Posts Tagged ‘court’
Is Being Arab Israel’s Criteria for Rape?
July 23rd, 2010 • Awareness, News
Tags: apartheid, arab, court, democracy, jew, justice, prison, racism, rape
Al Jazeera’s Sherine Tadros comments on the recent ‘rape by deception‘ case:
Consider this scenario – a girl meets a guy while out shopping. They make eye contact, they flirt, he tells her he’s a business mogul about to close on a billion dollar deal.
She’s the most beautiful girl he’s ever seen, he’s been searching for her all his life, etc etc, you know the drill.
photo: EPA
They go to a nearby building and have sex. Both adults, both consenting.
Days pass and the girl realises she wasn’t the woman of his dreams and he is never going to call her – in fact his name is Bob and he works at the newsagents around the corner.
The girl then proceeds to file a criminal complaint against the guy for rape and indecent assault. The judge, while admitting the sex was consensual, accuses the guy of misrepresenting himself and sentences him to 18 months in prison for rape.
Incredible right? But what if what the guy “misrepresented” was not his feelings, his job or his wealth, but rather his ethnic background – would that make it understandable or fair?
According to Israeli law, the answer to that question appears to be ‘yes’.
Read the rest at Sherine blog…
Israeli commentator, Gideon Levy’s Op-Ed in Ha’aretz:
He impersonated a human
Sabbar Kashur wanted to be a person, a person like everybody else. But as luck would have it, he was born Palestinian.
It happens. His chances of being accepted as a human being in Israel are nil. Married and a father of two, he wanted to work in Jerusalem, his city, and maybe also have an affair or a quickie on the side. That happens too.
photo: Emil Salman
He knew that he had no chance with the Jews, so he adopted another name for himself, Dudu. He didn’t have curly hair, but he went by Dudu just the same. That’s how everyone knew him. That’s how you know a few other Arabs too: the car-wash guy you call Rafi, the stairwell cleaner who goes by Yossi, the supermarket deliveryman you know as Moshe.
What’s wrong? Is it only fearsome Shin Bet interrogators like “Capt. George” and “Abu Faraj” who are allowed to adopt names from other peoples? Are only Israelis who emigrate allowed to invent new identities? Only the Yossi from Hadera who became Joe in Miami, the Avraham from Bat Yam who became Abe in Los Angeles?
Read more at Ha’aretz…
Levy said after the verdict:
I would like to raise just one question with the judge.
What if the guy had been a Jew who pretended to be a Muslim and had sex with a Muslim woman?
Would he have been convicted of rape?
The answer is: of course not.
Levy’s questioned scenario is undoubtedly being played out throughout Israel and Palestine to this day as detailed in this 1998 WRMEA Special Report Secret Israeli Units Lived Among Palestinians for Years:
Israelis are fascinated with the revelation that for the past 40 years Israeli Jewish undercover agents have been passing themselves off as Palestinians and have not only lived with and worked with Palestinians, but have even married and had children with Palestinian women living inside Israel.
As Juan Cole tells us, in Jim-Crow-segregtion-era America they called it “Passing“:
Passing was the practice of light-skinned persons with at least some African-American heritage moving in white society and concealing their African lineage. The peculiar American racial definition made persons African-American if they had virtually any African ancestry at all (the one drop rule). – read more…
This absurd and tragic story is best summed up by Tadros‘ closing words…
If the definition of democracy is equal rights for all people then surely the selective application of the law against Arabs is just plain racism.
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Additional Al Jazeera report: Israel jails Arab for ‘deceit rape’ includes interview with the Director of a support centre for rape victims in Israel:
Israeli Soldier Who Killed Tom Hurndall Granted Early Release
July 20th, 2010 • Awareness, Film & Documentary, News
Tags: court, crime, gaza, idf, International Solidarity Movement, ISM, israel, justice, RAfah, sentence, The Shooting of Thomas Hurndall, Tom Hurndall
Tom Hurndall
We have to agree with Tom’s mother: ‘Israel doesn’t care about justice’, and his father who has called for a meeting with William Hague.
21-year old Tom Hurndall was shot in the head in April 2003 as he was helping Palestinian children to cross a street in Rafah, Gaza. In 2005 the Israeli soldier, Taysir-al-Heib, was jailed for eight years for manslaughter.
Read ISM’s press release: Early release of Tom Hurndall’s killer symptom of wider Israeli crimes
The Foreign Office gave a typically weak response, from the Guardian:
“Taysir was part of a policy and was not the principal culprit,” Anthony Hurndall said. “The issue is that the Israeli army are uncaring of civilian safety.”
In a statement the Foreign Office said: “We note the court’s decision to release Taysir Hayb and recognise the grief this decision will cause to the Hurndall family. We have the deepest of sympathies for the Hurndall family. Tom’s death was a tragedy.”
Hurndall described the statement as tame. He said: “I would like them to say that this is not just a tragedy but that the Isreali government is directly responsibility for Tom’s death and should acknowledge this and take steps to put matters right by changing policies to ensure that civilians are not shot or killed indiscriminately. I’m disappointed they could have said it more forcefully.”
He added: “We would now like a meeting with William Hague and the attorney general. That rather weak response should act as a trigger to a meeting. We want the British government to help ensure that senior officers are bought to account and prosecuted.”
Speaking for the Hurndall family, he said: “We are not anti-Israeli or pro-Palestinian. Our deep concern here is that nothing is going to happen to resolve issues between the Israel and the Palestinians unless there is a degree of honesty and fact-facing and balance restored.
“War crimes have been committed and continue to be committed in Gaza.”
Hurndall’s sister Sophie told Israel’s Ha’aretz newspaper that she was “angry and shocked” by the early release of Hayb.
But she said she blamed the Israeli military rather than Hayb.
“It’s about the system. Not the man himself,” she told Haaretz. “This man who shot Tom was the same age as him. He is both the victim and the killer. He is part of a system that proactively encouraged soldiers to target civilians.”
Read more: Family of Briton killed by Israeli soldier demand meeting with ministers
UK readers should watch Channel 4‘s documentary: The Shooting of Thomas Hurndall
Tom’s mother, Jocelyn, has written a book My Son Tom: The Life and Tragic Death of Tom Hurndal and the family has a website, Tom Hurndall Foundation.
“Racism” Charges Against Scottish PSC Thrown Out
April 10th, 2010 • Action, News
Tags: case, court, edinburgh festival, jersulaem quartet, racism, scottish psc, sheriff
We would like to congratulate Scottish PSC on their recent victory in court and commend Sheriff Scott for “De-Criminalising Solidarity”.
The background… members of the Scottish PSC were in court over their interrupted a performance by the Jerusalem Quartet:
The 5 members of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign had interrupted a performance by the Jerusalem Quartet at the Edinburgh Festival in August 2008. They were initially charged with breach of the peace and held in police custody but were released to face a different charge of ‘aggravated racism’.
The charges of “racially aggravated conduct” which were levelled at the 5 members of the SPSC were thrown out by Sheriff James Scott at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Thursday 8th April 2010.
The campaigners had been accused of making “comments about Jews, Israelis, and the State of Israel”, but during a three-day legal debate at Edinburgh Sheriff Court, a BBC audio recording of the event revealed that there had been no reference made to “Jews”. Comments included “They are Israeli Army musicians”, “End the Siege of Gaza”, “Genocide in Gaza”, and “Boycott Israel”.
Sheriff James Scott ruled that “the comments were clearly directed at the State of Israel, the Israeli Army, and Israeli Army musicians”, and not targeted at “citizens of Israel” per se. “The procurator fiscal’s attempts to squeeze malice and ill will out of the agreed facts were rather strained”, he said
Read more at IndyMedia…
Don’t forget to tell your friends and family North of the Border to get in touch with Scottish PSC…
12-year-old Child To Be Prosecuted As An Adult By An Israeli Military Court
March 24th, 2010 • News
Tags: arrest, child, court, defence of children international, hebron, military, west bank
via IMEMC (International Middle East Media Center):
Al Hasan Al Mohtasib - Maan Images
The Israeli Authorities decided to file charges against a 12-year-old Palestinian child from the southern West Bank city of Hebron after arresting him and charging him with throwing stones at the Israeli military.
The child was identified as al-Hasan al-Mohtasib, 12. His 7-year-old brother was also detained but was released later on.
Their father, Fadel, said that his sons were in al-Shallalah Street, in the center of Hebron. His 7-year-old son, al-Amir, was released ten hours after his was kidnapped by the army.
He added that local residents told him that soldiers kidnapped his two children and took them to the nearby al-Karaj military camp.
He went to the camp and the soldiers told him that his sons were moved to al-Haram military camp in the city. Upon arriving at the second military base, he was informed that his children were moved to the police station in Keryat Arba Jewish settlement, in the center of Hebron.
He went to the police station in Keryat Arba’ but to no avail. When he returned back home, he found his 7-year-old child standing in front of the door, shaking and terrified.
Later on, an adult detainee at the Ofer detention center, near the central West Bank city of Ramallah, phoned him and told him that his son al-Hasan is there, and that he will be sent to court.
Al-Mohtasib voiced an appeal to human rights groups, and Defense for Children International, to intervene and ensure the release of his child.
