Three infants approximately one year old left unsupervised as police detained their mothers

Tuesday, February 4, 20:29 Eight settlers and three infants approximately one year old were detained by border police during the evacuation of caravans in the community of Yishuv HaDa’at and while IDF soldiers uprooted olive trees in a Jewish olive grove in the Shilo Bloc. Several children of the detained mothers were left unsupervised.
The incident began on the morning of Tuesday, February 4 when large numbers of police and border police forces arrived to evacuate caravans which had been brought recently to the community of Yishuv HaDa’at in the Shilo Bloc. During clashes at the site a women and her baby, two young women and one youth were detained. Also a border policeman drew his gun and aimed it at a resident of the nearby community of Achiya who was walking on the road towards his home.
Clashes continued throughout the day between the police and the border police and the settlers who continued to protest the destruction of houses and groves. In the afternoon hours border police returned to the area and detained another man and three women, two of them with infants approximately a year old. The detained women’s other children were left unsupervised.
During the incidents in Gush Shilo in total eight settlers were detained, among them one youth, one 28 year old man, four married women, one of whom is in an advanced state of pregnancy and two young single women.
Honenu attorneys Adi Kedar and Rehavia Piltz are representing the detainees.
In another instance of severe contempt for a child’s safety, last Friday, January 31 not far from Yishuv HaDa’at the father of a sick baby approximately one year old was taken from his car and detained by police as his baby was left unsupervised in the car.
Honenu reports that, “Regrettably we are forced to conclude another day in which we handled the cases of many detainees. Despite our vast experience during the 12 years of Honenu’s work we note that today the police conduct with the residents of the Shilo Bloc has crossed many limits: detaining the mothers of very young children only because they were not carrying an ID card, violent detention of young women, and leaving small children unsupervised as their mothers were detained. The selective enforcement of the law has been blatant and there is concern that the changes in the Attorney General’s office have reached the lower echelons faster than we thought they would.”