Police fail to bring indictments in settler attacks on Palestinians

Haaretz Last update - 06:28 09/07/2008
By Jonathan Lis

Only 10 percent of the instances in which Palestinians accused settlers of attacking them ended up in indictments being filed against the suspects, according to data presented today by the human rights group Yesh Din. The group examined 205 different cases of alleged assault by settlers that were reported over the years. The data on the 205 cases also shows that 163 of the cases have been closed by police and prosecution officials. Only in 13 cases, 8 percent, were indictments filed, while 149 cases were closed without charges being brought against the suspects. The group argues that police in the West Bank have failed in completing investigations on suspected attacks against Palestinians there.

'Weak arm of the law' "The weak arm [of the law] avoids enforcing laws on Israelis living in the West Bank, causes the state of Israel to violate its ethical and international obligations vis a vis the population under our control," said Michael Sfard, the legal counsel for Yesh Din. The group says that of the 149 police investigations that were closed, in 91 cases this was done because the "violator's identity was not known." Forty-three other cases were closed for lack of evidence, and the rest because there was no criminal violation, no public interest or for no obvious reason. In response the police in the West Bank said Tuesday that during 2007 "a total of 550 cases were opened in cases of disturbing the peace, involving Israelis against Palestinians, left wing activists or the security forces. Of these only 195 cases were violations against Palestinians." The police also pointed out that "of the 69 indictments of disturbing the peace, 30 of the cases involved a Palestinian plaintiff."

Rightist MK tries Knesset caucus effort to thwart Israeli Arabs

Haaretz Last update - 02:33 09/07/2008
By Shahar Ilan, Haaretz Correspondent

While the official name of the parliamentary alignment created Tuesday is the Legislative Caucus to Preserve the Jewish Identity of the State of Israel, it could more correctly termed the demographic caucus, or perhaps the caucus for the prevention of the proliferation of Arabs. The pressure group was founded by MK Eliyahu Gabbay (National Union-National Religious Party), who until now was best known for opposing Gay Pride parades in Jerusalem. By definition a legislative caucus concentrates the activity of more than a few MKs from more than a few parties, but Tuesday's event was a one-man show on the part of a man who is considered an outsider by his own party. While a few party colleagues did turn up, none stayed more than a few minutes.

Party colleague Aryeh Eldad took advantage of the opportunity to issue an announcement that - "the Israeli left, out of naivete, disingenuousness or stupidity, does not understand that it is indirectly aiding the enemy at home and abroad to destroy Israel. Israeli Arabs are the enemy of the Jewish state and should be treated as such," Eldad said.

Gabbay's action was motivated by the two recent terror attacks carried out by residents of East Jerusalem, who carry Israeli identity cards. "There are elements in the Arab population who are methodically working to infiltrate people into every community, to bring Arab families into kibbutzim, moshavim and communal villages, wherever they possibly can," Gabbay said. "The problem of the deprivation of Israeli Arabs simply doesn't exist, because it is the Jews and not the Arabs who are deprived," Gabbay said, noting that Arabs receive state social benefits and claiming they can build homes illegally while Jews are prosecuted for even adding a balcony without a building permit. Gabbay said that terrorists act out of nationalist motives only and are not driven to their actions by poverty and social distress. "One example is California, which once belonged to Mexico. There are poor and rich people there but still there's no Mexican terror in California," Gabbay said.

In the absence of MKs, representatives of various organizations presented their perspectives on the Arab problem. Erez Tadmor, of If You Will It, thinks the main problem is "the High Court of Justice, which is controlled by the left." He said that because the latter "views all attempts to preserve [Israel's] Jewish identity as racist," it is necessary to pass as many laws as possible restricting Israel's Arabs and containing stipulations obviating High Court intervention in these laws. Arieh Stav, director of the Ariel Center for Policy Research, focused mainly on Arab MKs. "It is inconceivable for an unmistakable fifth column to run its parties in the parliament. We have parties that openly cooperate with the enemy," Stav said. He said that the main problem is not the Arabs but rather a mental problem - "the Jewish pathology."

Report: 90% probes into attacks against Palestinians close with no indictment

Report: 90% probes into attacks against Palestinians close with no indictment
Human rights organization Yesh Din releases data showing only small number of police investigations into offenses committed by settlers against Palestinians in West Bank end with indictments filed against defendants. Police say data inaccurate, a respectable number of files reach court

Ynet Published: 07.09.08, 08:02

Nine out of 10 investigations into attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank end without no indictment served, according to data released Wednesday by the human rights organization Yesh Din which monitors the handling of investigations into offenses committed against Palestinians.
The report includes 205 inquiry files opened in recent years, out of which police processing and prosecutorial review have concluded in only 163 files. Out of those 163, only in 13 (8%) of the cases were indictments filed against defendants.

According to the organization, one case file was lost and never investigated, and 149 (91%) investigation files were closed without filing any indictments against suspects.
Yesh Din followed the processing by investigation and prosecution bodies of three main
categories of complaints: Offenses of various kinds of assaults, trespassing on Palestinian
land and offenses of causing damage to Palestinian property.
Out of 81 investigation files concerned with assault offenses, the processing of 62 has been completed. In 53 of the cases the investigation was closed.
Seventy-nine of the cases monitored by Yesh Din are concerned with the offense of criminal trespass and accompanying offenses: Cutting down, uprooting and setting fire to
olive and other fruit trees, seizing land, damaging crops, stealing olive sacks during the
harvest season and others. The police recommended filing indictments in only five of these cases.

In 22 investigation files concerned with damage to Palestinian property – theft, arson, vandalizing agricultural equipment and damage to other property – not one indictment was filed.
Following the findings, the organization asked for the police's explanation on the small number of cases ending with indictments. According to the police, 91 investigation files were closed on grounds of "perpetrator unknown" and 43 cases were closed on grounds of "lack of evidence".
In addition, one case was closed on grounds of "lack of public interest" and nine cases were closed based on "no criminal culpability."

'Settlers violent against Israelis, soldiers as well'
Lior Yavne, who oversees Yesh Din's research, data collection and public information, said that the police and State Prosecutor's Office must conduct a thorough self-examination due to the severe findings.
"In the end of 2006 we revealed the many failures and shortcomings leading to failure in 90% of the police investigations into Israeli civilians' offenses against Palestinians. The fact that the failure rate remains as it was, obligates the police and the State Prosecutor's Office to take real measures in order to fix the failures we revealed in the investigation files," he said.
According to the organization, the settlers' violence will eventually be directed also at security forces personnel serving in the area.
"The weak hand refraining from enforcing the law against Israelis living in the West Bank causes the State of Israel to violate its moral and international duties towards the people we control. And as has been proven in the past, wrongdoing against Palestinians which is not enforced by the law will also be directed against security forces and Israeli civilians who are not part of the settlers' group," said Attorney Michael Sfarad, Yesh Din's legal advisor.

The Judea and Samaria District Police said in response to the report that a total of 550 investigation files into riots of Israelis against Palestinians, security forces and left-wing activists were opened in 2007. Out of all the files, only 195 dealt with attacks against Palestinians.
Out of the 323 files handed over to the State Prosecutor's Office, the police said, indictments were served in 69 cases of riots, and some 30 were opened following a complaint filed by a Palestinian against an Israeli. Out of all the investigation files handled last year, the prosecution obtained conviction in 83 files, some of which began before 2007.

Mazuz moves to limit racial profiling at Ben-Gurion Airport

Haaretz 05:22 06/04/2008

By Zohar Blumenkrantz

Attorney General Menachem Mazuz recently instructed the Israel Airports Authority "to implement visible equality" between Arabs and Jews in security checks at Ben-Gurion Airport. In a petition to the High Court of Justice, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and the Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel had alleged discriminatory treatment of Israeli Arabs in airport security checks. The Shin Bet security service and the IAA thus reached an agreement on the state's response to the petition, in accordance with guidelines issued by Mazuz. Mazuz's guidelines specify equal treatment in the examination of passengers' checked and carry-on baggage as well as the markings made on the baggage. For checked baggage, the current policy will remain in effect: The bags are machine-screened in front of the passenger. If the machine issues a security flag, the bags are opened and examined further, also in front of the passenger.

With regard to carry-on baggage, the current policy of directing members of various communities to different screening machines will have to be changed to conform with the new directives. The IAA has already begun implementing a uniform baggage-marking method, using white, barcoded stickers that are the same for all population groups. In the past, bags were tagged with stickers of different colors, and then with numbers, for different groups. The new policy is to remain in effect at Ben-Gurion Airport until the planned Hold Baggage Screening (HBS) system is introduced next year. This system entails the automatic screening of all checked baggage after it enters the automated baggage handling system. An IAA spokesperson said the authority could not comment on an ongoing legal matter.

Israel is 'deserting' Bedouin Arabs

The Independent By Donald Macintyre Tuesday, 1 April 2008

Tens of thousands of Bedouin Arabs are being forced by discriminatory Israeli laws to live in "unrecognised" shanty towns in constant fear of having their homes demolished and their communities torn apart, Human Rights Watch said yesterday.
The agency called for an immediate halt to the systematic demolition of thousands of Bedouin homes since the 1970s and the establishment of an independent commission to investigate "pervasive land and housing discrimination" against Bedouin citizens of Israel in the Negev desert.
The report contrasted Israel's depiction of 45,000 Bedouin homes in 39 unrecognised villages as illegal with what it said was the authorities' willingness to overlook or retrospectively legalise unlawful construction by Jewish citizens and to link them to the water and electricity networks.
Joe Stork, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said: " The [Israeli] state has forced [Bedouin] off the land they claimed as their own and into illegal shanty towns, cut off from basic necessities such as water and electricity.
"Israel is willing and able to build new Negev towns for Jewish Israelis seeking a rural way of life, but not for the people who have lived and worked this land for generations. This is grossly unfair."
Israeli policy is for Bedouin in southern Israel to relocate to seven government-planned townships or a group of newly recognised villages. But HRW says the townships are seven of the eight poorest communities in Israel and are ill-equipped to handle large scale arrivals.
It says most Bedouin are reluctant to relocate to the townships "with their deplorable infrastructure, high crime rates, scarce job opportunities, and insufficient land for traditional livelihoods such as herding and grazing." And it adds: "The state requires Bedouin who move to the townships to renounce their ancestral land claims."
Pointing out that the Bedouin community makes up 25 per cent of the population of northern Negev, but controls less than 2 per cent of the land there, the report says the authorities have allocated large tracts of land and funds for Jewish-owned family ranches or farms.
A government-appointed commission led by Justice Eliezer Goldberg is examining land ownership disputes between the Bedouin and the state, which controls 93 per cent of land in Israel through the Israel Lands Authority. The report points out almost half of the ILA's board are members of the Jewish Agency which has an explicit mandate to develop land for Jewish use only.
The report says the Goldberg commission includes no representative from the unrecognised communities and urges it to prohibit discrimination. But it says that an independent inquiry is needed because the state is itself responsible for the "denial of basic rights."

Rabbi Lior speaks out against hiring of Arabs

Kiryat Arba rabbi rules Jews must not employ or rent houses to Arabs, following murderous terror attack at Mercaz Harav yeshiva
Efrat Weiss
Ynetnews.com 20.3.2008

"It is strictly prohibited to hire Arabs, or to rent houses on Israeli land to them," head of the Yesha Rabbis Council and chief rabbi of Kiryat Arba and Hebron, Rabbi Dov Lior ruled this week.

"Their employment is out of the question, not only in the yeshivas but also in hotels or factories; basically anywhere," he added.

Lior's statement comes a week after senior Lithuanian Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky ruled that Arabs were not to be hired at all, and especially in yeshivas.

In an interview for the pamphlet 'Our Land of Israel', of which about 100,000 copies are expected to be handed out this weekend in synagogues throughout Israel, Lior remarked that he expects the "difficult situation in the country" to deteriorate further in the near future.

He accused the Palestinian leaders of destroying houses and burning settlements without remorse, while Israeli leaders deny their citizens the right of building in Jerusalem and discuss giving Israeli territory away to the enemy.

The pamphlet is published by the World Headquarters to Save the People and Land of Israel.

Ahead of the Purim holiday, and following the attack on Mercaz Harav yeshiva in Jerusalem, in which eight students were killed, Lior said: "It was said to Mordecai not to kneel or prostrate himself, in the future tense. We should continue along Mordecai's path, and never surrender to murderous terrorism. Only if we stand strong can we defeat and cancel Haman's edict in future generations."

Lior calls for refusal in army
Lior related to the yeshiva heads' refusal to welcome Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's condolence visit. Lior supported their actions, and stated that Olmert is working against the Torah and leading his nation to great danger.

"How can one respect such a man?" he asked. "Until now he has never expressed regret for his anti-Israeli actions, and still they plan their (peace) conference, as they call it. Meanwhile he has been stopped from actively carrying out his destructive scheme, but they are still aiming for it. For this reason the yeshiva heads were correct in rejecting his visit."

He also commented on the halachic ruling that endorses military action against rocket launching sites, even when it endangers civilians. "There is no term in the Halacha that states one must consider innocents during war. Of course we must stop terrorists from shooting, even if the only way to do so includes harming civilians."
Once again, Lior called on IDF soldiers to refuse any orders to evacuate settlements. "We must inform IDF commanders that we will refuse to carry out orders that are illegal according to the laws of the Torah, and which involve evacuating settlements and giving away our forefathers' lands to our enemies."

High Court closes off use of major highway to Palestinians

Haaretz Last update - 10:53 19/03/2008
By Akiva Eldar, Haaretz Correspondent

h submitted the petition on behalf of Palestinians who have been injured by the travel ban, noted that had the justices sincerely sought to consider opening the road to all, without regard to race or nationality, they would not have requested details on the building of an alternate route, which entails the destruction of additional land and costs tens of millions of shekels.

The decision was issued after both parties argued their positions. According to ACRI, the ruling marks a High Court precedent in upholding a policy of separation and discrimination with regard to movement that has already earned the name "road apartheid." It violates international law, ACRI holds, permitting the expropriation of land from the local population for the protection of the occupying power.

About 10 kilometers of Route 443 was paved on private Palestinian land in the early 1980s, on the grounds it was needed for the West Bank Palestinian population (and not for "security purposes"). A large part of the expropriated land had been earmarked for a housing development for local teachers.

In response to a petition from a Palestinian whose land was expropriated for the road, the High Court ruled that the military government cannot plan and build a road system in an area held by its soldiers if the purpose is solely for the creation of a "service road" for the state. As a result, the state promised that the road was to be open to all. Shortly after the start of the second intifada, after attacks on Israeli vehicles, the army closed the road to Palestinians.

MK Ephraim Sneh, deputy defense minister at the time, admitted in an interview that the closure was not approved by the political leadership. The closure cut off the villages on either side of the road from their main city, Ramallah, and the rest of the West Bank. In court, the Civil Administration offered to issue travel permits for 80 vehicles, for a population of about 30,000 villagers. The villagers refused to cooperate with Israeli authorities and continued their legal battle for right to use the road on their lands.

ACRI claimed in court that the Israel Defense Forces had recently begun frequent raids on the six villages that included the use of illumination bombs, pressure grenades, rubber-tipped bullets and live rounds. The IDF Spokesman's Office said at the time that these were routine operations in response to the throwing or rocks on vehicles traveling on Route 443. ACRI officials say they fear the High Court stamp of approval for the illegal and immoral policy regarding Route 443 could be cited as a precedent for additional human rights violations. The petitioners protest what they call a lack of judicial process, noting that even though the decision was on an important principle, it was issued without any accompany explanation and with absolutely no reference to the points raised by the petitioners. In addition, they note, the alternative road will not provide for the needs of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in areas bordering Route 443.

Arabs battle for citizenship; State unyielding

Mohammed al-Deik has lived in Israel for 18 years, paid taxes, employed workers in his factory and even married two Israeli citizens and fathered an Israeli girl, but Interior Ministry still refuses to grant him citizenship
Tani Goldstein
Yeditoh Ahranoth Published: 01.28.08, 19:54
They have been living within the Green Line for years, happily married to Israeli women, raising children, and paying taxes. They are not suspected of security or criminal offences, speak fluent Hebrew, and openly declare their love and loyalty for the country. However, people like Mohammed al-Deik face one problem: They were born in the territories and have been consistently denied an Israeli ID card and citizenship.

Al-Deik, 36, is just one example of the phenomenon. He was born in the West Bank and studied architecture at Tel Aviv University. He now owns a furniture factory called Noor located in the settlement of Alei Zahav. The architect's Hebrew is so fluent it is hard for people speaking with him to tell he's not a native-born Israeli.

In 1995, al-Deik married an Israeli-Arab woman from Jaffa named Shiri who soon afterwards gave birth to a baby girl. His marriage to an Israeli citizen enabled al-Deik to be granted the status of resident in 2000 after passing the mandatory security background checks.

The two divorced in 2003 and al-Deik remarried shortly afterwards, this time with Rim Mahmid, an Israeli-Arab woman from Umm al-Fahm.

When al-Deik went to the Interior Ministry to sort out the documentation for his second marriage, he got quite a surprise: "They told me my ID card had been cancelled. I told them I was about to get married and they said that 'Right now you are not married so we can't allow you to keep your status as a resident.'"

After the wedding, al-Deik returned to the ministry and informed officials that he was now married, but they responded that as he was not a citizen of the state it was impossible to even record the union. Since then, he has lived in Israel as an illegal resident.
Mohammed al-Deik (Photo: Tani Goldstein)

Al-Deik has issued a petition to the HIgh Court with the help of Attorney Arif Fairj to be granted Israeli citizenship.

"I feel totally Israeli. I love the state and I am loyal to it. I have a lot of friends here and there is no other place for me to be. There is nothing for me to do in the Palestinian Authority. I don't even have a Palestinian ID card," al-Deik says.

Five years after his second marriage, al-Deik still lives in Umm al-Fahm, pays a mortgage on a house he bought in Jaffa, makes child support payments for his daughter from his previous marriage and is in close contact with her.

However, the Interior Ministry still refuses to grant him a residency permit - much less citizenship.

"I will stay here if they want me to or not, but they're just making my life bitter," he says. "I don't have a passport and I can't travel abroad. My daughter needs my signature to receive a passport and I can't even sign.

"I went through a nasty bureaucratic process to get an ID card and now they want me to go through everything again?

"I'm a good citizen that pays high taxes and employs workers. This country doesn't differentiate between good (people) and bad (people). They're trying to make me seem like a criminal but I'm not willing (to accept it): I'm a law abiding citizen."

The Interior Ministry responded by saying that "in contrast to al-Deik's claims, he does have an active Palestinian ID card in the Palestinian Authority. His status as a temporary resident was revoked in 2003 when he was divorced from his wife.

"Since then, for the past five years, he has been residing in Israel without proper authorization. We were not updated regarding any new marriage and he is currently listed as divorced. His status was made clear to him in 2006, but surprisingly, al-Deik did nothing to change the record."

Civil rights group: Israel has reached new heights of racism

Haaretz 21:35 16/12/2007

By Yuval Yoaz and Jack Khoury, Haaretz Correspondents

Racism against Israel's Arab citizens has dramatically increased in the past year, including a 26 percent rise in anti-Arab incidents, according to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel's annual report. Author Sami Michael, the association's president, said upon the release of the report that racism was so rife it was damaging civil liberty in Israel. "Israeli society is reaching new heights of racism that damages freedom of expression and privacy," Michael said.

The publication coincides with Human Rights Week, which begins Sunday. "We are a society under supervision under a democratic regime whose institutions are being undermined and which confers a different status to residents in the center of the country and in the periphery," Michael said. The number of Jews expressing feelings of hatred toward Arabs has doubled, the report stated. According to the June 2007 Democracy Index of the Israel Democracy Institute, for example, only half the public believes that Jews and Arabs must have full equal rights. Among Jewish respondents, 55 percent support the idea that the state should encourage Arab emigration from Israel and 78 percent oppose the inclusion of Arab political parties in the government. According to a Haifa University study, 74 percent of Jewish youths in Israel think that Arabs are "unclean." The ACRI says that bills introduced in the Knesset contribute to delegitimize the country's Arab citizens, such as ones that would link the right to vote and receive state allowances to military or national service. They also include bills that require ministers and MKs to swear allegiance to a Jewish state and those that set aside 13 percent of all state lands owned by the Jewish National Fund for Jews only. "Arab citizens are frequently subject to ridicule at the airports," the report states. It says that Arab citizens "are subject to 'racial profiling' that classifies them as a security threat.

The government also threatens the freedom of expression of Arab journalists by brandishing the whip of economic boycott and ending the publication of government announcements in newspapers that criticize its policy." Hadash Chairman MK Mohammad Barakeh said that the report "did not take us by surprise and neither should anyone be surprised by it. Its results are the natural consequence of a racist campaign led by political and military leaders, as well as the result of the anti-Arab racist policies implemented by consecutive governments."

Protesters block Highway 443 to protest ban on Palestinian traffic

Haaretz Last update - 15:58 25/10/2007
By Haaretz Service

Israeli and Palestinian demonstrators blocked Highway 443 early Thursday morning to protest the ban on Palestinian vehicles from the road, which is a major artery connecting Jerusalem to Lod, Army Radio reported. The protesters, a coalition of Jewish and Arab members of leftist organizations, carried signs which read, among other slogans, "Caution Apartheid Road" and "Paved Road on Pilfered Land," Army Radio said. "Highway 443 is an example of what is taking place in the territories," one of the demonstrators told Army Radio. "[The authorities] are expropriating land from the Palestinians in order to build a highway which is then declared off limits to Palestinian traffic."

"There is a policy here of apartheid," Hadar Grievsky, another protester, told Army Radio. "Highways are built on roads that were seized from Palestinians and is only permitted to Jewish drivers." Organizers of the protest said that 70 demonstrators participated, most of them Palestinian residents of nearby towns. Israel Defense Forces soldiers and police arrived at the scene to disperse the crowd approximately 10 minutes after the road was blocked. Seven people were taken into custody for questioning, according to Army Radio. The commander of the Binyamin police station, Chief Superintendent Benny Har-Nes, told Army Radio that law enforcement received information on the demonstrators' plans to block the highway, enabling authorities to deploy the necessary amount of force. "We knew of the plan to [block the road] and we prepared accordingly," Har-Nes said. "We arrived at the scene within five minutes from the start of the event, and after trying to persuade them to evacuate willingly, we declared the matter an unlawful gathering and we cleared them out.

UN agent: Apartheid regime in territories worse than S. Africa

Haaretz 02:21 24/08/2004
By Aluf Benn

South African law professor Prof. John Dugard, the special rapporteur for the United Nations on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, has written in a report to the UN General Assembly that there is "an apartheid regime" in the territories "worse than the one that existed in South Africa."

As an example, Dugard points to the roads only open to settlers, from which Palestinians are banned. In his report presented early this month, Dugard is highly critical of Israel for its "continuing violations of human rights in the territories." He said Israel is blatantly violating the International Court of Justice's ruling on the separation fence, and has declared it will not obey it. The report was disseminated among the member countries ahead of the September General Assembly session meant to discuss the fence. Dugard, a law professor from South Africa, was a member of a Truth Commission at the end of the apartheid regime, and was appointed by the UN in 2001 as special rapporteur for human rights in the West Bank and Gaza. He called for a general arms embargo against Israel in May, in response to the IDF operations in Rafah, similar to the arms embargo imposed on South Africa in 1977. According to government sources in Jerusalem, Israel is currently leaning toward cooperating with the various rapporteurs of the UN, and responding to their questions and requests.

But there are two exceptions to that rule: Dugard, and the special rapporteur for food, Jean Zigler. Israel refuses to cooperate with them because of the language of their mandates, and what it regards as their unfair approach. According to the sources, Dugard's assignment was phrased in a way that discriminates against Israel. But the government does not prevent Dugard from traveling in the territories and Israel, to meet people and to report as he wishes