What Does Jailing a Palestinian Politician Say About Israeli Democracy?

Khalida Jarrar was sentenced to 15 months in prison this week for membership in an illegal organization and incitement, but was her trial in a military court just?

Khalida Jarrar is a political prisoner. The Ofer Military Court, which on Monday sentenced the Palestinian parliamentarian to 15 months in prison for membership in an illegal organization and incitement, is a political court that punished her for her political activity, and for that alone. Thus Israel, which pretends to be a democracy, has political prisoners, political arrests and political prison sentences, at least in the occupied territories.

Jarrar’s trial once again proved the intolerable contradiction between the rule of law and the principles of justice, on one hand, and the military justice system on the other. The latter has no relationship to the former.
Jarrar was arrested at her home in Al-Bireh in April. The defense establishment claimed at the time that the reason for the arrest was her violation of a military order that allowed her to live only in the Jericho area, far from her home. No other crime was mentioned. Later, she was indicted on 12 different counts, some of them ridiculous and even outrageous, like attending a book fair and paying condolence visits. In the end, she was convicted on two counts in a plea bargain.

One military court judge ordered her freed long ago; another ordered her kept in prison until the end of her trial; and the military prosecutor threatened her – and essentially the court as well – by saying that if she were released, she’d be thrown in jail without trial, in other words placed in administrative detention. This is not how the legal system of a properly run state conducts itself.

Even the fact that Jarrar is a legislator, a member of parliament, an elected representative of her people – a post that ought to grant her immunity from political charges – didn’t give her a moment’s protection. Israel treated her brutally, just as it treats every Palestinian it deems suspect.

First it tried to keep her away from her hometown with a draconian military order. Then it tried to put her in administration detention, which is no less arbitrary. Finally, and only after public and international pressure for her release had intensified, members of the military justice system were forced to fabricate an indictment against her – most of which, as noted, collapsed. Essentially, this was a Band-Aid, based at least in part on dubious evidence, including vague hearsay evidence and testimony obtained under pressure.

The fact that Jarrar was thrown into prison because of her political activity on behalf of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is first and foremost an indictment of the State of Israel, which puts politicians on trial because of their legitimate opposition to the occupation and even sentences them to jail. Jarrar and her attorneys decided to accept the plea bargain in order to shorten her trial, and thereby the length of her detention until the end of proceedings. But the black flag that flies over the shameful imprisonment of a Palestinian member of parliament will continue to fly over the State of Israel, tarnishing her jailers and, above all, those who are responsible for them.

read more: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.690813?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Every word of it the truth.

A military court in the West Bank on Sunday sentenced Palestinian lawmaker Khalida Jarrar to 15 months in jail for “inciting terrorism” by calling for the abduction of IDF soldiers, and for violating an Israeli travel ban.

Jarrar, a senior member of the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and a well-known political figure, accepted a plea deal and confessed to the 12 charges leveled against her. Those included violating an IDF travel ban, membership in an illegal organization — Israel considers the PFLP a terror group — participation in illegal protests, and incitement to kidnap Israeli soldiers.


http://www.timesofisrael.com/palestinian-lawmaker-given-15-months-for-inciting-terror/



The PFLP is one of the original members of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Throughout most of its existence, the PFLP combined Marxist ideology with Palestinian nationalism, and was among the ?rst of the Palestinian organizations to use terrorism as a means to win attention to its cause.

In order to achieve its goal of destroying the state of Israel, the PFLP has stated that it will conduct an all-out, world-wide struggle against Israel and her supporters. Limited by its small size and lack of money and arms, the PFLP has relied on spectacular international actions, such as plane hijackings, to gain its increased attention and support; it was the group responsible for most of the international terrorist operations attributed to Palestinians.

Since its inception, the PFLP carried out a long list of terrorist attacks in the international arena, particularly hijackings against aviation targets. In the PFLP's early years, hundreds of terrorist attacks were carried out. In its operations, the PFLP was the first to hijack international airplanes.


Armed attacks after 2000
See also: List of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine suicide attacks

The PFLP's Abu Ali Mustapha Brigades has carried out attacks on both civilians and military targets during the Al-Aqsa Intifada. Some of these attacks are:

   The killing of Meir Lixenberg, councillor and head of security in four settlements,[38] who was shot while travelling in his car in the West Bank on 27 August 2001. PFLP claimed that this was a retaliation for the killing of Abu Ali Mustafa.[39]
   21 October 2001 assassination of Israeli Minister for Tourism Rehavam Zeevi by Hamdi Quran.
   A suicide bombing in a pizzeria in Karnei Shomron, on the West Bank on 16 February 2002, killing three Israeli teenagers.[39]
   A suicide bombing in Ariel on 7 March 2002, which left wounded but no fatalities.
   A suicide bombing in a Netanya market in Israel, on 19 May 2002, killing three Israelis. This attack was also claimed by Hamas,[39] but the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades have identified the perpetrator on their website as one of their members.
   A suicide bombing in the bus station at Geha Junction in Petah Tikva on 25 December 2003 which killed 4 Israelis.[
   A suicide bombing in the Jordan Rift Valley on 22 May 2004, which left no fatalities.
   A suicide bombing in the Carmel Market in Tel Aviv on 1 November 2004, which killed 3 Israeli civilians.
   14 April 2009, PFLP militants fire a homemade projectile at the Kerem Shalom border crossing, HaDarom.
   23 October 2012, A PFLP roadside bomb detonated targeting an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) patrol near Kibbutz Kissufim, Southern, Israel. An IDF commander was seriously injured in the blast
   10 November 2012, PFLP militants fired an anti-tank missile towards Karni Crossing near the Gaza Strip, near Nahal Oz. The explosive device struck an Israeli Givati Brigade jeep, injuring four soldiers and destroying the vehicle.
   18 November 2014, the PFLP took responsibility for the 2014 Jerusalem synagogue massacre in which four Jewish worshipers and a Druze policeman were killed with axes, knives, and a gun, while seven were injured. the attacks were done by relatives of a PFLP member and the PFLP accepted it as its operation.
   29 June 2015, the PFLP claimed responsibility for an attack in which Palestinians passed by an Israeli car with a vehicle and shot it. 4 people were injured, one was severely injured and died the next day in hospital


http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/pflp.htm

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) (Arabic: الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين, al-Jabhah al-Sha`biyyah li-Taḥrīr Filasṭīn) is a secular Palestinian Marxist-Leninist and revolutionary socialist organization founded in 1967 by George Habash. It has consistently been the second-largest of the groups forming the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the largest being Fatah. PFLP is described as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada, and the European Union

The PFLP has generally taken a hard line on Palestinian national aspirations, opposing the more moderate stance of Fatah. It opposes negotiations with the Israeli government, and favours a one-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The military wing of the PFLP is called the Abu Ali Mustapha Brigades. The PFLP is well known for pioneering armed aircraft hijackings in the late '60s and early '70s.[11] According to Politburo member and former aircraft hijacker Leila Khaled, the PFLP does not see suicide bombing as a form of resistance to occupation or a strategic action or policy and no longer carries out such attacks.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_Front_for_the_Liberation_of_Palestine






So what more evidence does posters need to see how much Sassy supports extremists and terrorists from a group that does not recognise Israel, supports suicide bombings, calls for a one state solution, which is fundementally anti-semitic etc, where she has invited and called for violence against Israeli's. What more proof do people need of her antisemitism and I thought racism was deemed unacceptable on this forum?

Perhaps you would like to get your facts right.  She plea bargained to two counts, she was not found guilty of 12.  Go and look up the trial.  The fact that your article lied about that says it all really.



Letter from Khalida Jarrar
In recent years, I have continuously spoken about the cause of the Palestinian prisoners, their numbers, their conditions of detention, statistics, figures and percentages. I talked about the million Palestinians that since 1967 had passed through Israeli prisons. This figure means that one in four Palestinians was arrested at least once in their lifetime. I have spoken to hundreds of arrested women, among them, 24 are still imprisoned; I spoke of the thousands of children arrested in violation of all laws and international conventions. To date, among the 6,000 Palestinian prisoners, 240 are children. In the prisons are also detained prisoners with serious and incurable diseases, some of whom are elderly, practically condemned to death. Another 500 prisoners are serving periods of administrative detention, without any legal justification or accusation against them, a practice dating back to the period of the British mandate in Palestine 70 years ago, the same time period as that of the Nazi occupation in Europe, a period which unfortunately reminds us of our present time because of all that I have just finished describing.

For more than 9 years, as an elected member by the Palestinian people in their struggle for liberation, in the Palestinian Legislative Council I have served as President of the Commission, in charge of the issue of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Previously, for 13 years, I was the general director of the association for prisoner support and human rights Addameer, one of the most important associations, whose mission is the defence of prisoners. This means that I have devoted the last 20 years of my life in support of the Palestinian prisoners in the jails of the occupation, for the freedom which is denied to prisoners by this colonial occupation.

During all these years, and especially after my election, which allowed me to be a representative of the people, I have defended with all my strength the prisoners, their rights, the fight against the conditions of their arrest, against the methods used during interrogation and in order to extract confessions and all the false accusations. I defended their right to have access to medical care, the right to life and freedom, because they would be only guilty of defending the freedom of their oppressed people, an action recognized by all international laws and by the United Nations, whose laws and conventions apply to all of us.

I have always referred to people from all over the world asking the representatives of the people’s deputies, representatives of governments and to the presidents, to stand alongside the Palestinian prisoners, to take the side of those who are on a quest for justice, freedom, values ​​and human rights. I always demanded for the condemnation of the occupation, its sanction and its end. I still believe that this is a duty for all of us, as much as for you, as it is for us Palestinians.

Today I confirm to you I have not changed: my stance, my beliefs and my will remain intact, although my position is different now: I look at the issue from another perspective and from that perspective I see things more clearly. Today, I’m part of the 24 female prisoners that I mentioned earlier, the 6000 prisoners, one of the many prisoners who suffers violence in prisons and who bears the weight of injustice every day, every hour, every moment.

Today, after being arrested in my house, in front of my family and of my husband, I took something from my people, by depriving them of my duty to serve them, those who elected me. Today, I’m well aware of the way the occupation soldiers arrive, armed with all their “tenacity” and “monstrosity”, as they came to my house in the middle of the night, handcuffed and blindfolded me and took me to a place that I didn’t know.
Today, I was informed that my detention had been confirmed, the detention under a decree which is older than me, a decree that doesn’t belong to the humanity of our time. Today, the government of the occupation began to shake, after suffering under your pressure and that of the free of the world who condemn this senseless arrest I was victim of. This, however, did not prevent the occupier to enforce its most racist laws, so I was sent to a court that we all know is completely illegitimate, before a court of which we all recognize the incompetence, since a perpetrator can never be the judge of his victim.

Although we know we will be able to find flaws in their obsolete laws, the last word is to the representatives of the entity of the occupier, the prosecutor, because there is no authority higher than that of the colonization with its unjust laws.

Never mind; this is the price we pay for our freedom, for our dignity and that of the World. We arm ourselves with your support and, when we hear your voice of solidarity with our resistance, we grow in strength and steadfastness.

Today, I write to you as a prisoner whose fate cannot be known, how long will I be in this dirty prison that is not suitable for humans. I do not know if I’ll find a doctor worthy of his title once sick, I do not know if the food they give me is poisoned or if the water is polluted, I do not know when my jailer will come to my cell to keep me awake and violate my intimacy. I do not know when I will be able to take my little girls, Yafa and Suha, in my arms, I do not know when I will kiss my husband again nor when I will be hugged by my mother and when I will be able to kiss my father’s face. All I know is that, in order to obtain all this, I need you, every free voice in the world to repeat with me and with my people: “Down with the occupation! And may the Palestinian people obtain their freedom!”

2nd June 2015 (Translated by E.D.P.)



Forced into a plea bargain after being threatened with unending administrative detention, something never faced by Israelis, no matter how heinous their crimes.   The killers who burnt to death a famility still are not facing justice because of 'secuirity', ie they are settlers, absolved of any crimes, free to kill and maim and burn babies at will.   The group who forced a Palestinian boy to drink petrol, then poured it over him and set him alight, so that the petrol in his belly exploded, all pleaded guilty and enacted the crime, the eldest has been acquited 'because of his mental state' and the two youngest have yet to be sentenced, but I doubt it will be for very long.

How in anyway does that detract from the fact she confessed to inciting violence against Israeli's?
That is antisemitism and also extremism at every level and not only that the group is completely against the existance of Israel of which you support again an extremist of a group that has committed terrorist acts against Israel.
Again daily you continue to show the pure evil that you are and the utter hatred and racist vile views you have which are no better than the Nazis.

She confessed to 12 crimes and you now excuse a criminal.

She did not confess to 12 crimes, get your facts straight.  She plea bargained to two, because if she had not have done that she would have been put in unending administrative detention, probably kept for the rest of her life.  Just like prisoners in America plea bargain when they know they are innocent because they know they don't stand much chance of justice, in her case, no chance and no chance of appealing against something that no Israeli has to face.

Er she did, you provide no link to no doubt some terrorist supporting bullshit.
The media shows she confessed to 12 crimes.
Prove otherwise not your utterly Jew hatred links.
She incited violence against people and is from an organisation that denies the existance of Israel.
This proves beyond doubt your support of antisemitism.

Many have seen this already but the claim to your support to stop the war coalition is clearly a sham, and its really to aid islamist groups. As why else would you support terrorist organisations that are no netter in their hate of Jews?

Jailed Palestinian MP's Trial Demonstrates How Much the Game Is Fixed

Khalida Jarrar ultimately had no choice but to agree to a plea bargain.

When she was detained, Khalida Jarrar could have declared that she does not recognize the military court of the occupying country, and enabled the military prosecution and judges to convict her and send her to prison as they wished. Jarrar, like the huge majority of Palestinians since 1967, chose the second option: to participate in the fixed game. It’s a fixed game (in a military or a civil criminal court) because the representatives of the state, which forces its foreign rule on a civilian population, have decided by means of orders and laws that resisting them and their forced rule for almost 50 years is a crime.

When Jarrar decided to play the game she had the two options open to thousands of Palestinians every year. One – to instruct the defense attorneys to accelerate the process and reach a plea bargain; the second – to make things hard for the system by means of a precise questioning of prosecution and defense witnesses. In other words, to grant the military court a façade of professional respectability that the Palestinians, the attorneys and independent legal scholars are convinced it does not have.

Here too Jarrar chose the second option. Had she been released on bail until the conclusion of proceedings, as ruled by military Judge Maj. Haim Balilty, it is very likely that the trial would not have ended this week but would have continued for many more months. Jarrar would have arrived at the court in the morning and returned in the evening to her home 10 kilometers away in El Bireh; the state would have continued to spend a great deal of money on meetings, summoning Palestinian witnesses and sending soldiers to bring them, allocating interpreters and security guards.

The prosecution would have continued to squirm regarding the problems that were exposed during the questioning of the witnesses: for example, that they were interrogated under torture and that the signatures on the confessions taken from them at the police station (after the interrogation by the Shin Bet security service) were not theirs; or that in the photo line-up an investigating policeman presented a detainee who became a witness for the prosecution with seven pictures, from which he had to point to Jarrar’s. Six of the seven pictures were of men. We can reasonably assume that with time additional inbuilt omissions would have cropped up.

Another problem facing the prosecution was its inability to bring its witnesses – young Palestinians for the most part, who were arrested in recent years and most of whom had already been released. Because they did not come of their own volition, a military force had to be sent to arrest them. When they weren’t found at home, the force was sent to search for them. Of those 14 witnesses only four were heard. In light of details that were revealed in their testimony, the defense requested that their interrogators be summoned as witnesses. The testimony of additional Palestinians therefore would also have involved the summoning of additional police and Shin Bet interrogators.

But Lt. Col. Ronen Atzmon of the Military Court of Appeals ordered to leave Jarrar in detention until the conclusion of proceedings. In doing so he demonstrated that he doesn’t care whether his court will be granted the cover of professional respectability; in doing so he also determined in advance that in the end Jarrar would have to agree to a plea bargain, in other words pleading guilty and a compromise, so that her period of detention would not be extended, regardless of the severity of the accusations.

The threat of the chief military advocate in the West Bank, Lt. Col. Morris Hirsch, that if she were released on bail, an administrative detention order would be served against her, also worked: Why make an effort if the result in any case is unlimited detention? A third tool that helps the system to force a plea bargain on Jarrar, or on any other Palestinian defendant, is the suffering involved in attending the military court sessions: She left prison at 3:30 A.M. and returned at 1 A.M., was dragged around in handcuffs for hours in a vehicle that transports detainees, waiting in it or in distressing waiting rooms.

Due to its failure to bring its witnesses, the prosecution needed a plea bargain as much as did Jarrar. Jarrar insisted that not she, but attorney Khaled al-A’araj would admit guilt in the two indictments that remained out of the 12 in the original writ of indictment. Hirsch wanted Jarrar herself to admit guilt, but Judge Lt. Col. Zvi Heilbron said that was not necessary. But in the end the system got what it wanted: another neutralization of a political activist from the Palestinian public arena. And Jarrar, in agreeing to the plea bargain, was unable to behave differently from hundreds of thousands of other Palestinian defendants since 1967. Her trial, which received more publicity than others, at least revealed to what extent the game is fixed.

read more: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.690765

Had no choice?
Absurd, she like everyone else has the right to a trial, so to claim she did not is again the worst apologist appeasement to extremists who support, suicide bombings, the incitment to attack Israeli's, denies the existance of the country etc.
Again how much evidence do posters need more to understand how hateful Sassy is of the Israeli's
She openly supports a convicted criminal who had a choice to a trial and who choose to do the right thing and confess to her crimes.

So the one question that Sassy has avoided, does she back this woman in her views to abduct Israeli soldiers?

She doesn't have the right to a trail, that's why is wasn't a civil trail, it was a military court.

And she doesn't agree with abducting soldiers, it was a forced plea bargain.

She does have a right like everyone else and again you excuse the fact she admits to inciting violence. Your claim to be against wars and conflicts is falling apart at the seams, as you certainly have not condened her violent and extremist views.
Everyday we unravel the scam you claim to be a proponent of peace.
As seen it is nothing more than a veil of lies

So again, do you condemn her incitement to abduct Israeli soldiers?
Do you condemn suicide bombings carried out by this organisation?
Do you condemn their recent terrorist murders?
Do you condemn their antisemitism view to deny the existance of Israel?

Now what is the betting you will do as you usally do and avoid answering like the plague?

You really don't know do you?  No Palestinian in the West Bank can have a civil trail, only a military one.

As for the rest of your ridiculous post, as I said before, READ MY SIGNATURE.

sassy wrote:You really don't know do you?  No Palestinian in the West Bank can have a civil trail, only a military one.

As for the rest of your ridiculous post, as I said before, READ MY SIGNATURE.

So again, do you condemn her incitement to abduct Israeli soldiers?
Do you condemn suicide bombings carried out by this organisation?
Do you condemn their recent terrorist murders?
Do you condemn their antisemitism view to deny the existance of Israel?

One Rule, Two Legal Systems: Israel’s Regime of Laws in the West Bank


 
 
 
 
A new report published by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) outlines the nature of the legal regime currently operating in the West Bank. Two systems of law are applied in a single territory: one – a civilian legal system for Israeli citizens, and a second – a military court system for Palestinian residents. The result: institutionalized discrimination.
 
“Two residents of the Hebron area have an altercation within the territory of the West Bank and both are arrested. One of them, a Jewish resident of Kiryat Arba, is taken to a nearby police station, is immediately interrogated by a police officer and is brought within 24 hours to a hearing before the Jerusalem Magistrates Court. In this hearing, the judge decides to order his release on condition of bail; this is not a very severe case, and the defendant pleads self- defense.
The second person, a Palestinian resident of Hebron, is arrested for 96 hours before being brought before a military judge. He is de facto interrogated only once during this period of time, under suspicion of committing an assault based on nationalistic motivations, which is deemed as a security offense, and he is tried before a military court, where he faces a penalty of extended incarceration.”
- A passage from within the report.
 
The ‘One Rule, Two Legal Systems‘ report reviews the prevailing legal situation in the West Bank under Israeli rule, and explains how decades of “temporary” military rule have given rise to two separate and unequal systems of law that discriminate between the two population groups living in the one territory – Israelis and Palestinians. The legal differentiation is not restricted to security or criminal matters, but touches upon almost every aspect of daily life.
 
A series of military decrees, legal rulings and legislative amendments have resulted in a situation whereby Israeli citizens living in the Occupied Territories remain under the jurisdiction of Israeli law and the Israeli court system, with all the benefits that this confers. The High Court of Justice has ruled that the rights enshrined in Israel’s Basic Laws (equivalent to constitutional provisions) apply equally to these citizens, despite the fact that they do not reside in sovereign Israeli territory. A substantial portion of Israeli Law is also applied within the Occupied Territories to “Jews according to the Law of Return” and yet are not Israeli citizens.
 
By contrast, Palestinians in the West Bank are subject to much stricter military legal law – military orders that have been issued by IDF Generals since 1967. This is in addition to Jordanian Laws that preceded the region’s occupation. Unlike Israeli citizens, Palestinians are tried in military tribunals for every crime from traffic violations to the theft of a carton of milk from the grocery store.
 
According to Attorney Tamar Feldman, Director of Human Rights in the Occupied Territories Department: “This report demonstrates that discrimination between Israelis and Palestinians, living under one rule and in the same territory, is not a localized phenomenon, but an issue of institutional discrimination, as it applied to areas entirely unrelated to security matters. It falls to Israeli society to recognize this reality.”
 
Attached to this report is the response of the Justice Ministry, which does not deny the factual situation outlined in the report, but justifies it according to security considerations.
 
Documents:
Complete Report – pdf version (English)
Complete Report – word version (English)
Complete Report (Hebrew)
Report Summary – 12 pages (English)
 
http://www.acri.org.il/en/2014/11/24/twosysreport/

Richard The Lionheart wrote:

sassy wrote:You really don't know do you?  No Palestinian in the West Bank can have a civil trail, only a military one.

As for the rest of your ridiculous post, as I said before, READ MY SIGNATURE.

So again, do you condemn her incitement to abduct Israeli soldiers?
Do you condemn suicide bombings carried out by this organisation?
Do you condemn their recent terrorist murders?
Do you condemn their antisemitism view to deny the existance of Israel?

Read my signature

Israeli deny the existance of Palestine, what does that make them?

sassy wrote:

Richard The Lionheart wrote:

So again, do you condemn her incitement to abduct Israeli soldiers?
Do you condemn suicide bombings carried out by this organisation?
Do you condemn their recent terrorist murders?
Do you condemn their antisemitism view to deny the existance of Israel?

Read my signature

Israeli deny the existance of Palestine, what does that make them?

Stop being pathetic, these are specific questions and all can see as per usual you refuse to condemn

So one last chance to condemn or it will further prove you are a vile anti-semite.

So again, do you condemn her incitement to abduct Israeli soldiers?
Do you condemn suicide bombings carried out by this organisation?
Do you condemn their recent terrorist murders?
Do you condemn their antisemitism view to deny the existance of Israel?

Read my signature - the bit at the bottom in case it's too difficult for you to get down that far.

So further proof sassy uses again feeble exuses not to answer specific questions.
Its too easy for me to expose you for the utter vile racist that you are.

My signature answers your questions, is that so difficult to understand.

No it does not answer specific questions.

You have been exposed again.

Again its too easy, why not phone a friend lol, for support

Or beg people on twiiter to join ha ha