3 women sue police for arresting them over hostage flyers at Edelstein’s synagogue
Trio file complaint against local station commanders, claiming wrongful arrest that was aimed at discouraging protests
Three women filed a damages suit against police on Monday over their arrest last year for distributing flyers highlighting the plight of the hostages in Gaza, in a synagogue in Herzliya attended by a senior Likud MK.
Shimrit Burla, Idit Alexandrovich, and Rama Enav are seeking NIS 600,000 ($165,882) in damages, according to documents filed at the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court.
The lawsuit names Glilot station commander Chief Superintendent Yaniv Volvovic and his deputy, Superintendent Moshe Carasco.
It asserts “there was no legal basis for the decision to arrest and it was made without authority while abusing official powers and with the clear aim of harassing and discouraging the plaintiffs from protest action.”
The lawsuit said that they were arrested in their homes and handcuffed “like violent criminals.”
Two of the women are in their 60s.
The third woman, a “mother of young children,” was not at home when cops arrived. Instead, officers told her children to call her, and then told her to come home as she was to be arrested. The woman complied, which the lawsuit noted made it even more unsuitable that she was then put in handcuffs.
שלוש נשים נעצרו בהרצליה בחשד להסגת גבול לאחר שפיזרו עלונים שקראו לשחרור החטופים בבית הכנסת בו מתפלל יולי אדלשטיין@AnnaPines_ pic.twitter.com/pToxqDN1Ud
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) September 13, 2024
The three women were arrested in September on suspicion of trespassing after they distributed leaflets urging the release of Hamas hostages at a synagogue in the coastal city where MK Yuli Edelstein prays.
The flyers showed pictures of four of the female soldiers taken hostage by Hamas, along with Ariel and Kfir Bibas, the two youngest children who were still captives in Gaza at the time. The hostages were among 251 abducted from Israel on October 7, 2023, when Hamas led a devastating attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people.
In the center of the flyer was a picture of Edelstein from his time in a Soviet gulag, with the caption “Let my people go,” a popular rallying cry by supporters of Jewish refuseniks in the previous century.
The women were kept in arms and leg restraints for nine hours at the police station before being released. In December, police closed the case against them.
The arrest generated outrage and accusations that the investigation was politically motivated.
Police Commissioner Daniel Levy ordered a probe into the arresting officers’ conduct, but that was superseded by an investigation ordered by the Department for Internal Police Investigations in the State Attorney’s Office.
It was not immediately clear who had alerted police about the flyers.
After the incident, Edelstein said he “completely understood” why “the people of my synagogue filed a complaint with police.” However, the synagogue swiftly denied that it had called in officers.
Edelstein also referred to the incident as a break-in, despite security footage showing that the synagogue was open when the women entered.
The Times of Israel Community.