A few days ago, they transferred and moved our honored teacher, the righteous Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a, this time from Tzalmon to Ramla. About 24 hours before the transfer, his students began setting up a protest tent opposite the walls of Tzalmon Prison. As soon as the transfer was known, they packed their equipment and exiled together with their rabbi to the center of the country.

Former Supreme Court Judge Miriam Naor said: Detention until the end of proceedings is illegal. Detention until the end of proceedings is a tool of the prosecution to pressure a person into a plea deal, even if he is not guilty.

Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a has been sitting in prison for half a year without trial and for no wrongdoing. His many students are sacrificing themselves to maintain the very important connection between rabbi and student. Day and night they frequent the prison walls to which their rabbi is moved, waiting and longing at the doors of the closed hearts.

On 12.8.20, Rabbi Berland shlit"a was transferred again from Tzalmon to Ramla Prison, his students and supporters exiled with him along with all their equipment. We bring the content of the interviews from the investigative report we filmed on site.

"They ask us why come here, leave home, leave the family? Come to the middle of a field, to Tzalmon, stand and sit in the heat. And we say it's simply love, that's our excuse, one very simple excuse."

"This is state land of the administration - we checked, there's a Druze who cultivates the land, he hasn't cultivated here for two years, we spoke with him," says Rabbi Aharon Schwartz about the area opposite the prison where they chose to settle.

"They ask us why come here, sit in the sun opposite the prison for whole days. Leave home, the children, go sit in the heat, outside opposite the prison, what do we find in this? Beyond the matter of protest, that we are students of a rabbi who was arrested for no wrongdoing, a righteous, holy, and pure rabbi who only helps everyone from the people of Israel, truly, with a whole heart, a person of serving Hashem that we haven't seen for generations. He is entirely engaged in Torah, in kedushah (holiness), in prayer, a person who transformed Breslov, in fact since the sixties, into a large and great chassidut. From a small handful of families to a large and great chassidut."

"Rabbi Berland brought tens and hundreds of thousands to teshuvah (repentance), opened the way to Uman for them even during the difficult period of communism - opened Breslov to the masses. He encouraged his students to go out and bring the people of Israel closer. This is Rabbi Berland for us, this is Rebbe Nachman of our generation. And Rabbi Berland is the continuer, he is the true student who continues the light of Rebbe Nachman for our generation. And we are here to say these things simply."

"Now it's the month of Av, already half a year that our teacher Rabbi Eliezer Berland is here - in Tzalmon Prison behind us, in detention until the end of proceedings without trial. On charges that are a legal theory, as if the redemption of the soul, which is a religious ceremony, is exploitation. This is a complete lie - the system wants to fabricate cases. There's case fabrication here, there's a process trying to eliminate a person legally, doing it in combination with the media. Channel 13 mainly incites, and then the police supposedly arrest and find nothing, and there's nothing."

"For every one testimony that Rabbi Berland supposedly took redemption and didn't succeed, five cases can be brought where Rabbi Berland succeeded in performing the redemption. In any case, this is an unfair trial, half a year an elderly man of 83 with dozens of different medical problems, lung failure, kidney failure, high blood pressure, pacemaker, heart problems, after kidney removal. Many medical problems throughout the body, and the rabbi is imprisoned throughout this coronavirus period, the prison service and the legal system took a dangerous gamble by keeping the rabbi in prison despite all the coronavirus, while he is with the most severe underlying conditions for coronavirus. And yet they kept the rabbi in prison in conditions not simple for a regular person - all the more so for an elderly person."

"A person who lived as a rabbi of a community numbering hundreds and thousands of people who listen to him and his voice of Torah - they put him in prison! Half a year without trial, the trial hasn't even started, detention until the end of proceedings."

"Judge Miriam Naor, former President of the Supreme Court, said that detention until the end of proceedings is illegal and undemocratic, for the simple reason that a person cannot legally defend themselves while in detention. The pressure to get out of detention leads and pressures them to close on a plea deal, even when they can prove their innocence in an evidentiary trial. And this is what they are doing to Rabbi Berland - exploiting his severe medical condition, putting him in detention until the end of proceedings."

"All this they do because there is nothing in the case, it's all fabricated theory, legal bluffs as if the redemption of the soul is exploitation, everything is based on bluffs, they have nothing so they want to pressure the rabbi to admit to nothing."

"They already did this in the past in 2017, also bizarre accusations of word against word, they put him in detention until the end of proceedings. An evidentiary trial was supposed to take one or two years, maybe even three, and Rabbi Berland had 3 cancerous tumors and his condition deteriorated. They neglected him, in the previous Tzalmon in 2017, and in the end, the rabbi had to sign a plea deal to get out as quickly as possible from prison."

"Indeed, that's how it was, he got out of prison, underwent kidney removal and in a terrible medical condition, he got out of prison with complete dehydration on the verge of death, after a year in prison, part of which was in a very harsh prison. Sin City Prison in South Africa, and most of the time here in Israel in Tzalmon, and now they want to do the same thing, pressure the rabbi through detention until the end of proceedings, pressure him to reach a plea agreement even though there's nothing against him, to supposedly shorten the sentence."

"If Rabbi Berland has to be imprisoned throughout the evidentiary trial, the evidentiary trial hasn't even started, already half a year has passed, then, they want to keep him in prison for many years!"

"We do not agree that our rabbi should be behind bars for no wrongdoing. We are here protesting against the legal and judicial authorities in Israel, that they are doing a terrible injustice based on slander and a witch hunt. And terrible media incitement of opponents who have been seeking Rabbi Berland for decades, and media that only seeks blood, bloodshed, and hypocritically, as if they care for the weak, they themselves are the wicked, and they are the tramplers and cruel - being cruel towards the tzaddikim."

"A severe violation of civil rights, a violation of Rabbi Berland's right to a fair trial, who is forced to be in detention until the end of proceedings, and conduct a trial under the pressure of detention and inability to conduct a fair trial."

"We are here also as students, like Joshua bin Nun who waited for Moses our teacher under the mountain, 40 days Moses ascended. We too, as close students of Rabbi Berland, lovers of the rabbi, admirers of the rabbi, chassidim of the rabbi, believe that this is one of the greatest people who stood for Judaism in the last hundreds of years."

Whoever knows Rabbi Berland closely knows what a person with a genius mind and what toil in Torah, and what a holy and secluded person he is. Performs wonders and loves every Jew - simply all the good qualities united in this holy person. And we want to be as close as possible to him as students - the connection between us is very strong. Like, God forbid, one of my close relatives, a father or mother or brother were arrested under any circumstances. Whoever truly loves someone waits outside for them, waits on the side - and that's our expression."

"There are many students of Rabbi Berland who want to come for a few hours, to pray opposite the prison, to do Hitbodedut opposite the prison, to say Tikkun HaKlali, like the rabbi's request to say Tikkun HaKlali seven times which the rabbi believes is the only thing that can help him be released."

"Rabbi Berland believes that everything is predetermined, he has no trust in the legal system of the State of Israel. We see it every day, the courts are the rubber stamp of the prosecution, every request is approved. If they keep an 83-year-old man with so many medical problems, keep him in prison for half a year despite the coronavirus wave - just detention, still without trial. We believe that only saying Tikkun HaKlali will help."

At the end of the month of Av this year, the year 5780, our teacher, the honorable righteous Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a was transferred and moved again, this time to Ramla Prison. His devoted students and supporters gathered all their equipment and exiled with him to Ramla. These are their words from Ramla:

"Baruch Hashem, we are here on the eve of the holy Shabbat, over 200 people have come here, Baruch Hashem. There are guys here with tents, some rented apartments in the Chabad neighborhood in Lod, we are organizing here for Shabbat. And Baruch Hashem, everyone here is coming to spend Shabbat with the tzaddik Rabbi Berland - we do not give up, we will be with Rabbi Berland - through fire and water."