May 06, 2007

Lost in translation?

I've been sent what looks like a rushed translation of an article by Neve Gordon and Ig'al Bronner that appeared in the Hebrew edition of Ha'aretz. It's about how the Israeli police get away with murdering Arabs:
It is interesting...to examine a last week event that the Israeli media almost completely ignored: Judge Noam Solberg's decision in the case of the Border Police officer, Shmuel Yekhezkel, accused of killing Jerusalem resident Samir Dari, shot after a heated verbal exchange with the cops, while he was trying to get his brother released from detention.

In his decision the judge states clearly that the victim never made physical contact between with the cop, and did not endanger him in any way. The judge was convinced that Dari was leaving the scene when the cop Yehezkel ran after him and shot him in the back from a short range.....

Despite these unequivocal statements, Solberg acquitted the cop. The Judge stated that, although objectively the cop was not in danger, acted in his favor the reasonable possibility that "the accused felt subjectively a real threat to his life as a result of illegal assault."...

...according to the Mussawa center, since 2000 police, soldiers and private security personnel have killed 34 Arab Israeli citizens (i.e. 1948 Palestinians.) So far only four indictments were made, and only as a result of an intensive public campaign. So far there have been no conviction.

.....It is worthwhile reflecting on the arguments in Solberg's decision: the implied assumption is that Arabs mean danger.
Maybe it will appear in English later, who knows?

UPDATE - Well, what do you know? I have now found a report in the English edition of Ha'aretz on this case but it isn't the same article here. Maybe I should have headed this post, lost (and found) in translation.

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