Emotional: Protest Convoy Across the Country with Dozens of Vehicles and

The protest convoy of the students and followers of our teacher, the holy tzaddik Rav Eliezer Berland shlit"a, created a great stir and Kiddush Hashem. Dozens of vehicles filled with participants arrived from all over the country to take part in the display of support; one could feel the fear of Heaven as the mouths of the supporters whispered prayers and recited Psalms the entire time.

The convoy was planned to start in Olga, where a kollel and a large 'Shuvu Banim' community are located, and from there to continue to Bnei Brak and on to Jerusalem. However, in light of the weather and the 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 operations officer of 'Shuvu Banim', in constant contact with Avi, the intelligence coordinator of the Israel Police, regarding the order of events.

In a planned and impressive manner, giant signs and a sound system were mounted on the roofs of the vehicles, creating a Kiddush Hashem all along the way. Car owners who were just passing by were often interested in the reason for the protest, and some even decided to take an active part in the convoy for at least part of the time. Thus, an exciting reality was created of new faces in the protest, which is necessary in light of the great injustice being done to Rav Berland and his community.

We bring before you the documentary film we produced from the protest convoy, as well as a transcript of the main points that were said.

Rav Aharon Schwartz, Operations Officer of the 'Shuvu Banim' community

"Murder in the name of the law - Rav Eliezer Berland, a holy tzaddik and an elderly man of 84, 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 where they spill his blood, forcing him to sign a plea bargain - where has such a thing been heard?"

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 tested before; it is a very large, primary model for publicity, and with the help of Hashem, we will hold a protest convoy. We will try to illuminate a little of the great darkness of the High Court, as the people of Israel are under this great slavery - the slavery of the High Court."

"Truly, days of darkness and gloom of a regime that is actually a foreign mandate, all of it crooked statutes that justify such a wicked abomination - 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 before."

"Where is the justice? Where are the civil rights? Where are the basic laws? A criminal prosecution, a delinquent prosecution, a mafia-like prosecution. Corrupt courts. Who approves this? A year in prison without trial! A year without conviction! Over ten hospitalizations. Three difficult surgeries, two catheterizations, a broken arm. A year in prison for a legal theory, according to which, a Pidyon Nefesh (redemption of the soul) is considered extortion and exploitation."

Words of Rav Natan Sharabi, one of the veteran students of Rav Berland and a participant in the convoy

"We came to protest everything they are doing to the tzaddik, torturing him for nearly a year in prison for no fault of his own, for the fact that people actually invited him to their homes, to host him and perform a Pidyon Nefesh for them. People, of their own free will, called and said they were interested and wanted, even begging for Rav Berland to come to their home, and asking when will our turn come?"

"And the media took it, twisted it, and said that the Rav is extorting people. It was only missing that they would say he came with a weapon and demanded and threatened that they bring money. The Rav spoke, and everyone gave of their own free will the amount he said. People believe in this (in the power of the Pidyon Nefesh), and all credit to them for believing in it, because it is written in all the books: in the Zohar, in Likutey Moharan, in the Chida, where not, in Rav Chaim Palaggi - that a Pidyon Nefesh saves from death, it saves from all the decrees that are upon a person, and only great tzaddikim can perform a Pidyon Nefesh, not just anyone - people believe in Rav Berland!"

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 too. An elderly man of 84, sick in his entire body, has been in detention for 11 months until the end of proceedings, without conviction, without trial. Such things have not been heard of in civilized countries in the last hundred years. Terrorists and murderers have already been released, and him they keep in detention, and they pressure him, using this detention as active pressure to sign a plea bargain. To reach a conviction, to admit to things that are only a legal theory that a Pidyon Nefesh is extortion - it is only a legal theory."

"They are pressuring him to accept the conviction upon himself, it is a rerun of 2017, and now it is worse, they are doing it even without any shame, without any shame they exert pressure - it is so forbidden to sign a plea bargain, it is a terrible and awful thing, one must not agree to this - one must protest and that is what we are doing."

Natan Sharabi - Truly shocking stories are silenced, and about Rav Berland they make noise

"There was just a story that everyone heard about, the whole country knows. The story about so-and-so, I don't even want to mention his name. Everyone knows he is one of the court administrators, and he appointed judges so that they would do all kinds of abominable acts with him, and money and bribery. The affair is truly disgusting, but no one says a word, and no one is interested, and he sits on a chair above. No one opens their mouth or chirps."

"Why is that? Because he has money! Because he is one of them! Rav Berland, what is his sin? That he brings people to teshuvah (repentance)! 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 themselves and return to teshuvah and do not want there to be secular people in the country. That one more person wants to keep Shabbat, that is his sin in their eyes."

"So they say: we will fight him to the end, he will sit in prison without trial, because he has been in prison without trial for 10 months already, an 84-year-old man with illnesses. All the illnesses that one would not want, he had: cancer, two catheterizations, heart attacks, two surgeries, a broken arm, what has the Rav not gone through? Whoever knows the Rav - everything is with joy, with smiles, in his life he will not say 'it hurts me'. Ask him: 'Is everything good, Rav?' He will answer: 'Good, may you not come to the hospital at all, may you not dare to get close here, I am here 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 are murdering him with torture of body and soul, a year in prison without trial, a year in prison without conviction, a year of judicial torture and perversion of justice, a year of Corona in the whole world - release Rav Berland immediately. We all demand to release Rav Berland immediately."

"Enough with the heinous crime, enough with the wicked abomination of the prosecution."

Natan Sharabi - Rav Berland sweetens the Holocaust and decrees

"Rav Berland is ready to die for every Jew, literally. That is why he is now in prison so that there will not be a Holocaust here, Heaven forbid. And there will not be decrees against all this behavior against the Torah."

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