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Samaria Residents: Israel is Becoming a 'Dictatorship'

Soldiers raided communities in Samaria early Thursday and distributed 12 restraining orders, barring activists from Judea and Samaria

By David Lev

First Publish: Arutz Sheva -1/5/2012, 9:22 AM

Security forces raided homes in communities in Samaria early Thursday morning and distributed 12 restraining orders, barring activists from Judea and Samaria. Those who received the orders will not be permitted to cross the 1948 armistice line into Yesha – and those who do will be arrested. The orders were signed by IDF Central Command head Avi Mizrahi.

The orders were distributed to activists in Yitzhar, Havat Gilad, and Ramat Migron. At about 4:00 AM Thursday, residents of Havat Gilad said, a group of armed, masked men broke into two homes, frightening the residents, who thought they were under attack. The masked men left behind the orders. A spokesperson for Havat Gilad said that “this operation was another example of the humiliation residents of Yesha are forced to undergo daily by the Defense Minister and his messengers, under the aegis of the Prime Minister.”

Regarding the orders themselves, the statement said that “we have reached a new low in human rights for Yesha residents. If there is any evidence against these people they should be charged and indicted, instead of being 'judged' without legal proceedings or evidence. These orders are what you would expect from a totalitarian military dictatorship.”

An IDF statement said that the orders were issued “because of information that has been gathered recently by the Israel Security Service (Shabak), according to which a group of extremists were involved in planning, transporting, and executing violent actions against Palestinians in Judea and Samaria and against IDF forces, endangering lives and interfering with civil and military order, and endangering the security of the region.”

One of the recipients of a restraining order was Yishai Marzel, son of right-wing activist Baruch Marzel. “I am proud of my righteous son, who was singled out by the IDF for his efforts as a warrior on behalf of the land of Israel,” Baruch Marzel said. “We survived Pharaoh and Antiochus, we will survive Netanyahu, Barak and the Likud.”