"How is it that the person who used an electric shocker to
strike demonstrators against grave desecration on Highway 6
is still walking around free and has not been arrested?" MK
Rabbi Moshe Gafni asked the police representative during a
Knesset Internal Affairs Committee meeting on the issue of
the Highway 6 affair.
The question was posed after MK Rabbi Meir Porush screened
video footage clearly showing an individual from the Trans-
Israel Highway Company striking demonstrators with an
electric shocker.
The police representative condemned the use of the shocker,
saying the person who wielded it was a private security guard
hired by the Trans-Israel Highway Company, but Rabbi Gafni
pointed out his answer was inadequate since the police are
responsible for dealing with a security guard acting in a
brutal manner.
Following the exchange the police representative, feeling ill-
at-ease, promised to arrest the individual.
In a response to a question by MK Meshulam Nahari (Shas)
during the next day's Knesset plenum meeting, Deputy
Transportation Minister MK Rabbi Shmuel Halpert reported the
Trans-Israel Company had replaced Triple D—the company
that employed the guard who used the electric
shocker—with a different security company. Rabbi
Halpert also said his ministry would reprimand the Trans-
Israel Highway Company.
According to a Transportation Ministry inquiry only one guard
used a shocker but Rabbi Gafni said the video footage clearly
shows more than one guard wielding a shocker.
Internal Security Minister Gidon Ezra repeated his pledge to
Rabbi Gafni that the guard would be arrested and questioned.
"The police said it is making a concerted effort to locate
the owner of the shocker, and I promise everything said at
that [Knesset Internal Affairs Committee] meeting will be
implemented by the police," said Ezra.
Committee Chairman MK Raleb Majadele (Labor) said it was
prohibited to continue paving the Trans-Israel Highway if it
entailed harming graves. "The continued paving of Highway 6
is very important but not at the expense of damage to values
that are sacred and important to the public. There is no
justification for having graves destroyed and this is not an
unsolvable situation."
During the meeting MK Rabbi Gafni accused the Transportation
Ministry and its director-general, Ben Tzion Salman, who
allowed the damage to take place due to misguided
considerations.
MK Rabbi Porush said that in the majority of cases where
graves were found along Highway 6, understandings were
reached with the Trans-Israel Highway Company for the
problematic segments. An engineering solution was available
for the two desecrated caves as well, but it was not
implemented. "The removal of the bones from the graves was
done in a brutal and crude manner from start to finish," he
charged.
MK Rabbi Yitzchok Cohen also said that solutions acceptable
to all could be found and there was no need for matters to
deteriorate to the point of confrontation with the police.
The District Engineer for Haifa and the North said the
Transportation Ministry sees great importance in paving this
segment of the highway and will do whatever it takes to
continue with its proper, contiguous paving.
At the end of the meeting the committee decided to wait until
the inspection by engineer Rami Manor is complete and until a
solution satisfactory to all parties is proposed. The
committee also intends to tour the construction site to study
the problem firsthand.
Following a request by MK Rabbi Gafni the committee also held
a meeting on police violence at the Satmar beis
medrash on Jerusalem's Rechov Yoel during Chol Hamoed.
Rabbi Gafni presented a video cassette showing policemen
mercilessly beating innocent bystanders in the beis
knesses.
Rabbi Gafni demanded the police representatives on hand order
a thorough investigation of the matter to find the guilty
policemen.
