Comments on: Attacks on Palestinians highlight history of lax enforcement on Jewish extremists

By: ish yehudi

ish yehudi — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 22:14:32 +0000

piotr- don’t know if it makes sense to chime in with cases that stand in sharp contradiction to your claim- but I know that in the attempted East jerusalem bombing in 2001 (?) which didn’t go off or hurt (thank G-d) anyone and they received 15 years- and 2 of the 3 are still serving. They’re appeal was summarily denied by the Supreme Court…
i thnk the police and ShabaK have a hard time catching the Jewish attackers/ arsonists etc. but there is NO love lost between them… They have no qualms about whacking settler kids about. or bursting into houses at 3 inthe morning.

By: Piotr Berman

Piotr Berman — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 18:00:02 +0000

[cont.] will not result in a heavy sentence.

By: Piotr Berman

Piotr Berman — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 17:58:24 +0000

I am not sure if examples were illustrating well the scope of the problem. When Israeli Jewish civilians kill, the law is somewhat lenient, but when they fall short of that, Israeli law can be extremely lenient. For example, in a recent case of sentences for teens killing an Arab resident of Jerusalem the accomplices got some tiny slap on the wrist. That does not happen when the ethnicity of perps and victims is reversed. Stone throwing cases show quite extreme disparity from what I could gather.

In particular, the brazen lack of remorse that I have cited (and also quoted for another suspect) has to be based on expectation that it will not result in a heavy sentence. In many countries, violent teens can be incarcerated in juvenile facilities until they are 18 or 21, and these teens definitely do not expect that.

By: Gil Franco

Gil Franco — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 15:58:12 +0000

The actual time served in these cases don’t seem outrageously short especially where the offender is a juvenile. They strike me as similar to what would happen in most continental countries. Carl is right, the comparison would be informative if we knew the sentences Palestinians who murder Jews actually serve. Another aspect worth exploring would be the connection between the prisoner exchanges and the pardons. Long sentences for Jews is hard for politicians to justify when Arabs who have committed heinous crimes are released in these deals.

By: Carl

Carl — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 15:15:23 +0000

I’m not sure the length of sentences says much in its own, it’s the comparative severity of sentences that’s the thing. It seems rare for Jewish nationalists to get multiple life sentences for violent attacks, though Palestinians (rightly) get them for acts of equivalent violence.

The use of pardons by the political branch is very illuminating as to the logic behind the sentences mind. We have some insanely undemocratic instruments in the UK but the ability for a PM or president to pardon someone is fortunately lacking. Give us time and we’ll catch up though.

By: Joel

Joel — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 11:28:26 +0000

Vice Prime Minister of Israel labels attacks on Arabs ‘terrorism’.

http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=281764V

By: Sean Mullin

Sean Mullin — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 10:24:03 +0000

Thank you Roi, While the Israeli governments condemnation is always fierce, Their lack of determination to convict under the civilian legal system Jewish West Bank citizens enjoy supports and encourages all kinds of criminality and violence. Meanwhile, under military law, Christian and Muslim West Bank Citizens who fall foul of the authorities endure a 99.7% conviction rate. That’s without proper lawyers, without proper courts, without proper evidence. Many are kids who throw stones, a pathetic act of resistance compared to the structural and actual violence visited upon their families for 3-4 generations now by Israel. The PA meanwhile is doing nothing more than acting as a security force subservient to IDF interests. The violence from both sides is heartbreaking, but Israel certainly seems to be the main aggressor: Is the best form of defense really attack? How can a country live with such howling double standards?

By: Vicky

Vicky — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 09:32:49 +0000

I was reading the Ha’aretz article about the lynching incident and I got to this paragraph about the thirteen-year-old who was arrested in connection with the incident:

“His mother, L., told Haaretz: ‘They came at noon while he was sleeping. The investigators woke him up and took him to the police car. How can they do such a thing to a young kid?’”

It’s lucky I’d swallowed my tea, otherwise it would have ended up all over the screen. The double standard and the blindness are astonishing.

By: Piotr Berman

Piotr Berman — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 09:27:05 +0000

Apparently, the teens involved in the last lynch openly bragged about it and many were caught. From JP:

…their attitude inside the courtroom was similar. The newspaper reported that a 15-year-old boy admitted beating the 17-year-old victim, Jamal Julani, claiming that it was in response to a perceived slight on his mother. “He insulted my mom,” the boy told a magistrate. “So I caught him and beat him. I hit him and I hope he gets it again. I hope he dies. You can’t go by Damascus Gate without getting stabbed. So why do they come here? I beat him and I’d beat him again.”