Religious Persecution and the Breaking of Democracy? An Attempt to Create Chaos Around the Shuvu Banim Community and Rabbi Berland shlit"a

As part of the biased witch hunt by the Israel Police and the State Attorney's Office against the holy Gaon and Tzaddik, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a (may he live long and good days) and his community, dozens of police officers arrived early this morning and conducted a brutal search of the Rav's private residence.

These officers were supposedly searching for evidence of false rumors. These so-called "evidences" are actually lies and fabrications, which originate from the same source that has been persecuting the Rav for all these recent years. If it weren't so outrageous and malicious, it would be simply ridiculous; those who constantly scream about the prohibition of cooperating "with the Zionist government" (as they define it), yet when it comes to Rabbi Berland shlit"a, they allow themselves to cooperate with "the snake" (again, as they define it).

Anyone familiar with the ugly story of persecution against Rabbi Berland shlit"a and his community knows that this is not the first time they have tried to attribute nonsense to the holy community and its leader. Now they are trying a new tactic, as if the Rav is hiding millions of shekels in his home.

Of course, they found nothing because there is nothing.

We, all citizens of Israel, are living in a surreal and dangerous era where the arms of law enforcement are being used to carry out political and religious persecutions.

Police investigators and the State Attorney's Office continue their predatory methods, attempting to justify their existence by using highly publicized and well-leaked investigations of public figures to present themselves as "knights of justice and integrity." In reality, they are the corrupt ones committing severe violations of the civil rights of innocent people, while cynically using the judicial system's judges as a rubber stamp.

We too, like the vast majority of Israeli citizens, understand that we are dealing with a law enforcement system that is corrupt and rotten from head to toe. It is a system used as a plaything by radical left-wing interest groups and haters of religion, who order biased investigations from the State Attorney's Office and the police just as one would order pizza deliveries or underworld assassinations.

In the case of Rabbi Berland shlit"a, those who constantly speak out against the Israeli government's system also join the fray, but now, out of deep-seated hatred, they manufacture lies against the Rav.

We also share the claim that there is no justice or fair trial in the law enforcement system of the State of Israel—it is all a pre-rigged game by investigators and prosecutors who have already judged and decided that a certain person is guilty. They use the arms of law enforcement only to prove what they have already determined in their incited minds, burning with hatred.

We, along with the majority of Israeli citizens, are concerned and shocked by the transformation of Israeli democracy into a judicial dictatorship, without oversight and without a red line for the limits of power. This is an Israeli democracy for which so much Jewish blood has been spilled, and at this very moment, it is undergoing a brutal distortion by the country's law enforcement systems.

We also share the grim and painful reality of a very large segment of Israeli citizens who express zero trust in the judicial and law enforcement systems, zero trust in the purity of the motives of police investigators, and zero trust in the integrity of the State Attorney's Office.

We all understand that this rigged and corrupt game is about to end very soon, but until then, we will all continue to pray together with greater intent—"Restore our judges as in earliest times... and remove from us sorrow and sighing."

These words were edited from an article by Rabbi Aharon Schwartz.

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