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American Detained in Jerusalem's Russian Compound
Nobody arrested me. I was
detained
when I faithfully reported to the police office at 9 a.m. Tuesday
morning, January 9, 1996 (day before my birthday) the day after The
Jerusalem Post published on their front page an article shedding light
on what they were doing in the dark: "GSS
Seeks to Deport American
Citizen for Plot to Blow Up Al Aksa Mosque."
After my initial interrogation of six and one half hours, the Thursday before, I reported, as demanded, to the police station Friday morning, Saturday morning, Sunday morning, and then Monday morning the fellow who had actually been nice to me, he said his name was Moshe, was ordered to serve me a deportation order. He expected me to sign it and, APPALLED, I purposely dropped the accursed paper from my hands and let it fall to the floor where it belonged! I refused to sign it. They put me in that dungeon called the Russian Compound, built hundreds of years ago by the Turks, and which has since been toured by Israeli parliament members saying it should be torn down! I was in a cell made for ten and at one time we had twenty one people in it, with mats lying all over the floor and bed bugs crushed on the walls and everyone but me (by the grace of God) had welts on them from their bites! We had one "bathroom" for all of us in that cell: it was a literal hole in the floor, and the shower pipe (no shower head) was just over that hole, and a filthy sink, and everyone had to practically beg for toilet paper. My boss at the Palm Youth Hostel, Ted Bloomfield, graciously visited me once per week and made sure I had food from the commissary. When the police took me to gather my things, Ted made sure I took my duvet and pillow (which they permit). I was in that putrid place for over two weeks before my unjust deportation, after being brought before the Jerusalem magistrate (who refused to release me, being represented by famous Israeli lawyer Naftali Warzberger), and later before Israel's High Court who agreed there was no reason I shouldn't have been set free, that there was no risk of flight, but now they were just going to deport me since my citizenship request was denied. The Temple Mount Faithful paid for all my legal expenses, recognizing the whole ordeal was politico-religious persecution against all of us, yet the Leftists targeted little ol' me! Is it a crime to have an abiding love for Israel? To believe what's written in the Law and the Prophets concerning the Temple and our responsibility to construct it? To mourn that it hasn't been done yet? As the Jerusalem Talmud states: "every generation in which the Temple has not been built is as if the Temple were destroyed in it...." Isn't Israel's state emblem a gold menorah in between two gold olive branches? Must I remain in exile, banished from the Land I love, because my hope, prayer, and dream is for Israel to fulfill what that symbol represents: the Temple and Israel's destiny to become a Light to all nations? Ben Ariel was not arrested on political charges (Edward Abington, Jr. State Department letter, etc.) Israel sets date for 2005 |
