Disengaging From Democracy
0

New York
n July 12, at 3 a.m., Asher and
Chava Vodka heard a loud
knock on the door of their small
apartment in Bat Yam, a poor town on
the Mediterranean Sea near Tel Aviv,
where they had been asleep with their
two young children.
"Open up.
Police," they heard.
The young cou-
ple — he is 26, a
full-time student at
Netivot Yisrael, a
local yeshivah, and
she is 27, an
English teacher —
opened the door to
GARY
find seven or eight
ROSENBLATT men and a woman
Special
who insisted on
Commentary
searching the apart-
ment and interro-
gating Asher.
For the next two hours, according to
Chava, the increasingly intimidating
officials ransacked the apartment search-
ing for documents and refused to let the
terrified couple make any phone calls.
She later learned they were from Shabak,
the Israeli internal security service also
known as Shin Bet.
Then, without a word of explanation,
they took Asher, several cell phones and
the couple's two computers and left.
"I was shocked that Jews could behave
like this with other Jews," Chava told
me the other day. "There's something
very strange going on in this country
Through the help of a grassroots vol-
unteer organization called Chanenu,
which provides legal assistance to victims
of politically motivated arrests and their
families, Chava learned where her hus-
band was being held and when his hear-
ing would take place.
According to Shmuel Meidad, the
founder of Chanenu, several hundred
religious young men have been jailed in
recent months on suspicion of planning
anti-government activities regarding the
Gaza pullout. Meidad said he sold his
business about 4 1 /, years ago to create
the organization, expanding the work he
had been doing as a volunteer for more
than 20 years helping soldiers and civil-
ians having "problems with the police."
Another Chanenu volunteer, Ephraim
Rosenstein, a psychologist, said the
group has helped about 1,200 people
arrested over the past three months in
regard to the disengagement, 850 of
them under 18, who were jailed at

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demonstrations,100 of them between
the ages of 12 and 14. Rosenstein esti-
mated that about 100 young men,
almost all Orthodox, like Asher Vodka,
remain in jail. Vodka and four other
Orthodox men in their 20s were arrested
the same night and brought to a hearing
together the next day He was charged
with "right-wing ideology in opposition
to the Israeli disengagement from Gaza
and suspected of thinking of or planning
to obstruct roads, an act which could
lead to endangering lives," according to
the translation of a charge sheet.
A news story in the Jerusalem Post said
the five, according to the police, were
"right-wing activists believed to be the
key organizers behind a series of road-
blocks" against disengagement.
A spokesman for the Israeli Consulate
here said that "all arrests [related to the
disengagement] are made according to
normal, democratic procedures, and
only if the law has been broken."

Chava and Asher Vodka and their children

There have been allegations that none
Part of the irony and tragedy of these
of the young men being held on charges
difficult times in Israel is that both sides
or suspicions of anti-disengagement
in the disengagement conflict accuse the
Another Perspective
activity
will be released until after the
other of being undemocratic and dehu-
Chava Vodka said her husband has
evacuation of Gan, set to begin Aug. 17. manizing, and of undermining Zionism.
attended anti-disengagement rallies — as
My initial response upon hearing that
After describing how her husband has
have tens of thousands of Israelis — and
so
many
religious
young
men
detained
been
treated, Chava wrote to me: "I no
handed out orange ribbons symbolizing
in
this
way
was
one
of
surprise,
as
these
longer
feel that I can call Israel 'the only
the cause, but has not been involved in
arrests have attracted scant media atten-
democracy in the Middle East.'" She
any illegal activities. She said he spends
don. Those opposed to the disengage-
said Jewish settlers and their supporters
his time learning Torah, volunteering
ment
say the press in Israel leans left-
are portrayed in the media and by some
with Ethiopian immigrants, helping
ward
and
has
no
sympathy
for
those
politicians
as selfish, violent and hate-
needy families and teaching Judaism to
who have been jailed.
filled,
when,
in fact, most of them are
those who want to learn more abouf
The head of Shabak, Avi Dichter,
sincere, law-abiding citizens in deep
their religion.
anguish over their imminent uprooting.
She said Asher was brought to the ini- warned months ago that opponents of
the disengagement were planning to
On the other hand, the decision by
tial closed-door hearing in handcuffs
make trouble by pitting settlers against
two leading Orthodox rabbis in Israel to
and ankle shackles, not allowed to speak
the army. And officials have said they
encourage religious soldiers not to take
with or exchange glances with her, and
plan
to
employ
liberally
the
administra-
part
in evacuating Jews from their Gaza
ordered to remain in a Petach Tikvah jail
tive
detention
law
—
allowing
prisoners
homes
has been decried as seditious by a
for seven days of interrogation. At the end
to
be
held
for
extended
periods
of
time
few
officials.
What's more, some disen-
of that period, the order was renewed,
and without trial, a measure used prima- gagement activists have used highly
twice, for another seven days each. (His
rily until now against Arabs — against
inflammatory language, describing the
next hearing was set for July 31).
disengagement opponents.
government as a dictatorship about to
According to Chava, Asher has been
Based on my deep respect for Israel
carry out a pogrom against its people.
held in a solitary cell with no toilet,
and its security forces, part of me
Whichever side you are on, it should
allowed no visits, phone calls, direct con-
assumed
that
if
officials
were
arresting
give
you pause to hear from Asher
nection with family members, or books.
people, there must be a good reason for
Vodka's mother, Malka, whose husband,
His sida'zin she said, was confiscated.
it. And that may well be true. I don't
Zev, was a Prisoner of Zion in Russia
Michal Teichman, 23, said her hus-
know
Asher Vodka, the son of Russian
and whose son is being held in solitary
band, Nadav, also 23 and a student at
immigrants whose father served three
confinement today.
the same yeshivah as Asher Vodka, was
years in a Siberian prison as a Zionist
"We love this country," Malka said,
arrested May 16 and has been jailed
"enemy
of
the
state,"
but
I
do
know
"but
American Jews should know what
since then, charged with obstructing
Chava's
parents,
George
and
Lila
Lowell,
is
happening
here. In Russia, it was the
traffic related to a disengagement
and
siblings.
We
all
lived
in
Baltimore
KGB.
Here
it
is the Shabak. But this is
protest. She said the charges are false.
some years ago, and I remember Chava
worse," she said, "because here it is the
"He's a yeshivah boy" whose only
as a teenager. The Lowells are accom-
Jews doing this to us." E.71
"crime" was to attend disengagement
plished,
rational and credible people,
rallies on occasion and wear orange, the
committed to Jewish and Zionist ideals,
Gary Rosenblatt is editor of the New York
color of protest, Michal said. Nadav's
and
that
is
why,
when
Chava's
parents
Jewish.
Week (www. thejewishweek. corn).
trial is set to resume in September.
told me of this situation, I pursued it.
E-mail him atgary@jewishweek.org.