Domestic remedies exhausted, Palestinians are seeking redress in foreign courts, much to the chagrin of Israel, reports Khaled Amayreh in the West Bank Having lost faith in the Israeli justice system, Palestinians in Israel and the occupied territories are contemplating seeking redress for their numerous grievances against the State of Israel in international courts, especially in Europe. Palestinian and foreign human rights activists have long complained that the Israeli justice system doesn't give equal and real justice to non-Jews, particularly if they are Arabs. One Arab Knesset member last week described the Israeli justice system as "designed to be accommodative for Jews and punitive for non-Jews". "The plain truth," said Ahmed Teibi, "is that Palestinians can't find justice in Israel, neither here, nor in the occupied territories." He cited a study by a Haifa University professor, Arieh Ruttner, showing that Israeli courts systematically discriminate against Arabs, whether as defendants or as plaintiffs. Teibi's remarks came in reaction to the acquittal last week by an Israeli Justice Ministry inquiry commission of the police killers of 12 Israeli Arab protesters in October 2000. Paramilitary police had then opened fire on thousands of "48ers" -- Palestinians displaced from their original homes since the 1948 War which ethnically cleansed three quarters of the Palestinian population from what was thereafter declared as Israel -- protesting against the bloody repression of Palestinians in the West Bank. The commission ruled that there was no way to determine the identity of the killers, saying it had no choice but to close the cases of all police officers involved in the killings. Shocked by the exoneration of the killers, Teibi, Islamic movement leader Sheikh Raed Salah and other leaders of Israel's Arab community said they might now appeal to the International Court of Justice in The Hague for redress. "If a state doesn't or is not capable of giving justice to a segment of its own citizens, those citizens have every right to seek justice against their state abroad," said Azmi Bishara, another Arab Knesset member. "We will continue to sue all those responsible for the murder of our children, in Israeli courts and international forums," said lawmaker Muhammed Baraka. "If Israeli justice doesn't or can't bring relief to the citizens of the state, we'll have to look for it elsewhere." On Sunday, 25 September, hundreds of Israel's Palestinian citizens demonstrated in Jerusalem against what one demonstrator described as "the inherent racism of the Israeli justice system towards non-Jews". Protesters shouted slogans and carried signs reading "Barak, fear not. We are waiting for you in The Hague," referring to former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and "With Peres, Ezra and Sharon, fascism rules." If the "justice" meted out to Israel's Arab citizens is bad, Israel's judicial treatment of Palestinians in the occupied territory is far worse, beyond scandalous, as the Israeli occupation army often behaves and acts as investigator, judge and executioner, not to mention murderer. Last week, the Israeli Chief of Staff Dan Halutz decided not to pursue any disciplinary measures against soldiers who, on 24 August, killed in cold blood five Palestinians, including three teenagers (Halutz himself is widely viewed, even by some Israelis, as a war criminal for ordering a one-tonne bomb dropped on an apartment building in Gaza in 2002, killing 14 people, including 11 children). The Israeli army then said in a terse statement that the five victims were Islamic Jihad "terrorists" who had been involved in attacks against Israel. A joint investigation by the Israeli human rights organisation B'tselem and Haaretz newspaper concluded, on the contrary, that none of the five was armed at the time they were killed, and that none belonged to any militant group. As is usual in such cases involving Palestinian civilian deaths, the findings were ignored by the Israeli army, which B'tselem says has been responsible for the killing of over 1700 innocent Palestinians since September 2000. The conspicuous flaccidity with which the Israeli justice system treats Israeli security forces involved in killing or maiming Arabs and bulldozing their homes and destroying their farms has prompted Palestinian and some Israeli human rights groups to meticulously document these violations. These efforts came to some fruition some days ago when the London's police anti-terrorist and war crimes unit issued an arrest warrant against Doron Almog, former head of the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip. Specifically, the warrant was based on the destruction of Palestinian homes in Rafah and Almog's alleged involvement in the killing of a woman in her ninth month of pregnancy (Nouha Al-Magadmeh on 3 March 2003), the killing of three young men in northern Gaza on 30 December 2001, and the dropping of the huge bomb on the Gaza apartment building which killed Hamas official Salah Shehadeh and at least 11 children. Almog, who had arrived in London on an El-Al flight on 11 September, remained for several hours aboard the Israeli airliner at Heathrow Airport before returning to Israel. It is widely believed that some pro-Israeli British officials notified Israeli Ambassador Zvi Hefetz of the arrest warrant against Almog, thus enabling his ignominious return to Israel. According to British sources, Judge Timothy Workman in London issued the request for Almog's arrest at the request of the Hickman & Rose legal firm, which specialises in human rights law. The same sources said that Hickman & Rose had learned of Almog's planned visit to London a few days earlier, enabling lawyers to arrange for an arrest warrant against him. The British law firm reportedly worked closely with Palestinian human rights centres, including the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza, which documents Israeli human rights violations in the occupied territories. One Palestinian jurist told Al-Ahram Weekly this week that his human rights centre was preparing a list of suspected Israeli war criminals, which he said would be presented to international courts. The list, he said, includes Israeli military leaders in the West Bank and other military personnel who ordered and executed acts deemed by international law as war crimes or crimes against humanity. It is a fact that Israel continues to fly in the face of international law and particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention regarding the protection of civilians during armed hostilities. On Saturday night, 24 September, for example, the Israeli Air Force attacked and destroyed a school in downtown Gaza, injuring more than 15 civilians, including a 40-day- old baby. The Israeli army admitted targeting the school, saying that the late Hamas founder and spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, whom Israel assassinated more than two years ago, established it. Meanwhile, the Almog affair has encouraged Palestinians in East Jerusalem whose homes have been demolished by Israeli occupation authorities to file complaints in the UK for redress against Israeli war crimes. The focus of the contemplated measure is the head of Jerusalem Municipality Licensing Department Micha Ben-Nun, and Zvi Schneider, who gives orders for the destruction of Arab homes. "We've been planning this move for half a year now," said Meir Margalit of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. "We approached British solicitor Daniel Machover, whose office specialises in human rights. Our main charge is that the demolition of the homes of innocent civilian populations is a violation of international law, specifically of the Fourth Geneva Convention." Margalit said he believed that in a few years all EU member states would be effectively closed off to those involved in the demolition of Arab homes. The Israeli government has reacted angrily to the trend of suing alleged Israeli war criminals in foreign courts. Earlier this week, while in New York, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon protested to his British counterpart Tony Blair, telling him half-jokingly that he was reluctant to visit London for fear of getting arrested by the British police for war crimes. Blair reportedly apologised for the Almog affair, but told Sharon that he could do nothing, given the absolute independence of the British justice system. Britain's ambassador to Israel, Simon McDonald, in response to a question posed by the Weekly Tuesday, echoed the same stance. "Britain is proud of the independence of its courts. The British government cannot dictate what cases private individuals bring to court. Experience shows that British courts do not allow themselves to be abused for trivial purposes." For its part, the Israeli government on Sunday, 25 September, decided during its weekly cabinet session to allocate a special fund of a million US dollars to cover possible litigations if Israelis involved in alleged war crimes are arrested and prosecuted in foreign countries.
