Ariel Danino: Arrested getting out of car while Jewish

Ariel Danino lives in the outpost of Kumi Ori next to Yizhar. You may not agree with those setting up outposts across Judea-Samaria, but you should not confine your reading to what is written about them in the mainstream media. You should hear their voices as well. In this article, I bring you the voice of Ariel Danino, 26, married. and the father of three children. His wife is a teacher and he worked in construction until a fall two years ago in which he broke two vertebra and was left with 62% disability. He is currently undergoing vocational rehabilitation.

He is active on Twitter and uses his account to share with others how he experiences what he refers to as the “campaign against ‘settler violence.'” about which I have begun to write. What follows is his Twitter thread from October 15, in which he describes his arrest and detention after he stopped his car because the intersection he needed to go through to get home was blocked. The English is below the Tweet. (UPDATE: 8 Nov 2023 — the tweet can no longer be found because Danino’s account was deleted. Good thing I translated the entire thing and published it here before that happened.)

שרשור מעצר י"ח תשרי תשפ"ג.

בחמישי בצהריים הגעתי ברכבי בערך בשעה 14:00 לצומת יצהר הגדולה. הכביש היה זרוע אבנים והצומת היתה חסומה. החנתי את הרכב בצד וירדתי לראות מה קורה.

אחרי כמה שניות כמה מחבלים מהבתים הסמוכים (של הכפר בורין) התחילו לזרוק עלי ועל יהודים נוספים אבנים ענקיות

— אריאל דנינו Ariel Danino (@arieldanino) October 15, 2022

Chronology of an arrest 18 Tishrei 5783. [13 Oct 2022]

On Thursday afternoon at approximately 14:00, I reached the large Yitzhar intersection. The road was strewn with stones and the intersection was blocked. I parked at the side of the road and got out to see what was happening.

After a few seconds, some terrorists from the nearby houses (of Burin village) started throwing huge stones from the rooftops at me and other Jews  Literally rocks, glass bottles, what not.

Thank God the good Jews defended themselves properly, it was a serious danger to life.

Two minutes later, several police officers arrived at the scene. They simply ignored the Arabs who continued to throw stones right behind them and turned in our direction.

“Look!” we shouted. “Arabs behind you are throwing stones!”
“I don’t care!” a police officer shouted back at me. His name is David Pashov. “Leave!!”
“I don’t want to leave!” I yelled back at him.”Leave, yourself!”

It turns out that David doesn’t mind so much that the Arabs are trying to kill him and us with stones, but when we tell him to “Leave, yourself!” that’s something that can’t be ignored.

“You come with me now.”
“Fine. Why, exactly?” I asked him.
“I’ll tell you later.”

He took handcuffs from one of the soldiers and cuffed my hands behind my back, as befits a dangerous terrorist like me. He put me on the jeep.

I again asked to know what I was arrested for, or detained, I asked that my wife be informed as well.

David got out of the jeep and went to consult with the officer.

The officer’s name is Haim Karat.
I overheard their conversation-
David: What do I do with him now? Insulting a police officer?
Chaim: No way! Add resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, rioting, throwing stones, assault.
David: But what do I write in the report?
Haim: Take him to the station, I’ll tell you exactly what to write.

They so simply fabricated a case against me in front of my very eyes.

They put me back in the jeep and continued to drive towards the police station.

On the way I hear the police communication network.
– Take a report, there are about 20 settlers at the Beitot intersection.
– Sivan, check if there are settlers at the Yitzhar junction
– Received a report, some Palestinians set fire to cans in the middle of the main road in Hawara.
– Leave that!!! Look for settlers!

For two hours I listened to their communications. They completely ignored any incident involving Arabs, looking only for Jews. Stun grenades, gas, what not.

Meanwhile at the station, David went in to fill out a report on my arrest. It took him three hours to fill out the report. He left in the middle for consultations and to talk to the investigator and the officer at the station.

I sat there for three hours,

Handcuffed and legcuffed. During this time I saw more than eight Jewish residents who came in to report damage to their vehicles from stone throwing. The investigators wrote down their complaints indifferently. “We will update you if anything happens,” they said.

At about 19:00, I entered the interrogation room. The investigator told me that I was suspected of insulting a police officer, resisting arrest, rioting, throwing stones, assault with an iron rod, etc., etc.

He presented me with David’s version of events. David said that I very rudely cursed him several times, saying that I used words that I try, as a religious person, not to say in any way and, therefore, I will not write them here.

Of course I told him that it was not true. I told him about how they got their story straight between them, and about contamination of the investigation.

He wrote this down indifferently. Then he started to show me videos of Jews retaliating against Arabs who attacked them in Hawara.

“Sorry to ruin it for you,” I said. “But it’s not me in these videos. I arrived at the Yitzhar intersection a total of five minutes before I was arrested. The only thing that happened there was that Arabs tried to murder us with stones. By the way, the police who were there saw it themselves.”

It turns out that all the Arabs who were “arrested” in Hawara that day had already been released while I was still being interrogated. Well, they are Arabs.

That’s how the investigator went through several videos with me, while I explained to him that I had nothing to do with this incident, and my only crime was that to the policeman who attacked us while the Arabs were trying to murder us, I said, “Leave, yourself.”

And then the investigation ended.

Or so I thought at least.

The investigator told me – “OK, now I have to question you again, on another case, harassment using an electronic device.”
“????”
“Yes.”
“What do you mean? Another tweet?” I asked.
“Yes,” he answerd.

And then again, a deep sense of deja vue, and the printer starts churning out pages. Screenshots of my tweets. This time there were not so many pages, perhaps they decided to show concern for the environment.

Investigator: “On 30.2008, you published a video of a police officer named Shiloh Ben Shoshan. Following the video, the police officer was harassed [by those who saw the video you tweeted]. What do you have to say about this?”

Ok. Understand, there are some people waiting outside who have just been stoned by terrorists, but what is most important?

They interrogate me about a video of a violent police officer strangling a teenager with his knee who is proud of it and asking for it to be shared? Maybe next time Shiloh Ben Shoshan should think a little before his actions? Especially in this very video, where the policeman is proud of his actions and even asks the photographer to film him.

After a few minutes of questioning, I told the investigator that they would not shut me up and that this was a completely political line of questioning intended to intimidate. This questioning was also over.

The investigator sent me to a holding cell for the night. It was a bit disappointing to be without a sukkah. In the cells next to me there were several Arabs who were shouting among themselves all night. In the end, I fell asleep somehow.

In the morning we arrived at the Magistrate’s Court.
This is the place to thank Attorney Mati Rom and the organization Honenu for their support and legal assistance.

Following a decision from higher up, my case was for some reason transferred to the “elite” unit, the Central Unit for Nationalist Crime in Judea-Samaria (ימ”ר ש”י). Well, apparently insulting a police officer is a serious case that requires their attention.

The police asked the court for a 9-day extension of  my detention!!!
Thank God the judge had already, at the beginning of the hearing, slammed the police saying that there was no evidence that I threw stones or anything, and my entire arrest may amount to insulting a police officer. It doesn’t make sense to prolong my detention for that. She released me with some restrictive conditions.

I drove back home.

On the way, Hawara was blocked again, a Jewish girl was hit by a stone.

But we are not going to give up. We are not going to break. It’s ridiculous that the police are busying themselves arresting Jews for nonsense, while Arab terror is raging all over the country. They use a night in detention as a threat against the last bit of freedom of expression for those who still remain on social networks.

The nation of Israel is strong. The nation of Israel has gone through difficult times and succeeded.

We are here to stay.

Happy holiday to everyone!