Comments on: Rabbi Berland Arrested In Amsterdam – Likely To Be Extradited To Israel

By: roshvrishon

roshvrishon — Fri, 12 Sep 2014 14:29:27 +0000

We don’t know the truth, but running from a government is a foolish thing to do, they end up catching up to you. although Snowden has been successful so far. Deri didn’t run away and was convicted unjustly, but he survived. If one has bitochon,he will survive but running away is not an option.

By: EY Mom

EY Mom — Thu, 11 Sep 2014 21:01:53 +0000

After re-reading my comment I realized that the end might be taken the wrong way: I meant to say that his attempt at evading arrest should not be taken as proof of his guilt, in the line of “well, if he hadn’t done anything wrong, he wouldn’t have gone on the run.”

By: EY Mom

EY Mom — Thu, 11 Sep 2014 20:58:16 +0000

Those who maintain that Rav Berland’s running away is proof of his guilt really have no idea how the court and police systems work here in Israel. There are no Miranda rights, no, one does not have a right to an attorney – they can keep you and question you as much as they want without letting you so much as speak to an attorney.

As other commenters mentioned, there is no presumption of innocence, either.

Add to that the tendency to treat some detainees/defendants as far less equal than others, and it’s not hard to see why someone like Rav Berland would try to evade arrest, and that it means nothing as to his innocence.

By: ujm

ujm — Thu, 11 Sep 2014 19:00:45 +0000

How many innocent Americans are freed from death row and *every day* after being found innocent after having served many years or decades in jail for a crime they did not commit but were convicted of?

By: Arye

Arye — Thu, 11 Sep 2014 16:17:07 +0000

#7 For the record, Israel is SUPPOSE TO BE A DEMOCRACY but it never was. It might be the most “democratic” in the Middle East but it’s not a democracy like the US. It’s only democratic for the secular left.

I’m not saying he’s right or wrong but he might very well have run away because in Israel the law is that one is guilty until proven innocent, which is quite a difficult task when you have corrupt judges with top of the world liars as prosecutors.

By: bklynmom

bklynmom — Thu, 11 Sep 2014 16:16:45 +0000

Innocent – probably NOT
Guilty – probably NOT

There is a need to question him about allegations, Y is the assumption that dozens of women are making up a story. We are living in a sorry state of affairs especially in the world of abuse. STOP attacking victims & minimizing their testimonies. Fugitives usually are on the rUn from SOMETHING, what is the something???

By: geula

geula — Thu, 11 Sep 2014 16:02:13 +0000

noone should judge him lekaf chova. Israeli police don’t live with a torah; they go by hearsay and bias. Even if we don’t follow the breslav shita; rav berland is a man on a different level. The israeli govt knows that if he tellls his followers to jump off a bridge they all will. They know that if he tells his followers to kill out a city of arabs; they will. He’s wanted for questioning. but most of all the israeli police want him off the streets for security purposes. Anyone that believes any of the allegations and made up stories about him is a man that has gone too far with his internet addictions. the internet and all the torah writers (with their independent analysis’) has become to them the new vaad harabanim. How sad!

By: DikDukDuck

DikDukDuck — Thu, 11 Sep 2014 15:14:11 +0000

@5: I think you’re blowing the word Google out of proportion. I think #2 said to Google the word “stan,” nowhere did he say that he is one of those that believes everything on the Internets.

By: dkbmd

dkbmd — Thu, 11 Sep 2014 14:55:03 +0000

It comes down to this: INNOCENT PEOPLE DO NOT RUN FROM THE GOVERNMENT OF A DEMOCRACY!! And yes, at this point he will probably not get a fair trial because he’s been on the run.
He very obviously did something very wrong if there is an international man hunt for him. They wouldn’t do that “just for questioning”. To say he is being targeted for who he is is just blatant naivety and stupidity.
He either knows some very important information about a crime that was committed, or actually committed the crime (at this point it seems to be the latter).
Just keep in mind, evading/resisting arrest is a crime in and of itself. People (myself included) get all upset when cops “put themselves above the law”; well guess what, citizens have no business doing it either.
(Before you go crazy, I have a lot of problems with a lot of things that the Israeli government does(draft, and other anti-charedi stuff included)).

By: por

por — Thu, 11 Sep 2014 14:49:56 +0000

Chazal said that if you saw a Talmid Chacham sin at night don’t hold it against him the next morning because by then he’s certainly done teshuva, and that’s talking about someone who actually SAW the alleged aveira, not about those who hear about it from other sources. The whole suspicion about him rests on the testimony of a few people, have they ever undergone polygraphs?