Here's a typical story about the mindset of Israel's radical Left these days.
Last week a court in Ramleh sentenced Nuri el-Aukbi to seven months in jail for operating a business in Lod without legal permits. So far as I can see from the conviction, this is at least the third time since 2003 that el-Aukbi has been convicted for the same thing; each time the court orders him to shut down his business he not only refuses to comply, he builds additional structures onto the ones he's been ordered to shut down. A fine and upstanding citizen.
Ah, but there's a snag. In addition to being a serial offender against zoning and business-license laws, el-Aukbi is an activist in support of Bedouin rights in the Negev, some of which touch upon... laws of zoning and licenses. At his most recent trial, el-Aukbi or his lawyers seemed to think this should be a mitigating condition, and suggested the court be lenient since in other, unrelated matters, he's engaged in important things.
The court didn't oblige. On the contrary, when handing down his sentence, Judge Yemini noted that a social activist who speaks in the name of human rights and rule of law, ought to be careful he himself is above reproach in these matters. El-Aukbi, sadly, isn't. Rather the opposite. And note that the court was responding to a line of argumentation that had been presented to him, not initiating the discussion.
Dan Yakir, the legal advisor of the Association of Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), harshly castigated the court. "The judge essentially said he was punishing el-Aukbi for his activities of support of the Bedouins in the Negev, so as to warn them off... This scandalous case is yet another example of how the courts are being used to discourage political actions." Inevitably, Yakir then added that in a healthy democracy political activity is to be applauded, not punished by the courts.
Fortunately this time the story is so far on-line only in Hebrew (and follow the links to the court documents).
The weirdest thing is that Yakir and his colleagues truly believe their own narrative, and are quite impervious to any other possible explanation. If someone is a political activist on their side of the political divide, he must be immune from prosecution for anything, and if he isn't, this is proof Israel, like Putin's Russia, is rapidly becoming non-democratic.
So here the ACRI is saying that his poor Arab client is being prosecuted for political reasons, even if he is admittedly breaking the law, but perish the thought that Katsav should have been prosecuted for political reasons. Unthinkable for the Left.
ReplyDeleteConsidering the leftist and politicized nature of Israel's prosecution and courts, this is an improvement. I would have imagined given the dual justice system Israelis are all too well accustomed to, that Nuri al-Akubi would walk off scot-free. No wonder ACRI's Dan Yakir is upset.
ReplyDeleteEspecially if the days of leftist immunity and special treatment under the law could be coming to an end.
yaakov,
ReplyDeleteas i see it, the right is - in that (legal system) and in many other cases - not that different from the left.....
if the rightist sphere looses a case ore one of them is proofen to be a criminal they claim israel is run by an imagined polish secret society and peres is the big mobster.
if the leftists use a case all the judical system is at the service of some rightist group that can do what ever it does.
when a mizrahi is convicted he claims it is only because he is a mizrahi and his family name is not goldberg.
and when a dos is convicted he claims it is only due to the fact he is religious.
ben gurion once said: the jewish state will exist when thre are jewish ganovim that are arrested by a jewish policman and persecuted by a jewish attorney, convicted by a jewish judge and thrown into prison by a jewish prison guard.
I can learn from these posts that I'm living in a Stalinist police state controlled by Shimon Peres.
ReplyDeleteI can seriously suggest you gentlemeen to equip yourself with the newest model of hats shielded against electromagnetic mind control rays. You certainly can find suppliers looking up some 9/11 "troofer" websites.
Doesn't just about everyone regularly violate economic laws in Israel? Was what he was doing unusual?
ReplyDelete