Ramat Gan – American Parents Of Jewish Terror Suspect Decry Arrest As ‘Undemocratic’

Ramat Gan – A day after their son was arrested and placed on administrative detention as a suspect Jewish extremist, the parents of Mordechai Mayer held a press conference in Ramat Gan, where the decried the arrest as “undemocratic”.

“We are citizens of the United States, we and our children were born there and raised in a democracy,” Mordechai’s mother Sarah said, while father Gedalya said the family thought they’d left one democracy for another.

 “They knocked on our door last night with a form saying that they are taking our son to jail for 6 months, without any suspicion or indictment or anything, they just took him suddenly and now we find ourselves with our son in jail for a half a year maybe more we don’t know,” Gedalya said.

“We though this as a state with laws and democracy,” Gedalya added, and described his son as an 18-year-old who studied torah, lived a healthy lifestyle and “lives in the nature in Samaria and wants a quiet life.”

The family, from Maaleh Adumim in the West Bank, is represented by Adi Kedar of Honenu, an organization that assists Jews accused of acts of violence against Arabs. Kedar on Wednesday called the arrest “PR for the Shin Bet”.

On Sunday Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon ordered security forces to implement administrative detention (arrest without trial) in their efforts against those suspected of torching a house in Duma which resulted in the death of a Palestinian toddler, in a suspected “Price Tag” terror attack. Three other members of the family, including the baby’s parents and four year old brother, were seriously injured in the fire.

Ya’alon signed the administrative detention decree for Mayer on Tuesday night, allowing him to be detained for up to six months, after which a judge would need to renew the decree.

Ya’alon’s spokesperson said the order was signed due to Mayer’s “involvement in violent activities and terrorist attacks that occurred recently, and his role as part of a Jewish terrorist group.”

The arrest of Mayer on administration detention came a day after far right activist Meir Ettinger, the grandson of Meir Kahane, was arrested for his involvement in a Jewish extremist group.

A third suspect, Avitar Salonim, was also arrested on Tuesday.

Salonim and Mayer had last month been arrested for their alleged role in the torching of the Church of the Loaves and Fishes at Kfar Nahum, but neither were indicted.

In a blog post published July 30 on the Hakol Heyehudi (Jewish Voice) website responding to the Shin Bet arrest of suspected arsonists behind the June attack on the Church of Loaves and Fishes in the North, Ettinger wrote: “The truth is I don’t know what the Shin Bet wanted me to organize… this impulse of the Shin Bet to create an atmosphere and make up displays as if there is an ‘organization’ that it exposes, explains to us well what the Shin Bet understands so well and is so afraid of… the Shin Bet understands that the activities they chase after… simply grow out of the ground from the most basic and popular understandings that cause people to feel that they need to do something.”

He added: “There is no terrorist organization, but there are lots and lots of Jews, much more than what they think, whose ladder of values is completely different from that of the High Court of Justice or the Shin Bet.”

In response to Mayer’s detainment, Meretz chairwoman Zehava Gal-On took a stand against administrative detentions, saying she opposes them for both Palestinians and Jews, and her faction proposed a bill to cancel them.

 “I understand the psychological need to give an immediate response to difficult events – my blood is boiling, too – but I am unable to accept the trampling of human rights in the name of security,” she said. “It cannot be that the solution for the police’s ineffectiveness is arrests without trial and due process.”

On Tuesday, Gal-On wrote a lengthy post on Facebook about why she does not think the solution to terrorism is administrative detentions or torture, quoting former Supreme Court president Aharon Barak that the state must “fight terror with one hand tied behind its back.”

Gal-On called for the government to ensure the police has more resources to gather evidence that can be brought to a court and to stop funding to extremist right-wing groups that support violence, while investing more in civics and democracy education.

The Meretz chairwoman also wrote: “We have no interest in continuing to rule and take rights from millions of Palestinians; the occupation corrupts and is dangerous to democracy (which is why there are more arrests without a trial and torture) and start bringing it to its end.”