Border Police search Israeli Arab homes without warrants

[Poll_Blind]

From Ha'Aretz:

Border Police officers searched the homes of Israeli Arabs in Umm al-Fahm without search warrants Friday, residents said. They were looking for Palestinian workers staying in Israel illegally.

Residents said they were awoken at 7 A.M. Friday by gunshots and shouts of the officers, who raided the bedrooms of children as well as adults. The operation lasted for several hours.

--snip--

One Umm al-Fahm man, Raja Abed al-Latif, said the officers ordered children at gunpoint not to enter their house.

"I'm sure that doesn't happen in Hadera when they look for workers there," al-Latif said, referring to a nearby Jewish city. "I was convinced that I live in a democratic state. I told the policemen that perhaps they forgot that they are in the State of Israel. How dare they enter houses without showing warrants? Why do my children need to see such things?"

"Why do my children need to see such things?" asks al-Latif.

  Because the Israeli police do not respect them. Your only crime is not being Jewish in the Jewish state. While there are no laws on the books to punish you for this crime, per se, and you are guaranteed equality in the documents created of Israel's creation, the seeds ethnic nationalism which was were planted in Palestinian fields almost 60 years ago have grown, and will continue to grow and grow until there is no more room for you and your children. Be thankful, having guns pointed at your children during an illegal raid are not the thorns on this growth but the brushing of its tenderest still-folded leaves.

"We have to use the pretext of security needs and the authority of the military governor as there is no way of driving out the Arabs from their land as long as they refuse to go and accept our compensation." -Moshe Dyan

PB

[ThomCat]

1. Protection on paper means little if it isn't enforced.

And when it's the enforcers who are violating those protections then you're screwed.

When the police and the military side with the bigots, there are no civil rights.

[sgxnk]

8. are warrants required?

israel is not the USA

i have no idea what israeli law says about searches of homes by military w.o warrants, nor do i know about relevant exigency/warzone etc. exceptions that may or may not exist

does anybody actually know if this IS a violation of the (israeli) law, or are these merely assumptions?

[leveymg]

2. Is Olmert learning from Bush's "democracy", or are we learning from his?

Convergence theory at work.

[Poll_Blind]

3. Inequality between Jews and Arabs in Israel despite promises of...

...equality under law predate Bush considerably but Bush's choice not to reign in Sharon or Olmert has allowed both to do nearly whatever they wish. And Sharon and Olmert's wishes have very little Arab interests, even when they are Israeli citizens, at heart.

PB

[sabbat hunter]

6. jews and arabs

who are citizens of israel are equal under the law. if there was supposed to be a warrant in this case, then the officers need to be held accountable.

[Poll_Blind]

7. Equal under law, correct. In the same way that negroes and women...

...were equal under law prior to the sufferage or civil-rights movements. There is often a difference between what rights are enshrined in law and what rights are actually available, or in this case unavailable or abrogated, in reality.

PB

[breakaleg]

4. Wow. And Israel consideres itself a democracy.

[sabbat hunter]

5. it is a democracy

if there was supposed to be a warrant, then the officers need to be held accountable for their actions.