A special Knesset committee convened this morning to discuss the rights of a boy from the village of Yitzhar, who has been legally distanced from his parents’ home, on the basis of claims of violence against Palestinians.

For several weeks now, the boy has been forced to wander from home to home, since his sentence also includes a nightly house arrest. He has been arrested multiple times on claims that he violated the sentence.

The boy and his family were present at the committee, which also included Knesset members, the legal group Honenu, which is representing the boy and his family, and families with children facing a similar situation.

MK Yehuda Glick was present and protested the harsh sentence against the boy: “This kind of sentence ought to be reserved for emergency situations in which there is a ‘ticking bomb.’ A 15-year-old boy is not a ‘ticking bomb.’ If there is a suspicion that he is going to vandalize a mosque or punch a hole in some car tires, then there are ways to deal with this. The boy has no criminal background […] the means used against him are extraneous.”

Glick compared the boy’s situation to the conspiracy formed against himself in the past: “The police fought against me, libeled me, demonized me, made me out as the most dangerous man in the Middle East – thank G-d, the court awarded me damages.

“The police justified their behavior by saying that I had wanted to disrupt the status quo. A citizen in a democratic country is allowed to want to change the status quo. There is a feeling that security forces are taking on a role that goes beyond their function – that of ‘educator of the correct ideology,'” he added.