Daughters Of Zion Video

16 Shevat 5768


The following video was recently produced to publicize the plight of young Jewish prisoners, who up until recently were held in prison for refusing to participate with the corrupt, Israeli Judicial system. One 16-year-old is still being held. The video exposes the Israeli prison system, which is abusive to religious activists.




This video also has the goal of publicizing the Jewish People's struggle for its Homeland.



Thanks to Voice Of Judea for the video link.



Those interviewed or who provide commentary include Nadia Matar of Women In Green, Rabbi Yeshayahu Hollander, of the nascent Sanhedrin, Prof. Hillel Weiss, and a young activist encouraging her friends to maintain their faith and hope.



The introduction to the video reads:



"Young female religious teens were held in jail for almost one month for refusal to recognize the corrupt government system. Their crime: ... all » being on a hilltop in Judea - Samaria, Israel. One girl is still in jail since Dec. 5, '08. They placed her in solitary confinement to break her. She is 18 years old. She needs your help. Here is their story and their jail conditions, motivation and determination."



Several young women attempt to block the police van carrying their friends. Please keep in mind that it is a violation of the girls right to be handled by male law enforcement officers.

Although all but one of the girls have been released, there are still expenses to be covered.


To help contribute to the emergency campaign for their release:


From the U. S. 011-962-54-489-6709


From Israel 054-489-6709


mishallyisrael@yahoo.com

Cross posted on the B'nai Elim Blog

Up Out of Bed With the Flu for Women

It's a very good question: Where are all the feminists now? I also ask this question myself. I am going to address a few subjects in this article, all together, and hopefully, you'll be able to follow my flu-feverish daze into some sort of logic.

Girls arrested on hilltop, taken to prison, abused, ignored by public
Grandmother arrested and sentenced for "helping" daughter kidnap, though daughter not convicted of kidnapping herself
Single mothers don't receive child support from abroad, Israeli government does nothing

NRG.co.il headlines today: nothing about women. Three side articles about women: some raunchy popstar, mistakes in childbirth, and some students in England find their teacher on U-Tube.

INN.co.il: Daughters of Zion, last three, finally released.

Ynet.co.il" Ora Bnay has a baby girl.

NO ONE REPORTS ON SERIOUS WOMEN'S ISSUES, PERIOD. Women make up at least 50% of the population of the world, yet even we, don't take ourselves seriously. If anything we are the least sympathetic to ourselves. Even my rabbi told me not to bother complaining about not receiving child support because "no one will really be sympathetic."

The year is 2008, 40 years after 1968...the feminists have grown up, saved their 401K's and now retiring to the Bahamas.

What does this all mean? I don't know. I think it means that Kol Yisrael Erevim Zeh L'Zeh. All of Israel is connected to one another. It is our responsibility to love one another and care for one another, man, women, child, old, young, settler, left-wing, kibbutznik, right-wing, grandma, grandpa, uncle, aunt, cousin, guy down the street. There is no one responsible for caring for different groups. We ALL have to care. About eachother. Period.

I am sick for the third time this winter. Please make chicken soup for your kids and think of me. If you want to pray for me for a Refuah Shleimah and for Parnassah, my name is Nofia (Nof-ya) bat Rivkah Chana Baylah.

Thank you.

Where Are The Feminists Now?

14 Shevat 5768

Three Girls Remain In Prison - Despite Court Ruling

by Hillel Fendel, 13 Shevat 5768/January 20, 2008



(IsraelNN.com) Three teenaged girls continue to be held in prison - despite a ruling by a District Court judge implying that the police should have released them this past Friday.



District Court Justice Noam Solberg ruled last Wednesday, regarding one of seven incarcerated girls, that whether or not the police succeed in identifying her, she must be freed by Friday at noon. Judge Solberg hinted that it is up to the police to identify them, and that it is not the girls' obligation to identify themselves. (Read more...)

NFPOZ Commentary:

So the Israeli police does not even follow the State's own rules. Surprised? You should not be. It only serves as additional evidence of the various double standards rampant in Israel.

Unfortunately, this fact continues to remain hidden from most Jews outside of Israel, especially in the U. S. As the wool continues to be pulled over their eyes, their longing for Israel, the Jewish Homeland, gets confused with a nonsensically idealistic view of the Israeli government. Their attitude remains "Anything having to do with Israel must be good."

The leftist, Israeli and foreign news media force their readers to wear rose-colored glasses wile examining the government. Then, in the same breath, demonize religious Jews, who often attempt to work within the government's framework to effect change, only to be betrayed with swift and frequent, changes in those vary rules.

This is what is now being called Israeli de-MOCK-racy.

Such double standards are found not only amongst the media and the government itself, but also amongst political activists, or rather self-serving political activists.

Minors are held in an adult prison.

Where are the human and civil rights activists? Where are the prisoner rights activists? This issue being fought exclusively by these girls fellow residents in Yehudah and Shomron, are issues which have fought by many across the political and religious spectrum.

Where are they now?

Young ladies have been incurring abuse at the hands of male, government employees.

Where are the feminists now?

These young ladies have been hung out to dry by the vary organizations and groups which claim to advocate on behalf of human beings, youth, women, or all of the above.

Apparently, these groups and organizations do not place the same value on rights and lives religious Jewish, as they do on the lives and rights of Jews who agree with their ideology,...or on the rights and lives of Arabs, who do not have a history of caring about any body's rights nor lives.

Daughters Of Zion: ZOA Statement

Erev Shabbat Parshat Beshalah 5768



The Zionist Organization Of America [ZOA] has issued a statement apparently in protest of the girls' incarceration. To be honest, it was hard to tell. THe strongest word in the entire piece was "urge," not even "demand." You can read the staement by clicking the link and make your own judgment.




ZOA Appalled By Forcible Stripping By Israeli Police Of Arrested, Unarmed, Religious Female Teenagers



At least the ZOA bothered to write something. Can that be said for any other American Jewiish organization?



Please let us know by place a link in the comments section.



(Thanks to Sultan Knish for the ZOA link.)

Daughters Of Zion: Letter to American Consulate

10 Shevat 5768

January 16, 2008

The American Consulate

American Citizens Services Section

Special Consular Services



Attn: Nili Weinfeld



Dear Ms. Weinfeld,



My name is Y. and I am an American citizen. My daughter X, who is 14 years old, is also an American citizen.



On December 25, 2007, she was detained with some other girls and boys her age for being in an old abandoned building not far from her home. Since then she has been incarcerated in a women’s prison for serious criminal offenders and I have not been allowed to see her. I have been allowed to speak with her by telephone only three times for one or two minutes each. At the time of her detention and arrest she was seriously abused, and has been denied her civil and legal rights during her time in prison.



The facts are as follows: She, along with 6 other girls and 8 other boys were pulled by the army and police out of an old and long abandoned building. They were taken to the police station in Sha’ar Binyamin and told to give their names and then they could go home. The boys did so and went home, and the girls refused, saying that they didn't do anything wrong. At this point they were formally arrested and also underwent serious physical and emotional abuse. I don't want to go into details about what they were subjected to in this letter, but it is profoundly outrageous and shocking.



Having spent the night at the police station, they were taken the next morning before a judge. Because they still refused to identify themselves they were sent back to prison on the pretext that the police couldn't conclude their investigation until the girls identified themselves. This, of course, is nonsense since the police have known perfectly well who the girls are from the very first night.



Every few days, X and the other girls are brought before a judge and then sent back to prison ­ not a detention center for minors but to Neve Tirza, a prison for hardened and violent criminals. Neither I nor any of the other parents have been allowed to be present at these hearing and to get a glimpse of our daughters on the pretext that since the girls wouldn't identify themselves, the authorities couldn't confirm that we were indeed the parents. The cruelty with which these children have been treated defies belief.



After two weeks of this they were finally charged: with trespassing (an offense that requires prior knowledge and intent, although no one in the area is aware of this old abandoned building belonging to anyone).



Although convicted murderers are allowed daily hour-long phone calls and weekly visits with families, until recently and only then due to massive public pressure, the girls weren't allowed to speak to their parents at all much less see them. In the past week and a half, X’s been allowed to phone me three times, but even then, she’s only allowed to speak for a minute or two, with the guards yelling in the background to just say hello and then hang up the phone.



My X is a little girl, a good and idealistic and very innocent girl who has never done anything wrong, and who is being bullied and intimidated and abused by a legal system that affords more rights and consideration to adults convicted of murder than it has to her.



I am naturally very concerned for her welfare and very afraid about the emotional and psychic damage that has been inflicted on her. However, X also has health issues that make the conditions of her incarceration worrisome. She was seriously burned as a baby and since then has had to undergo multiple yearly skin operations. Good hygiene and staying out of the sun without her special creams are crucial for her health.



I would deeply appreciate it if the consulate could advocate for X and demand that the abuse of her civil and human rights stop and that this ugly persecution of an innocent child come to an end immediately.



I will eagerly await your reply. If you need any further information, please don't hesitate to call.



Sincerely,



Y.

(Thanks to Women In Green for sending this letter)



NFPROZ Commentary:
Our thoughts and prayers are with our sisters and with their families. We are moved by the impassioned plea of Y. (the mother of X.).
The U. S> government sees your daughter, along with all of us who live in Yehudah and Shomron as thorns in its side. Her civil and human rights are irrelevant, as long as she and her friends stand in the way of the American vision of "peace." Peace for whom, I do not know. As we all know, the U. S. government, even the Bush administration which many hold to be Israel's greatest ally, has repeatedly complained to Israel about the rights of Arab squatters, and has all but ignored the the Jewish blood spilled.

The U. S. government has been blinded by its addiction to Arab oil, its complicity with the United Nations, or its traditionally anti-Israel State Department, or all of the above.

Y., our hearts go out to you, but don't hold your breath.

Daughters Of Zion

9 Shevat 5768



Some of our sisters and daughters are still being held in the Neveh Tirtzah Women's Prison. They were taken in for entering what the government calls "closed military area," Givat Or, a hilltop next to Bet-El. These young women have refused to identify themselves to the secular criminal justice system, whose authority they do not recognize.



Batya at Shilo Musings has been doing her own investigation, and has found that these young women may only have been at the wrong place at the wrong time.

This is actually a repeat of two previous incidents. Back in 5765 (2005), three teen girls from K'far Tapu'ah were arrested for civil disobedience, protesting the impending expulsion of Jews from Azza. These three also refused to recognize the authority of the secular courts. As time passed the courts realized that they could not get away with the double standard they were perpetrating. They were holding three teen girls for civil disobedience until trial; whereas suspected perpetrators of violent crimes were given house arrest or released on bail.



The courts attempting to send them to a religious Kibbutz for "re-education" until their trial date. (Yes! That was the term used!) To the girls' credit, they refused, citing that the level of religious observance was not acceptable to them. The courts were willing to send them to a religious kibbutz, as they know full well that the State-loyalty indoctrination is just as effective in such a setting as in a secular setting. The courts eventually set a compromise, and released the girls' into the custody of on the girl's grandparents, living in the Greater Tel-Aviv Area. Releasing them back into the custody of their parents was not an option, as the judge believed the girls to pose a "dangerous influence" on their town. Yes, those were the judge's words.



More recently, Tirtzah Sariel face a similar ordeal. She also suffered for her failure to recognize the secular courts which enforced laws going against Torah.



And now, the government has resulted to even more treacherous deeds of,...yes, I will call it torture. That is essentially what it is. They are that desperate, and fearful of the power of faith in HaShem and dedication to the observance of His Torah, that this what they must stoup to.

Police Abused Young Religious Girls in Prison



(IsraelNN.com) Police forced several girls under the age of 16 to strip in prison, where they have been held under harsh conditions and without being charged, their parents charged. Police also allegedly woke them up repeatedly in order to deprive them of sleep in an attempt to break their determination not to identify themselves.



Judges have allowed the police to incarcerate the seven girls, ages 13 to 15, for entering a closed military zone and trying to establish a new hilltop community near Beit El, north of Jerusalem. The girls have refused to identify themselves because they say they abide by the law of the Torah and do not recognize the authority of secular judges.



Police responded to the charges with a routine statement that parents "are welcome to file a complaint" and the police themselves will investigate the charges.

Rabbis have called upon us to fast in support of our sisters and daughters.

Fast Day Thursday for Teenage Girls Held in Prison



(IsraelNN.com) Leading rabbis, including Kiryat-Hevron Chief Rabbi Dov Lior, have called on people to fast on Thursday on behalf of seven girls, ages 13 to 15, who have been held in Neveh Tirza prison near Ramle, east of Tel Aviv. The girls were arrested for trying to establish a hilltop community and have refused to identify themselves.



"In protest against the mistreatment and incarceration of these dear daughters of Zion and in protest against the terrible intention, G-d forbid, to endanger every single soul in Israel and to exile Jews from their homes and to expel them from their rightful inheritance, from Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, we call on all who are able to fast," said the Council of Rabbis of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza (Yesha).



A Justice Ministry spokesman said, "The girls' release from prison is impossible until they agree to identify themselves because we cannot take legal action against the girls unless they divulge their names. Allowing these minors to leave prison before they identify themselves would establish a negative precedent which would allow criminals to avoid prosecution."

The residents of Yehudah and Shomron and their supporters have come under fire for sending our sisters and daughters out to fight for justice while the men sit on the sidelines. This scrutiny has come from the Haredi community, among others, which has repeatedly demonstrated its willingness to protest the anti-Torah state. The Haredi community does have a point.



However, the leftist media certainly controls what is reported and what is not, and is more than happy to be a participant in any rift between various religious communities.



Our men are fighting in a variety of ways. Many have even been silenced by the courts or police "stay away" orders.



Our sisters and daughters should be commended for their efforts and self-sacrifice.