beaten and young girls threatened with rape by Israeli policemen, some of the worst offenders are now on trial.

Last month, the nine-member National Union-National Religious Party Knesset faction asked Public Security Minister Dichter to suspend those policemen who have been charged with using horses to trample long-time Yesha activist Yehuda Etzion, as well as beating NU-NRP MKs Eldad and Effie Eitam.

Mr. Dichter, a former head of the Israeli GSS (Shabak), said the law did not allow suspensions of policemen on trial for violence. The minister admitted that the phenomenon of police violence had reached "worrisome dimensions."

Last month, an investigative report compiled by Human Rights in Yesha and the Yesha Council determined that the violence perpetrated by the police in Amona had been pre-planned.

According to the report, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who had just taken over the premiership from the ailing Ariel Sharon, was determined to "show the settlers" that he was as tough as his predecessor.

The report maintains that a number of young protesters who were attacked by the police are still suffering from the physical and psychological trauma of the violence. According to the report, more than 100 complaints against the security forces have been filed with the Justice Department and more are still being drawn up.

Other right-wing civil rights issues range from the petty to the serious, but, when taken together, account for the general perception on the right that there is a left-wing conspiracy moving against them.

During their meeting with Mr. Dichter, the right-wing MKs from the National Union-National Religious Party faction brought up the issue of Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount. Although the Supreme Court has ruled that individual Jews must be allowed to pray on the Temple Mount, the police, who operate under the jurisdiction of Mr. Dichter’s ministry, frequently evict those who even seem to be praying. Jews who as much as close their eyes on the Temple Mount, to say nothing of silently mouthing prayers or read from a prayer book, have been ejected from the site.

Christians are afforded the same treatment as Jews.

The police argue that Jewish or Christian prayers would inflame the Muslims who control the mosques on the site, leading to a security danger. Jews—and some Christians—argue that the police have the responsibility to uphold the law allowing them to pray.

The Muslim threat of violence has also prompted Israeli police to prevent Jewish prayer at the area called the Kotel HaKatan, or "Small Wall," further north along the Western Wall in the so-called Muslim Quarter. Before 1929, that quarter was heavily Jewish, and, according to tradition, Kotel HaKatan stands opposite the site of the Holy of Holies of the Temple.

Last September, early on the second day of Rosh Hashana, police ordered the leader of a small minyan meeting at the Kotel HaKatan to stop the service. When the 20-year-old did not respond, the police moved to arrest him. The young Jew was in the midst of reciting the Amidah, a long passage which requires standing in one place without moving.

According to witnesses, the police informed their supervisors that the young Jew was praying and refused to move, and reinforcements—about 20 additional police officers—were sent.

The young Jew allegedly struggled against the police, who began dragging him away, while the young Jew made valiant efforts to resume his prayers.

When members of the minyan also tried to stop the police, the officers began swinging their clubs and a brawl ensued. Although no one was hospitalized, witnesses said many men in Sabbath suits and talleisim were seen being dragged and beaten by police.

The police also confiscated the shofar the minyan was using. When members of the minyan asked for its return, police allegedly responded once again with physical attacks. Some said they were hit with clubs; others reported being kicked and punched.

According to a police report, they were responding to a complaint filed by an Arab woman who said the sound of the shofar disturbed her children.

According to Arutz 7, some Jewish residents of the Old City of Jerusalem found it ironic. "The loud Arab weddings and nightly prayers by the muezzin over a powerful loudspeaker at 4:30 am disturb our sleep every night," one resident told the news service, which noted that similar complaints are heard from Jews who live near Arab villages in Judea and Samaria.

The official rabbi of the Western Wall, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch, called the incident "grave" and demanded an investigation into the violence and the report that police had prevented a shofar blowing.

"It reminds us of the days of the British Mandate when Jews had to make super-human efforts to blow the shofar at the Kotel," he told Arutz 7.

His reference was to the late 1920s, when the British, in an attempt to appease the Arabs following violence at the Kotel, forbade shofar-blowing at the Wall.

In one famous incident in 1929, Moshe Segal blew the shofar at the conclusion of Yom Kippur and was immediately arrested by the British police. Though he had been fasting for the previous 25 hours, the British detained him without food until midnight, when he was released. It was later reported that the release came when then-Chief Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook told the commander that he, too, would not eat until Mr. Segal was freed.

Thirty-eight years later, following the first Yom Kippur service at the Kotel after the 1967 Six Day War, when, after 2,000 years the Wall was under Jewish sovereignty, Mr. Segal again sounded the shofar.

To this day, one of the Palestinians’ demands for a peace treaty is that Jews no longer be allowed to blow the shofar at the Kotel.

National Union MK Uri Ariel told Mr. Dichter the prevention of Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount must end.

"We must find the opportunity to change this situation in which Jews are not allowed to pray at their most sacred site," he said.

Despite the Supreme Court ruling, Mr. Dichter said the problem was a diplomatic issue that would be decided by the government and not by a police decree or the courts.

He also said there was nothing he could do about the matter of 20 young Jewish residents of Yesha who have been placed in administrative detention and forbidden by the military to reside with their families in various communities in Judea and Samaria for periods ranging from three months to a year.

The military, which issued the orders, has not informed the men why they have been deemed "a public danger." Their attorneys have been told that the evidence against them is too secret to be revealed.

Although the IDF has said the administrative orders were issued in order to prevent clashes between settlers and Palestinians, many right-wing Israelis assume the purpose is to prevent active opposition to governmental plans to destroy the Jewish presence in various communities in Judea and Samaria.

Not even an overwhelming vote in the Knesset condemning the military’s orders, convinced the IDF to rescind them. The resolution was initiated by the NU-NRP faction and supported by all non-Arab parties.

The resolution passed by the Knesset called on the police to "investigate [the young men], put them on trial, keep them in jail until the end of the proceedings if the court approves it, and sentence them to jail if appropriate." However, the resolution continues, "Use must not be made of restraining orders, administrative arrests, and other means in which there is punishment without trial, unless there is clear suspicion of danger to national security."

"Shabak simply doesn’t care what the public thinks," said Shmuel Medad, head of the Honenu civil rights organization.

Thus far, only one of the 20, Boaz Albert of Yitzhar, has had the administrative orders lifted without resorting to the courts.

While some of the Yesha 20 are single men, others, like Mr. Albert, have families. The father of five, Mr. Albert received administrative orders several months ago, on the day his baby daughter was born.

After four months of separation from his family, during which time, he said, he was effectively homeless, he decided no longer to comply. When he returned to his home, he was promptly imprisoned for two months, until the beginning of January, when he was inexplicably released.

According to Mr. Albert’s wife, Aliza, members of the Shabak met with her husband and asked him to state his views.

"He said the same thing that he has always said, that he opposes violence against soldiers. He has always said this, and there has been no change in his views. Yet, all of a sudden, they decide to release him. So why did they arrest him in the first place? And what about the champions of democracy? Is it democratic to arrest someone and throw him in jail without showing him the evidence against him? Yet this does not stop them," she said.

She said the time he spent in jail was not too bad. "When you know you are doing the right thing, various difficulties are much easier to bear," she said.

Mr. Albert was in prison with three other detainees who also violated their administrative orders. One of them, Meir Brettler, recently agreed to abide by the orders, allowing him to be released in time for the birth of his new baby. The other two prisoners, both 20 years old, remained incarcerated.

Mr. Brettler, a resident of one of the outposts near Shvut Rachel and Shilo in the Benjamin region, used his release to violate the orders and return home for his son’s brit milah.

Although neither the Brettler family nor their supporters made any secret of the fact that the father would be at the home for his second child’s brit milah, and, in fact, issued public invitations for people to attend, no uniformed police or security agents showed up and Mr. Brettler was not arrested.

Among those attending the brit were Rabbis Zalman Baruch Melamed of Beit El and David Dudkevitch of Yitzhar, and MK Eldad.

At the end of January, the IDF Court of Appeals nullified another of the administrative orders. A 30-year-old resident of Har Barcha in Samaria, who was identified only as N, had evidently been singled out by the IDF who characterized him as "one with an extremist ideology based on hatred of Arabs, took part in clashes with Arabs during which damage was caused to property, and took part in violent incidents that involve physical danger."

Judge Lt-Col Netanel Benisho said he was not convinced that N presented a "concrete danger obligating the use of such an unusual and injurious punishment."

When N was 14, he was sentenced to prison for ten years for throwing a fatal grenade into an Arab marketplace. According to reports from his social worker with whom he has worked closely, he has made "good progress."

Judge Benisho noted that the administrative orders would harm N’s ability to earn a living. In addition, N said he had no intention of engaging in illegal activities and had never been previously warned by the GSS.

According to Honenu’s Mr. Medad, who hired the attorney to represent N, the organization has been less than pleased with the courts’ reaction to the administrative orders.

"We have seen that the courts barely respond to our opposition to these unfair and unjust orders. But in this case, the injustice was so obvious and blatant that we decided to go to court," he said.

According to Mr. Medad, N himself was not eager to appeal the orders because "he has seen how the courts treat us." "But I told him that in this case we really have a chance—and, thank G-d, it worked," said Mr. Medad.

Mr. Medad expressed satisfaction in the fact that, thus far, as the administrative orders expire, they have not been renewed.

"This cannot be taken for granted. Many times, orders of this sort are automatically renewed," he said.

Much of the blame has been placed on OC Central Command Maj-Gen Yair Naveh, whose signature appears on all the administrative detention orders. Mr. Naveh identifies as an Orthodox Jew, which has left him vulnerable to charges ranging from "traitor" to "informant."

According to Arutz 7, weekly protests outside his home have called on him to cancel the administrative orders.

Last month, a group of rabbis, all connected with the movement to resurrect the Sanhedrin, issued a halachic ruling calling Mr. Naveh a moser, meaning he had transferred innocent Jews to "enemy authorities" and planned to transfer Jewish property [land in Yesha] to the Arab enemy.

The rabbis said they viewed the Olmert government as the equivalent of a hostile gentile enemy that "evilly and violently expels and causes mental and physical damage to Jews."

The rabbis said the administrative orders were part of Mr. Naveh’s plan "to prepare settlements in Judea and Samaria for transfer to the enemy."

Abandoning these places to foreigners endangers Jewish lives," the rabbis said.

The rabbis further accused Mr. Naveh of transgressing the prohibition against "passively standing by while your brother is killed."

The decision was signed by Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, a former IDF chaplain who now serves as head of the Temple Institute in Jerusalem, as well as Rabbis Reuven Hass, Yehuda Edri, and Ido Elbo. Prof Hillel Weiss of Bar-Ilan University signed it also.

Many right-wing rabbis took issue with the decision. Rabbi Ariel’s brother, Ramat Gan Chief Rabbi Ya’acov Ariel, who said he had nothing to do with his brother’s action, maintained it was not based on halacha.

"It was politically motivated," he said.

Rabbi Yishai Babad, secretary of the Rabbinic Committee of the Yesha Council, said the halachic ruling against Mr. Naveh was "correct in principle," but, he said, it was fraught with danger.

"Yesha rabbis would not issue such a decision for fear some hothead might get the wrong idea and try to take the law into his own hands," said Rabbi Babad.

Prof Weiss said he and the rabbis with whom he worked had no intention of advocating murder. "We just hope that Naveh will wake up and stop his criminal activities," he said.