Adalah: We will Seek the Establishment of an Independent, Impartial Investigatory Committee with the Participation of International Experts in Response to AG Mazuz’s Decision to Close the October 2000 Killings Cases
None of the police officers or commanders involved in the fatal shootings of Palestinian citizens of Israel in October 2000 will face criminal indictment, the Attorney General of Israel, Menachem Mazuz, announced yesterday, Sunday, 27 January 2008. His announcement officially closes the case against police over the deaths and injuries of Palestinian Arab citizens who demonstrated in towns and villages across Israel in October 2000 against the government’s oppressive policies towards Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The police used snipers, live ammunition and rubber-coated steel bullets to disperse the unarmed demonstrators, which led to the thirteen deaths and to thousands of injuries.
Mazuz argued in his decision that there was a lack of sufficient evidence to issue criminal indictments against the police officers and commanders. He further found that the police who shot the victims faced direct threats to their lives. This situation, he claimed, necessitated the use of operational judgment and negates criminal responsibility. Thus, even if it could be proven that police officers fired the fatal bullets, it nevertheless could be argued that the shootings were justified.
Mazuz’s perception, as revealed in his decision, is that Arab citizens of Israel are enemies of the state, and as a result the police possess wide discretion to open fire on them. Further, according to the Mazuz, the police officers were facing a real and immediate threat to their lives. These perceptions were sharply criticized by the Official Commission of Inquiry (Or Commission) into the October 2000 events, which issued in its final report in September 2003. In the report, the Or Commission recommended that the Israeli police stop relating to the Arab citizens as enemies. In addition, the Or Commission’s clearly concluded that the use of snipers and the use of live ammunition by other police officers was illegal and that the demonstrators posed no immediate and real threat to the lives of police officers. In Adalah’s view, trust cannot be placed in the Attorney General, who continues to relate to Arab citizens as enemies.
In response to the decision, Adalah stated its intention to seek international justice in these cases. “We will not approach the Supreme Court in these cases. We have now exhausted all legal proceedings in Israel. We will seek the involvement of the United Nations and other international foraâ€, stated Attorney Hassan Jabareen, the General Director of Adalah, at a press conference held yesterday, the 27 January 2008, following the Attorney General’s decision. The press conference was held jointly by the High-Follow up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel, the Committee of the Victims’ Families and Adalah.
At the press conference, Mr. Shawqi Khatib, the Chairman of the High-Follow up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel stated, “This is a black day for justice and human rights and for the hopes of equality and respect between the peoples. Mazuz, with his deafness, has legitimized the killing and the result is that Arab blood flows freely.â€
Hassan Asleh, the father of Asel Asleh who was killed by police in October 2000 and the head of the Committee of the Victims’ Families, also spoke at the press conference. He read out the names of the thirteen Palestinian youths killed in October 2000 and those police officers and commanders responsible for each of their deaths. He promised that the family members would continue in their struggle for justice.
Mazuz’s decision endorsed the report on police conduct during the events of October 2000 released by Ministry of Justice’s Police Investigations Department (“Mahashâ€) in September 2005. In the report, Mahash announced its decision to close all the investigation files against police officers and commanders implicated in the October 2000 deaths on the pretext of lack of evidence.
Following the release of Mahash’s report, and as a result of public pressure, the Attorney General decided to conduct a review of the decision, and to this end appointed a special investigatory committee within the State Attorney’s Office to review the files. At the time and today, Adalah argues that the decision to review Mahash’s report within the State Attorney’s Office lacked all integrity because the office is headed by current State Attorney Eran Shendar. Shendar was the Director of Mahash during October 2000 and bears direct responsibility for the failure to open an immediate investigation into the police officers and commanders responsible for the deaths.
In October 2006, Adalah submitted a comprehensive report entitled “The Accused†to the Attorney General, in which it addressed the shortcomings and failures of the law enforcement authorities – first and foremost Mahash – in investigating the October 2000 killings. The report primarily exposes Mahash’s negligent work and its failure to fulfill its duty to investigate the criminal offenses committed by police in October 2000. In addition, the report discloses how Mahash concealed significant facts from the public and issued a falsified report regarding the events. Mazuz’s decision included specific responses to “The Accused†report.
For more information, see a special web-report on the October 2000 Killings
A peaceful event to spread awareness about the wall in Palestine took place in Nottingham University (see video). The university security clamped down very heavily without good reason; violating the rights of students to be politically active. Also the police was called by the university and 2 arrests were made and the protesters were made to take the wall down!
Below is an article covering the incidents in the a local news paper this is Nottingham:
UNI ARREST SPARKS FREE SPEECH ROW
From www.thisisnottingham.co.uk
Footage showing the arrest of a University of Nottingham student during a campus protest has sparked a freedom of speech campaign on the internet.
A video of the arrest is currently posted on the YouTube website, while a Facebook group called Bring Back Freedom of Speech to University has attracted 900 members.
The 22-year-old student, who has asked not to be named, did not organise the event, meant to raise awareness of the Israel-Palestine conflict, and was initially a bystander.
Second-year law student Glen Wright started filming the protest when police were called. The video shows a police officer arguing with the unnamed student before arresting him for alleged breach of the peace.
The student told the Evening Post: “They shouldn’t have arrested me. As the video shows I was being slightly cocky, but that is no grounds for arrest.”
Students blocked a path near the university’s library with a wooden board, to represent the West Bank Wall. Security officers asked them to remove the board, and called police when the students refused.
The protest was organised by Nidal Hajaj, a second-year sociology student who is president of the university’s Palestinian Society. The group was given permission to have a protest stall on the university campus, but not to use the wooden board.
Mr Hajaj said: “I put the wall up and immediately a member of security came over. We said to them there was nothing illegal about it. It was blocking a path, but there was another path going around it.”
Glen Wright became involved after witnessing the argument between students and security staff.
He said: “I’m familiar with the law [being a law student] and realised what was happening was out of order.
“I couldn’t believe what was happening, all over this little ‘wall’.”
A spokesperson for Notts Police confirmed a 22-year-old student was arrested.
A spokesperson for the University of Nottingham said: “The protesters were asked repeatedly by university security staff to take the wall down so that the students could continue with the protest in the manner in which they had agreed.”
The students refused.
The video shows a police officer telling the student now at the centre of the campaign: “You are inflaming the situation.”
The police officer and student are then heard arguing.
(link)
Hebron – Ma’an – A gang of Israeli settlers set two Palestinian homes ablaze in the old city of Hebron on Sunday evening and a settler car ran over a 22-year-old Palestinian citizen, Noman Fawwaz Nazir, on Al Shohada Street, in the city centre.
Dozens of Israeli settlers gathered in the old market place in the centre of Hebron after the Israeli police distributed orders to evacuate two shops occupied by Israelis over six years ago.
Palestinian security sources informed Ma’an’s correspondent that a group of Israeli settlers stormed a mosque in the old market place and set fire to the building. They then set ablaze the home of local citizen Andurrahman Sammouh and another Palestinian house.
The settlers prevented the fire service from reaching the burning buildings.
Medical sources stated that Noman Fawwaz was admitted to Al Ahli Hospital, where he is being treated for the wounds sustained after being hit by a settler vehicle.
On the eve of the meeting to be held between Palestinian President Abbas and Israeli PM Olmert, director of Peres Peace Centre, Ron Bandak, called for the two leaders to find solutions to the problem of settlers in Hebron and evacuate them from the area.
Bandak told Ma’an’s correspondent in Hebron “we believe in partnership with the Palestinians and they cannot be strong unless they have their own state.”
Later on Sunday evening, dozens of Israeli settlers attacked the Palestinian homes near the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba. They threw Molotov cocktails and stones at the buildings. Israeli soldiers seized five assailants, but there remains an atmosphere of high tension in the city.