Freedom and thank you

The 14 year old I wrote about earlier, the daughter of a friend, was released from prison Sunday night. Some of you signed the petition protesting the conditions in which they were being held, and it worked.

Here is a letter from her father:

Dear friends,

Last night at 9:00 P.M. Moriah, Chaya, and Pnina were released from the Maasiyahu prison! Finally!!!! They were in a bit of a shock, unable to comprehend that now they could hug us, talk to us, and eat whatever and whenever they wanted. They kept looking at each other and repeating "I can't believe it, I just can't believe it!"

There was only one way to remedy the situation - PIZZA!!! Yocheved [my friend--Moze] brought 3 pies with various toppings, and civilization started making its way back into our girls. Arieh Steinberg (I hope I remember the name correctly - I suppose I was in a bit of a shock myself) from Beit Shemesh, together with his daughter and son came to Maasiyahu as soon as they heard the news. They brought a portable mic and amplifier and we did some singing for the girls and for those who are still inside Maasiyahu.

After examining the girls' progress in their return to civilization, it was decided that ice cream was needed as the next stage in the process. We stopped at the mall on the way to Petakh Tikvah. A short stay inside the mall, combined with colors and flavors of ice cream, achieved the goal. Fun was had by all, and "the kid" inside these girls was able to gain back some of the lost ground.

Here are the details of the agreement proposed by Prosecution:

1. The girls will be released to Moriah's grandparents' home for a 10 day house arrest there. The Prosecution did not have the guts to transgress the commandment of comrade Procaccia which forbade the girls from returning to their homes.

2. They will leave Moriah's grandparent's home and come back to their own homes for another 10 day house arrest.

3. After this, they will be under yishuv arrest for a short period of time.

I must tell you that we, the parents, accepted this arrangement with a very heavy heart. We felt that it was outrageous for the prosecution to even ask for any further limitations of our girls' freedom. They have already suffered more than enough for their "crime"!! But, after consulting with the lawyers, we decided to agree in order to get the girls out of jail. I will translate and forward to you the letter we wrote to the prosecution regarding this arrangement.

Their release from jail is only the first step in our battle against this outrage. We have absolutely no intention to stop our demands that justice be served. Someone MUST be held accountable for such a vicious violation of our girls' rights!

We have already contacted both the media and some public figures, demanding a vaadat khakira (a special commute) to investigate both police brutality and judicial-political persecution involved in this case. We plan to approach the group of law professors who last week came out against arrests of minors involved in non-violent demonstrations. If there is no existing law that deals with this issue - then we will push for "The Law of the 3" which will provide a shield against an arbitrary use of the regular criminal law in such cases. We must not allow the use of
criminal code against political, non-violent protestors. Such perversion of justice is reminiscent of the Stalinist Russia.

We want to thank all of you once again for caring enough to take the time out of your busy lives and stand up against this outrage.

Sincerely,

Moshe B.

In other news, knitting progresses. I finally cast on the pink ribbon yarn tank top, and at the Boca Raton SnB Mattie showed me how to get this sucker joined without twisting. (Usually I have no problem. With this project, it was rip, knit, and repeat. No more!) To celebrate, on Wednesday I took it sailing on the Intercostal Waterway off of Palm Beach Island.


At SnB I also finished off Sockapal2za sock #1, and kitchenered the toe when I got home. So sock #2 got to go shopping in downtown West Palm. She didn't buy a thing, but spent time admiring the view.


Note to anyone who's sent me anything and not seen any mention here:

If you sent anything to my Israel address, I've not seen it yet, and won't for the next 2 weeks. I will show it all off then. I did leave someone to deal with my mail, but she's been too busy with Israeli politics to do much else. I know I comb blogs for mention of my RAOKs, SP offerings, and SMSP, so I just wanted to explain why you've not seen my thanks yet.