Rabbis demand answers regarding Ahuvia Sandak
Updated: Aug 3, 2022
Honenu is representing those who are insisting on the investigation of the death of Ahuvia Sandak, z”l, who was tragically killed in a police car chase on Tevet 6 5781/ December 21, 2020, and defending the many who are being detained while demonstrating for change in police behavior. The car Ahuvia was in with four other boys overturned when the police car collided with it from behind. Please click here for a list of posts connected to the case.
Friday, January 22, 2021, 10:04 On Friday morning, Honenu shared a Facebook post from Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, the Chief Rabbi of Tzfat. (Translation by Honenu) The Office of Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu [Facebook page] January 21, 11:54 PM We greatly regret the publicization of the meeting between the rabbis and the Deputy Attorney General for Criminal Affairs, Shlomo (Mumi) Lemberger. We requested clarifications from him regarding the scandalous conduct of the Attorney General’s office that is backing all of the failures of the Central Unit of the Yehuda and Shomron Police and of the Police Investigation Unit (PIU), and we did not receive any reply. We asked: How is it that there is a [police] unit designated for handling only Jews, especially since a governmental order states that it is supposed to handle both Jews and Arabs? Why have all the claims of excessive brutality on the part of these policemen not been examined?
Furthermore, we have not received replies to serious questions concerning the conduct of the police with regards to Ahuvia Sandak: Why have the policemen not been detained? Why have they not been suspended from duty as policemen who are suspected of killing a youth customarily are? Why were the policemen not immediately interrogated, which allowed them to coordinate testimonies? Why were bystanders who were at the scene not interrogated? Why did it take so long to take testimonies from the [injured] youths? Why did the police not administer medical treatment to the injured youths after their car overturned several times in front of them? Why has a joint team of Central Unit of Tel Aviv Police and the PIU been formed for the first time in history? Why are they not following the law which states that the investigation must be conducted solely by the PIU? Why did you, Mumi Lemberger, authorize this exception in this case?
Why did the head of the investigating team say in court, before the interrogations had been completed, that the policemen had acted according to what was expected from them? Does that not create a bias before all of the findings have been clarified? Why is this investigation continuing for so long? We requested that an external investigative committee be formed and that the facts be examined in a suitable manner. There is a genuine cry from the public that must be listened to. Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, Rabbi David Dudkevitch, and Rabbi Yehoshua Shapira