Dozens of police pounced on the home of Boaz Albert in Yitzhar Wednesday afternoon and arrested him for allegedly participating in the rampage Tuesday on an IDF post in the community, according to the Hebrew-language Kol HaYehudi website.
The assault on the military post Tuesday caused widespread damage, as reported here.
Albert was arrested three month after he was released from jail following his refusal to obey an administrative order to stay away from his home.
Police on Wednesday also arrested a 25-year-old man at the Gilad Farm community on suspicion of involvement in Tuesday’s rampage.
The farm and Albert both have been become symbols representing different images to different people – heroes of the settler movement who have not surrendered to violent midnight arrests and demolitions, and villains for anti-nationalists who see them as extremists who place themselves above the law.
Albert was in the headlines earlier this year after refusing to honor a military order that prohibited him from staying at his home but without any specific charges filed against him. Police arrested him several times for violating the order. During one arrest, it took police four hours to take him into custody because he had chained himself to floor.
Albert stayed in jail four months until he was finally freed.
Tuesday’s violence following the demolition of four homes in Yitzhar. The spokeswoman for the Shomron Regional Council called the destruction of the house a “price tag’ operation in revenge for a Yitzhar youth having punctured the tires of an army vehicle.
Last August, a YouTube video showing the repeated use by police of a Taser gun on Albert shocked nationalist politicians as well as some leftist human rights activists. Police claimed the video was doctored and falsified the number of times Albert was tased.
Albert also is a symbol for many Israelis of a wild-eyed settler who puts God above the law. He has been quoted by Arutz Sheva as saying that during a stay in jail, he refused to be released because “every single second was part of the statement that the divine order is above the (IDF) commander’s order.”
The Gilad farm also has served as a symbol of the determination of Jews to remain in their community deposited dozens of raids and demolition by police, but for anti-nationalists, it is a symbol of an “illegal” outpost. The farm’s residents insist their community is on land that was privately owned by Gilda’s father Moshe Zar, who was a member of the Jewish Underground in the early 1980s and was sentenced to three years in jail. The elder Zar was known to have purchased land from Arabs, many of whom claim that the purchases were phony
The cases of Albert and the Gilad Farm are those in which no one seems to be right and everyone seems to be wrong.
The police have repeatedly crossed all red lines of human rights in pre-dawn demolitions, often expelling young mothers and new-born babies in cold weather and then humiliating them by bulldozing homes and bringing in Arabs to walk away with anything that is usable.
Settlers also have been accused of constant violence against Arabs and police, and dozens of police officers were injured in one melee more than 10 years ago.
Below is video of the arrest of Albert, when police used a Taser gun on him.