R. Eliyahu wrote letter to GSS Head
https://honenu.org/r-eliyahu-wrote-letter-to-gss-head/
Thursday, January 10, 2019, 13:24 The following is a translation of an open letter sent from Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, the Chief Rabbi of Tzfat, to Nadav Argaman, the Head of the GSS. The letter was posted on the Facebook page managed by the Office of Rabbi Eliyahu.
Yeshivat Pri HaAretz is the education institution in Rechalim that has been repeatedly harassed by the GSS recently and illegally raided on January 9.
To Nadav Argaman, Head of the GSS
As was expected, most of the detained youths from Yeshivat Pri HaAretz were released to their homes without any charges against them. It has become clear that every detention made by the Jewish Department was false. It has become clear that they interrogated them with their hands bound for 12 straight hours as if they were ticking time bombs [dangerous terrorists]. It has become clear that you reviled them as if they were known murderers. It has become clear that all of the shaming by the GSS spokespeople in the media and the public about the yeshiva was for nothing. Who will pay the price for this terrible injustice?
You told the heads of yeshiva and the leadership of the communities in Yehuda and Shomron that you want cooperation with them for the good of the State, to stop Jewish terror, to prevent terror attacks. I will advise all of my colleagues, rabbis and public figures not to meet with the heads of the Jewish Department of the GSS until all of you apologize and publicly ask for forgiveness from the entire staff and student body of Yeshivat Rechalim.
Head of the GSS, Sir, we all value the operations which the GSS carries out in order to prevent terror. The Jewish Department under your command damages the reputation of the entire organization which you head. The personnel of this department have forgotten that their job is to investigate the truth, not to frame the innocent. And certainly not to slander an entire yeshiva by accusing it of being anti-Zionist. Someone there needs to know that publicizing the flag-burning video clip and the [Israeli flag with a] swastika by the GSS created a deep rift as far as we are concerned.
Your spokespeople depicted a yeshiva that burns Israeli flags and treats them with contempt. There is no-one like you who knows that all of that is a big, intentional lie. You knowingly sullied an entire yeshiva in the Shomron as if you were part of "B'Tselem" or "Breaking the Silence" and if that is your conduct, the advice I will give is to not associate with you from now on.
You should know that there is a price to this loss of trust. Recently someone came to me and told me that he received an offer from the Jewish Department to assist in preventing terror attacks and Jewish terror. I told him that we oppose attacks, but that it is inadvisable for him to work in the Jewish Department that describes all Jewish graffiti as if it were a hate crime and turns every stone thrown by a Jew into attempted murder.
Head of the GSS, Sir, this should not be the relationship between the public and the GSS. You must bang on the table after their series of failures and call to order the head of the Jewish Department. In my opinion, the department should be closed or at least the department heads should be fired. You have the responsibility to focus the goals of the department and to not allow them to return to the days of Avishai Raviv. You must not lose the public trust. You must rectify what you have damaged.
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