Jarring details about the harsh detention conditions of the defendants in the case involving the smuggling of goods into the Gaza Strip were revealed at the Be’er Sheva District Court on Tuesday, where the criminal proceedings opened, and the indictments were formally read.
Before the hearing began, one of the defendants, Betzalel Zini—the brother of Shin Bet chief David Zini—raised serious allegations about his detention conditions in remarks obtained by Channel 14 News.
“The treatment is almost like that of the Nukhba terrorists,” Zini said painfully. “We don’t receive the most basic necessities; sometimes we live on a slice of bread.” He added that his most basic religious rights are being denied. “We don’t even receive Tefillin…sometimes I have to daven without a tallit and tefillin.”
Zini also raised claims of medical neglect, saying treatments and medications he requires have been withheld. He added that he receives only half the number of phone calls to which he is legally entitled—five instead of ten.
Other defendants voiced similar complaints, saying that their treatment is part of a deliberate and cruel policy.
It should be noted that the very fact that the defendants in the case were imprisoned for months before any conviction is outrageous—a situation that even drew public criticism from a Haaretz journalist.
In a sharply worded post several weeks ago, Haaretz police correspondent Josh Breiner leveled fierce criticism at the State Prosecution’s use of pre-trial detention, saying that the judicial system has effectively “forgotten” the principle of presumption of innocence and now uses imprisonment as the default option, even in cases where the defendants pose no danger to society.
Breiner cited the cases of Betzalel Zini and co-defendant Aviel Ben David—reserve soldiers with no criminal record who served hundreds of days in Gaza—to illustrate the system’s absurdity. While not minimizing the allegations against them, he questioned why they were imprisoned rather than placed under strict house arrest.
“What reason is there for Zini not to be sitting at home in Ofra under house arrest?” he wrote. “Afraid he’ll obstruct the investigation? Confiscate his phones, assign supervisors, cut off his internet. Why should a man with no criminal record, who served in reserves, contributed to the state, and paid taxes—even if he sinned—be sitting in prison now? There’s no reason.”
He also presented data showing that thousands of defendants are currently detained after indictment—some indefinitely and others until the end of proceedings. He added that prisons are overcrowded, the conditions are harsh, and “the experience of detention is terrible and horrific—it must be the exception, not the rule.”
Breiner asserted that alternatives to detention should be preferred: house arrest, supervision, financial guarantees, license suspensions, no-contact orders, or electronic monitoring. “Only those who are truly dangerous should be imprisoned before conviction,” he wrote, emphasizing that the presumption of innocence must carry real meaning.
He concluded that the balance between public safety and individual liberty must be reevaluated. “The State Prosecution and the courts must move toward a dramatic reform in incarceration policy and what is known as ‘detention until the end of proceedings.’”
The fact that a Haaretz journalist used Zini, a “far-right settler of the Shomron,” as an example of the State Prosecution’s abuse underscores the intensity of his concern about the issue.
Another factor that Breiner failed to mention is the suffering caused to families by suspects’ prolonged imprisonment before conviction. Zini is a husband and father of seven.
(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)
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16 Responses
You got to be meshuga to live in Israel under such a sick secular Supreme Court and pork eating Zionist elite. How right the Satmar rebbe Ztl was all those years as he fought Zionism. Now I understand why tens of thousands of normal religious Jews choose to retire in Lakewood and Florida areas. Life there is far easier to be a religious Jew physically and spiritually.
Flatbush Yid: This guy is accused of smuggling cigarettes worth of the 350 thousand shekels into Gaza and selling them to Hamas. Some ‘far-right settler.’ This government is the most religious government in Israel’s history. Satmar or not Satmar, Israel is a reality and it is Hashem who has returned 6 million Jews to the Land. With the higher birth-rate, the secular will be outnumbered sooner or later, and Israel will be a Torah-state in every respect, paving the way for the Melech haMashiach.
@ flatbush zit: you try to turn every story into hatred of jews. do teshuvah while you still can.
It’s so funny how the Kanoim in the comments always call the Supreme Court/reigning government of Israel, Zionist, when in fact they are the furthest thing from being pro Zionist, and are in fact pro two state solution, and very pro Arab. The problem is that the court isn’t Zionist in the slightest.
The Satmar Rav was himself two faced, said he swore he would never take assistance or help from Tzionishers and yet he fled the Holocaust in Hungary in a train with them, leaving behind all his Hasidim in the country, left to die. All because he told them to not leave and it was better to die by Nazis than by (potential) Shmad by the hands of the Zionist.
One who saves a life, it is as if he saved the whole world. Did the Satmar Rav ever say words of appreciation towards them? No
Elazar – He is “accused”. So bring him to trial, and then, IF in fact guilty, do what needs to be done. The fact that everything about his life up until now suggests that he is in fact a ‘far-right settler’ itself makes the charges against him sound at least somewhat odd. So who even knows where this case will go altogether? Pre trial detention is typically based on risk of flight or danger to the public. It is very difficult to escape from Israel if one has a ?? ????? ?????, which he surely does. A father of seven with no prior record and accused of a non-violent offense is very unlikely to endanger the public. Another factor not raised here is that ‘prisoners’ serving actual sentences [especially non-violent offenders] have more rights and benefits, and are typically held under better conditions than ‘detainees’, who are treated as ‘dangerous’ [because that is typically the type of person who is incarcerated pre-trial… which Zini is not.] So this whole business smells politically motivated…
Flatbush Yid – Baruch Hashem, I was zocheh to live here for close to 30 years. Real life here is not what it seems from reading the headlines. [Similar to how reading the Scoop or whatever is not a realistic depiction of life in America.] News is about clickbait and man-bites-dog. The Heiliger Divrei Yoel ???? [who obviously doesn’t need our ????? to say “he was right”] knew all about who he was dealing with, yet he didn’t encourage Yidden already living here to leave. [He also wasn’t categorically opposed to moving here either, just that it should be for the right reasons.] There is no need to be ????? ??? on all of Eretz Yisroel [even on the majority of ??? ??? ????? who live here, who are far from being (or even liking) the small minority of ‘pork eating elites’ who are so often in the headlines.]
Elazar – “Israel is a reality”
So is China. That doesn’t prove anything religiously or ideologically. It is Hashem Who does everything, whether things we understand as ‘good’ or other things. It is in fact very probable that Chareidim will eventually be a majority, Shomrei Shabbos will be a majority in the very near future, and people who are basically ??????? on some level are already a majority.
I don’t see why anyone should make Aliyah. This is a place hostile to religion. Just because Many religious people are there doesn’t make it a friendly place to religion
The ?????? Herzi Halevi, Yaron Finkelman, Galant and other IDF leaders fed and protected HAMAS for the entire War, sending them Food and goods, fuel, meats, clothes, fruits, cigarettes, vegetables, trucks, that Hamas sold for billions $$ and helped Hamas be strong, and forced IDF soldiers to risk their lives and legs to only make arrests of Hamas, arrested thousands of them to Israel jails and hospitals, and releasing Hamas terrorists back into Gaza, instead of letting our soldiers to destroy them all. The Leftist IDF leaders did that- they protected and fed Hamas for the entire war and for 20 years before that too!!
Flatbush Yid- you think everything is from Hashem but that 6 million Jews return to Israel after Holocaust is by mistake?? It’s the strength of the American and French olim that will help make the changes needed in the Israel govt, that’s why they are there. You think it’s good paying exorbitant NY and NJ Taxes to fund public schools and Child Gender change surgeries and Antisemitic Illegals that flood USA?? As you speak and sleep in USA the radical leftists aligned with new Tucker radical right and Islamists are taking over States in USA by putting their candidates into local and state political office that will change USA into antisemitic in 5 years.
To RebEmes, Flatbush Yid and others: So, you think everything is from Hashem, but that 6 million Jews returned to Israel after Holocaust is by mistake??
It’s the strength of the American and French Jews making Aliyah that will help make the changes needed in the Israel govt and courts that’s needed, that’s why Hashem is putting Yidden in Israel
You think it’s good paying exorbitant NY and NJ Taxes to fund drug-ridden public schools and Child Gender change surgeries and Antisemitic Illegals that flood USA?? As you speak and sleep in USA the radical leftists aligned with new Tucker radical right and Islamists are taking over States in USA by putting their candidates into local and state political office that will change USA into antisemitic in 5 years and actually happening now!
Frumshmurda – The Divrei Yoel ???? and his followers payed a large portion of the money to finance that train. The story of Kastner, the other Zionist leaders, and what they did or didn’t do during the Holocaust is a big subject unto itself, most of it very uncomplimentary towards the Zionists… Contrary to popular myth, even before the War, and certainly during, the Satmar Rebbe did not tell anyone who could leave not to leave. From 1939 on it was difficult to impossible to get permission from the British to move to “Palestine”, so in reality there was never such a fictional binary choice between “shmad at the hands of the Zionists” and being killed by the Nazis. The Rebbe [as were all well known Rabbonim] was particularly wanted by the Nazis. Staying behind to die would have accomplished nothing. As it happens, the biggest mesirus nefesh to save Jews from wartime Hungary was by the Frum members of the Vaad Hatzalah and other volunteers, including followers of the Satmar Rebbe. The wartime record of the Zionists is, ahem, more debatable… To put it VERY mildly… ??????
Re. Frumshmurda continued – The survival of such Gedolim as the Divrei Yoel, the Imrei Emes, and the Belzer Rebbe ??? ?????? ?????, was critical for the post-war rebuilding of Yiddishkeit, and in Judaism saving the Torah leaders is in fact a top priority – ?? ?? ???? ??????. See also the end of Maseches Horiyos. “Going down with the ship” as a value comes from other religions/cultures.
As long as the left continues to lead Israel behind the fake shadow of a righty government, the wrong decisions will always be made and we will constantly suffer from those decisions
Sending cigarettes to Hamas is perfect. You kill them off Thats way with cancer. He should get a medal.
i don’t get any of you yiden unless you are “satmer” (they believe that Mashiach is coming to Williamsburg) LOL but the rest of the Jewish people around the world, know, that Mashiach is coming to Eretz Israel the land that Hashem gave to the “klal Israel”
and if we wouldn’t have all around Israel the sonny Israel who want to kill us, we wouldn’t have to have a military. but this is the case and it’s the place that B”H that we can protect ourselves when klall Israel where brownout from everywhere. yiden didn’t have with what to fight back. now we do and we are still being row deft. we always have to look over our shoulders. why is that?? because the all world want to kill us. so thank Hashem for the military!!! besides that Israel is the best place to be and the easiest place to live!!!!
some people don’t get cancer or die from cigarettes’ i know many people “personally” that lived in the 70this and 80this and was smoking since 12 or 15 years old. it’s other drugs that can kill you for sure. the Arabs smoke all their lives, they live to be old, unless they get killed……