The Israel Police withdrew an indictment against Tzav 9 (“Order 9") chairwoman Reut Ben-Haim for blocking aid trucks to the Gaza Strip, the anti-Hamas protest group said on Monday.
Ben-Haim—a mother of eight from the southern city of Netivot—was charged last month with creating a public disturbance, an offense punishable with up to three months imprisonment, over her protest activities near the Gaza border.
After police withdrew the indictment, Kiryat Gat Magistrate’s Court Judge Noga Shmueli-Meyer dismissed the case, Tzav 9 said in a statement shared with JNS on Monday.
“Public pressure, spirit and resolve have won. I wish to thank the thousands of supporters from all sectors and backgrounds of Israeli society. Thanks to them, the absurd indictment against me has been withdrawn,” Ben-Haim stated.
“We promise to continue acting, now with the multiplied strength you have given us, against the failure of transferring aid to Hamas—which is taking place together with the beginning of the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, far from the public eye, and while placing the Gaza border communities at risk,” she said.
Ben-Haim’s attorneys added, “The State of Israel did well to withdraw the unfounded indictment that was filed against our client while trampling her fundamental rights, including freedom of expression and the freedom to protest.
“Our client’s struggle for the return of the hostages and to prevent aid to the enemy during wartime is a sacred and just struggle, and the attempt to intimidate her because of it is a truly unjust act,” they said.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the charges “should never have been filed in the first place,” calling the case “absurd, hypocritical and yet another example of the justice system’s selective enforcement.
“The same attorney general who gave backing to those who blocked roads and lit bonfires at the Kaplan [anti-government] protests sought to prosecute Reut Ben-Haim,” the minister wrote on X. “The decision to withdraw the indictment is appropriate and just. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.”
Tzav 9 has engaged in nonviolent protests aimed at blocking aid. As many as 75% of the convoys are looted by Hamas and other criminal organizations in Gaza, the group says, citing government officials.
The NGO earlier this year resumed its protests under the slogan “Aid to Hamas must not enter,” following the return of the final remaining hostage body, that of Israel Police Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, from the Strip.
