Thursday, December 7th, 2006:
Rabbi Ariel Arrested, Released, Hillel Fendel (Israel National News)
Full Text;
Rabbi Yisrael Ariel [left], Jerusalem Temple Institute founder, was arrested for several hours today because of a letter he wrote recommending that an IDF officer not be called up to the Torah.
Rabbi Ariel is a member of the seven-man leadership council of the recently-formed “Sanhedrin” in Jerusalem. Today’s arrest is connected with the administrative orders forbidding some 20 men of Judea and Samaria from living in their homes for between three and twelve months. Signed on the original orders was an IDF Prosecution officer who lives in one of the Binyamin area communities.
The Sanhedrin Rabbinical Court summoned the officer to appear before the court for a Din Torah – a Torah trial – to explain why he issued the orders seemingly in contrast to Torah law. The officer repeatedly refused to show up, and the Court considered taking the measures usually taken in such cases: placing the subject in herem, or excommunicating him. However, in the event, the Court, of which Rabbi Ariel is a leading member, merely sent a letter to the IDF officer’s community’s secretariat recommending that he not be called up to the Torah until he complies with the Court’s order.
Rabbi Ariel then underwent a similar experience. The police called him two or three times, informing him that he must show up for questioning on this matter. The rabbi said he would be willing to be questioned, but not at the police station. Finally, five policemen showed up at his door today, with an order for the rabbi’s arrest. They took him to the Russian Compound in Jerusalem.
“The orders said ‘arrest warrant,'” Mrs. Ariel later told Arutz-7, “but the leading investigator who came said that it was really not an arrest warrant.”
Adding to the confusion, someone who later phoned Rabbi Ariel told this story: “I was able to reach him in the police station. I asked him if he was under arrest, and he said no. Suddenly, I heard someone yelling in the background, ‘What are you doing on the phone?! You can’t do that, you’re under arrest!’ And then the phone went dead.”
Rabbi Ariel was released around three hours after he was arrested.
Another member of the Sanhedrin, Professor Hillel Weiss, was recently questioned by police, for five hours, on similar matters.
Rabbi Ariel was the head of the Hesder Yeshiva in the Sinai city of Yamit until the city was emptied and destroyed in 1982 in fulfillment of the peace treaty with Egypt. He served in the paratroopers unit that liberated the Old City of Jerusalem and the Western Wall in the Six-Day War of 1967.
This blog also received the following bulletin from The Temple Institute;
The Temple Institute
Breaking News Bulletin
Kislev 17, 5767/ December 7, 2006Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, founder and head of The Temple Institute was arrested by police this morning (December 7) and taken into custody for investigation on the background of the outspoken stand the rabbi has taken against the government actions in regards to the “disengagement” of two summers ago, and those who actively participated in it. This outrageous abuse of Rabbi Ariel’s basic right to express himself in accordance with his beliefs is no more than the fruit of relentless political harassment against all citizens of the State of Israel who speak forthrightly against government policies directed toward the uprooting of Jews in the land of Israel. As of this writing, Rabbi Ariel is currently being questioned by police.
We encourage all our friends and supporters, and all to whom the future of the Jewish nation in the land of Israel is dear to their hearts, to express your outrage. Please send a fax of protest to Public Security Minister Avi Dichter: 972-(0)2-530-8039
The Temple Institute