Israel/Palestine
Related: About this forumIsrael's Justice System Fails To Protect The Palestinians It Rules
April 14, 2011 was a special morning for the Hizme family from the village of Turmusaya: it was one of the few days they were allowed to work their land, which unfortunately for them is close to the illegal outpost Adei Ad. They received the necessary permits from the army. Even so, some 90 minutes after they started working, IDF personnel showed up and asked them to leave, so as not to cause problems with the settlers. A short while later, an Israeli vehicle came around and seven Israeli civilians stepped out of it. When the soldiers noticed the civilians, they broadcast a good morning over their jeep loudspeaker system.
As the good civilians left their vehicle, some of them hooded, they started attacking the Palestinians. The assault, which included use of clubs and tear gas, went on for several long minutes, as the soldiers in the jeep did nothing. During history lessons, we used to call an attack by a group of civilians on others as the agents of the government did nothing pogroms; the Israeli media prefers the term clashes. In the end, the soldiers fired some rounds in the air and the attackers took the hint and retreated. Its time to say, again, that IDF soldiers are, legally, both entitled and obliged to prevent such attacks and they are empowered to detain the rioters until police show up.
One might have expected the police would crack this case relatively easily. The Palestinians photographed their attackers, and one of the wounded recognized the people assaulting him. Furthermore, given the cordial greetings by the soldiers in the jeep, its reasonable to assume they soldiers were familiar with the gang members. Even so, no indictments were served in this case. Police only bothered to interrogate the main suspect after three months, and then were satisfied with answers to general questions. The suspect was not, for instance, asked to supply an alibi. Neither did the police bother to find the soldiers who witnessed the assault.
This isnt the only case of its kind. In a series of documented cases, the police simply refused to lodge the Palestinians complaints. Rabah Hizme, also a resident of Turmusaya, on August 6, 2009 wanted to register a complaint against an Israeli citizen who fired at him and with a drawn weapon, chased him to his village; the police refused to accept the complaint, claiming the gunman was engaged in self defense. This is interesting: the police basically decided the result of the investigation even as it refused to open one. In other cases, when a Palestinian wants to lodge a complaint, he is systematically worn down: come back tomorrow, we dont have an interpreter today, theres no investigator today, and why didnt you bring the documents we never asked you to bring. The goal, as with the robotic replies of a cellular companys automated phone system, is to convince the victims that there is no point, that hes wasting his time, that nothing will come out of this.
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http://972mag.com/israels-justice-system-fails-to-protect-the-palestinians-it-rules/69855/
delrem
(9,688 posts)many of whom, when pointy hats were off, worked openly as gov't officials, magistrates, politicians, and even police.