Shin Bet criticized for detaining filmmaker who sought to expose alleged injustices at agency | JewishPress.com | Akiva Van Koningsveld | 9 Elul 5784 – Wednesday, September 11, 2024

(JNS) The Israeli Security Agency (Shin Bet) and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant came under fire this week for ordering the arrest without charge of an acclaimed documentary filmmaker while he was working on a film exposing alleged injustices in the internal security services.

Avraham Shapira, a 29-year-old father of four from Yitzhar in Samaria, was arrested on August 22 and placed in administrative detention for six months, Channel 14 journalist Shimon Riklin revealed on Monday.

“Avraham Shapira, with whom I worked on my film ‘The Shin Bet Knew,’ was arrested by the Shin Bet in administrative detention on August 22,” Riklin said Monday, noting that the detention of his cameraman will likely prevent the documentary from being released in November.

Lawyer Adi Keidar, of the Honenu legal aid group who represents Shapira, called the arrest a “grave violation of freedom of expression.” Shapira’s investigative documentaries have aired on Israeli public broadcaster Kan and have been screened at several film festivals in recent years.

Shapira is currently working on “an investigation into the Shin Bet’s activities in the 1990s, including embarrassing cases for the Shin Bet such as the use of instigator agents, the use of Avishai Raviv (an ISA undercover agent) among the settlers and other stories that will shake the country,” Keidar said, echoing accusations that the Shin Bet was partly responsible for the murder of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

The Shin Bet issued a statement Monday saying the filmmaker is a “violent and extremist activist involved in directing hilltop youth and young men toward violent activities in the Samaria region.”

“Shapira was arrested as part of a police investigation into suspicions of involvement in the August 15 Kfar Jit attacks, in which a Palestinian was murdered and four homes were set on fire,” the Shin Bet said. Jit is located eight kilometers northwest of Yitzhar, south of Nablus.

“He did not cooperate and, in the absence of criminal prosecution, it was decided to place him in administrative detention due to the great danger posed by the continuation of his activities,” the agency said. “The false claim that Shapira was arrested because he was a ‘film director’ is baseless.”

Jerusalem says administrative detention is necessary to prevent attacks or to hold dangerous terror suspects without sharing evidence that could endanger vital intelligence sources. Since Gallant took office in December 2022, the use of administrative detention against Israeli Jews has reached a record high, far-right groups have said.

“Gallant has become a puppet and rubber stamp of the Shin Bet,” Tally Gotliv, another MK from the ruling Likud party, tweeted Monday. “Using his thug power and relying on despicable lies, the Shin Bet convinced Gallant to approve the administrative arrest of filmmaker Avraham Shapira, a Yitzhar resident, a man of values ​​and kindness.”

“All this because Shapira ‘dared’ to touch the holy of holies and participate in a film dealing with the murder of Rabin and the involvement of the Shin Bet in the incident,” the Israeli coalition MK added in the message on X.

MK Limor Son Har-Melech (Otzma Yehudit) tweeted: “This is how the system works: Draconian administrative arrests began against the hill boys, a low-key group that rarely receives media attention and public scrutiny, and when the Shin Bet saw that this was happening quietly, it expanded its use against those who dared to criticize them.

“Avraham Shapira, a respected documentary filmmaker and father of children, was arrested at his home, without evidence and without trial, because he dared to reveal the truth,” she added.

The arrest was also criticized by the family of Elyakim Libman, a 23-year-old security guard who was murdered in the October 7 Hamas massacre at the Nova music festival near Israel’s southern border. Shapira had been working on a documentary commemorating Libman’s life and heroism after his remains were discovered four months ago.

“Avraham received an administrative arrest order, which is supposed to be used against our enemy who wants to destroy us and not against brothers among our people,” Father Eliyahu Liebman wrote in a scathing letter to Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, quoted by local media.

“Not only did the Shin Bet fail to do its job and betray us twice by failing to protect our Elyakim Shlomo and his uncle Shneur Shlomo (assassinated by a terrorist in 1998), after whom Elyakim was named. Now it is also hurting our soft underbelly by not allowing Avraham to continue working on the documents he collected in difficult times, with great sensitivity during the long and difficult search for Elyakim,” he said.