Sydney woman remains in prison
As Sukkot approaches, 27-yr-old Natalie Gershoig remains in a military prison in Israel.
Natalie Gershoig
Her father Alex Gershoig confirmed to J-Wire that she left Israel ten years ago to visit him when she learned that he was critically ill.
J-Wire understands that the Australian-born woman had received notification from the IDF that she had to report regarding eligibility for military service before she left Israel.
Shortly before Yom Kippur, the former Sydney Yeshiva student returned to Israel to spend the Day of Atonement with her mother. She was arrested and has been in a military prison since.
Alex Gershoig told J-Wire: “There was a hearing yesterday but no conclusion has been reached and Natalie remains in prison as Sukkot approaches.”
He confirmed to J-Wire that she has been visited by family and friends
Alex,don’t worry too much about Natalie. She’ll be ok. Israel army prisons are in no way like an Alcatraz. The foods ok and one gets plenty of physical training while there. Moshe Dyan himself told me personally one has never been in the Israel Army if he’s never done time in an I.D.F.Kele. In 1968, I did four days and had four haircuts in Kele Shesh Atlit for going over forty ks an hour driving a truck with a load of ammunition at the Checkpost in Haifa and for swearing a bad word f word to the MP who booked me and sent me to the jail. For this I also received a heavy fine of 7Lira equal to $2 in those days. They let me out of the jail for 8 hours to meet my mother at Ben Gurion who was arriving from Australia for my wedding. The commander of the prison said to me “oivavoili” if I didn’t return back to the jail! A couple of years later I took and still have a photo of the outside of the outside of the jail. I wish I was young again – I would be happy even now to go through all that once again.