The protest convoy of the students and supporters of our teacher, the esteemed Rav Eliezer Berland shlit"a, made a great noise and Kiddush Hashem. Dozens of vehicles filled with participants arrived from all over the country to participate in the support demonstration. The fear of Heaven was palpable, as the mouths of the supporters murmured prayer and recitation of Tehillim throughout.

The convoy was planned to start in Olga, where there is a large 'Shuvu Banim' community, and from there continue to Bnei Brak and onward to Jerusalem. However, due to the weather and extreme flooding in the north, the organizers decided to start the convoy in Bnei Brak. Indeed, near the Coca-Cola Bridge on the outskirts of Bnei Brak, the vehicles began to gather, with Aharon Schwartz, the security officer of 'Shuvu Banim', constantly in contact with Avi, the intelligence coordinator of the Israel Police regarding the order of events.

In a planned and impressive manner, large signs and a sound system were mounted on the roofs of the vehicles, making a Kiddush Hashem along the way. Vehicle owners who happened to pass by were often interested in the reason for the protest, with some even deciding to take an active part in the convoy, at least for part of the time. This created an exciting reality of new faces in the protest, compelled by the great injustice being done to Rav Berland and his community.

We present to you the documentary film we produced from the protest convoy, as well as a transcript of the main points that were said in it.

Rav Aharon Schwartz, Security Officer of 'Shuvu Banim'

"Murder in the name of the law - Rav Eliezer Berland, a righteous and elderly rabbi, 84 years old, sick in his entire body - a year in prison in detention until the end of proceedings. A year in prison without trial, a year in prison without conviction, a year in prison they spill his blood, forcing him to sign a plea deal - where has such a thing been heard?"

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Sign from the protest convoy for the release of Rav Berland[/caption]

Rav Schwartz explains

"We are going out for a protest convoy, there is a device on the roof of the vehicle that has not been tried before, it is a very large initial model for advertising, and with Hashem's help we will make a protest convoy. We will try to shed some light on the great darkness of the Supreme Court, that the people of Israel are under this great slavery - slavery of the Supreme Court."

"Truly, days of darkness and gloom of a regime that is essentially a foreign mandate, all of it crooked laws that justify such a wicked atrocity - to hold an elderly Jew of 84. To hold him in prison for 11 months without trial, without conviction, these are things that have not happened in the past."

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Rabbi Aharon Schwartz - Security Officer of 'Shuvu Banim'[/caption]

Where is the justice? Where are the civil rights? Where are the basic laws? A criminal prosecution, a mafia prosecution, corrupt courts. Who approves this? A year in prison without trial! A year without conviction! More than ten hospitalizations. Three difficult surgeries, two catheterizations, a broken hand. A year in prison on a legal theory, according to which, a redemption of the soul is considered exploitation and abuse."

Words of Rabbi Natan Sharabi, a veteran student of Rav Berland and participant in the convoy

"We came to protest everything being done to the tzaddik, torturing him for nearly a year in prison for no wrongdoing on his part, for the fact that people invited him to their homes, to host him and perform a redemption of the soul for them. People of their own free will called and said they were interested and wanted, even begged for Rav Berland to come to their home, and asked when will it be our turn?"

"And the media took it, distorted it, and said that the rabbi was exploiting people. It was only missing that they would say he came with a weapon and demanded and threatened to bring money. The rabbi said, and everyone gave of their own free will the amount he said. People believe in this (in the power of redemption of the soul), and all the honor to them for believing in it, because it is written in all the books: in the Zohar, in Likutei Moharan, in Chida, where not, in Rabbi Chaim Palagi - that redemption of the soul saves from death, it saves from all the decrees on a person, and only great tzaddikim can perform redemption of the soul, not everyone - people believe in Rav Berland!"

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Rabbi Natan Sharabi[/caption]

Aharon Schwartz - 11 months in prison without trial

"Eleven months an elderly man of 84 in prison without trial, we recorded all these things and soon they will hear it on the loudspeakers, an elderly man of 84 sick in his entire body, is in detention until the end of proceedings, without conviction, without trial. Such things have not been heard in civilized countries in the last hundred years. Terrorists and murderers have already been released and he is left in detention, and they pressure him, using this detention as active pressure to sign a plea deal. To reach a conviction, to admit to things that are only a legal theory that redemption of the soul is exploitation - it is only a legal theory."

"They pressure him to accept the conviction, this is a replay of 2017, and now it is worse, they do it even without any shame, without any shame they apply pressure - so wrong to sign a plea deal, it is a terrible and dreadful thing, it must not be agreed to - we must protest and that is what we are doing."

Natan Sharabi - Truly shocking stories are silenced and Rav Berland is made noise

"There was now a story that everyone heard about, the whole country knows. The story about a certain person, I don't even want to mention his name. Everyone knows he is one of the managers of the court, and he appointed judges to do with him all sorts of abominable acts, and money and bribery. The affair is truly disgusting, but no one speaks a word, and no one is interested, and he sits on a high chair. No one opens their mouth."

"Why is that? Because he has money! Because he is one of them! What is Rav Berland's sin? That he brings people to teshuvah! That is his only sin. Rav Berland, his sin is that he brings people to teshuvah. That more people chase after him and love him, and flock, and believe in Hashem, and strengthen and return to teshuvah and do not want secularism in the land. That another one wants to keep Shabbat, that is his sin to them."

"So they say: we will fight him to the end, he will sit in prison without trial, because he is in prison without trial for already 10 months, an 84-year-old man with illnesses. All the illnesses one does not want he had: cancer, two catheterizations, heart attacks, two surgeries, a broken hand, what has the rabbi not gone through? Whoever knows the rabbi - all with simcha, with smiles, he will never say it hurts. Ask him: is everything good rabbi? He will answer: good, do not come to the hospital at all, do not dare to come near here, I am really in a convalescent home, those are his words."

Aharon Schwartz - Torture of the body

"Murderers in the name of the law, a year in prison they murder him with bodily and spiritual torture, a year in prison without trial, a year in prison without conviction, a year of judicial torture and distortion of justice, a year of corona all over the world - release Rav Berland immediately. We all demand the immediate release of Rav Berland."

"Enough of the despicable crime, enough of the wicked atrocity of the prosecution."

Natan Sharabi - Rav Berland sweetens Holocaust and decrees

"Rav Berland is willing to die for every Jew literally, because of this he is now in prison so that there will not be a Holocaust here, God forbid. And there will not be decrees on all this behavior against the Torah."

"Rav Berland 10 months in prison, and there have been ten months of corona since the arrest, exactly like that, from the day the rabbi was arrested, it was on Tu Bishvat 5780, last year, I remember two days later, someone sent me a message to the phone - the first corona patient in the country."