Large numbers of border policemen arrived in Ramat Migron in the Benjamin Region shortly before Shabbat, and arrested three youths on suspicion that they violated a closed military zone order, Honenu reports.
The Youths reside in the site and were hosting guests for a Shabbat celebration in honor of the upcoming wedding of one of the residents.
Two court decisions from recent weeks ruled that the closed military zone order is not applicable to Jews living at the site. Despite the court’s decision the police informed the people present that the site is under a closed military zone order and they must leave. Simultaneously, policemen began to grab some of the youths. According to eye witnesses, during the arrests police pulled on the young men’ earlocks and were otherwise extremely violent.
Some of the youths argued that they were residents of the site and therefore the order did not apply to them. According to them, the police ignored them and tried to arrest anyone they could.
In the end three youths were arrested, one of them a minor. Despite their expressed objection to ride in a police car on Shabbat from the local station, they were taken to the detention center at the Russian Compound in Jerusalem, where they stayed during Shabbat.
Honenu reports that on Saturday night the three were brought before the Jerusalem Magistrate Court. The police insisted on remanding the adults until the end of proceedings and issuing a restraining order against the minor banning him from the area.
Late Wednesday night last week, in what many considered a dress rehearsal for the evacuation of Ulpana Hill in beit El, large forces of Civil Administration, Border Police and Army arrived at the Ramat Migron outpost. They destroyed a stone house and arrested one resident on the grounds that he had violated a closed military zone order. From there the forces continued to the nearest outpost, Oz Tzion, and destroyed two temporary structures there, arresting four teenage girls and one adult woman.
On Thursday the arrested resident of Ramat Migron was brought to the Jerusalem Magistrate Court for a deliberation of the police demand to place a restraining order on him banning him from the site. Judge Chagit Mac-Kalmanovitch ruled that the youth was a resident of the site and therefore the closed military zone order did not apply to him.
The four teen age girls and one adult woman were released.
On Friday the forces returned to the site and destroyed another house belonging to the couple getting married this week. Despite the destruction, many guests arrived at Ramat Migron for Shabbat in order to celebrate the upcoming wedding. The groom has resided at the outpost since the day of its founding almost three years ago.