Judges admit that olive harvest violence not what it seems
With the cards totally stacked against her, tireless Orit Struck, champion of the legal rights of Jews in Israel (how alarming is it that this is such an uphill struggle?), released transcripts from two Jerusalem Magistrate's Courts hearings which indicated that the harvesters shown "being attacked" in a news film were not Palestinians but rather left-wing activists, and that the leftists had attacked the settlers.
The incident occurred in the Tel Rumeida area, part of which is inhabited by Jews. According to police, the olive grove belongs to a Palestinian but the area was designated as a closed military zone and the harvesters did not coordinate their entry into the area with the army.
In one transcript Judge Shimon Feinberg wrote that "the police showed those present in the courtroom a film documenting the events of that day. The film was taken by one of the Arab photographers who was there. It should be pointed out that the film was edited. From the evidence before me, it is not possible to determine who initiated the violence."
On October 28, Judge Ram Winograd rejected the state's request to extend the remand of one of the Jewish suspects. In his decision, he wrote that the explanation of the Palestinian whose film served as evidence was questionable.
The film shows two of the suspects beating the Arab photographer Amer, but does not show how one of the two settlers received a severe welt on his back.
Winograd also wrote that Amer's brother Naif threw a 20-centimeter rock, apparently at the settler with the welt - for which he should have been indicted.
The omission "backs the settlers' claim that the police discriminated against them," Winograd wrote.
The judge also wrote that the fact that the other Palestinian photographers took photos of Amer after he was beaten instead of helping him raised questions.
He concluded that while the police claimed the settlers had provoked the attack, "there was support for the opposite allegation."
Cautious judicial language but, given the political agenda of the Israeli court system, an amazing success in the ongoing spin campaign against Jewish residents of Yesha.
