Palestinian stone throwers could face 20 years in jail

[Palmares]

Israel’s cabinet backs bill to hand out tougher penalties to stone throwers after months of clashes in east Jerusalem.


http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/About/General/2014/11/4/1415104948552/A-Palestinian-boy-hurls-s-011.jpg A Palestinian boy hurls stones at Israeli police during clashes in Shu’afat. Photograph: Marco Bottelli/Demotix/Corbis

Israel’s cabinet has approved a law change allowing harsher jail sentences of up to 20 years for stone throwers after tensions erupted again last week in Jerusalem’s Old City.
The move comes after months of rioting in east Jerusalem where Palestinian residents have thrown rocks and fire bombs at police, cars, buses and trains. Over the past 10 days, 110 Palestinians have been arrested by Israeli police in the area.
The al-Aqsa compound, or Temple Mount, has become a central point in the escalating violence in the city. The compound houses Islam’s third-holiest site, but is also a sacred spot for Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount because it once housed two Jewish temples.
The compound was closed last Thursday (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/30/israel-closure-al-aqsa-mosque-temple-mount-mahmoud-abbas-war) as a security precaution after anti-terrorist police shot dead (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/30/israeli-police-shoot-dead-suspect-assassination-rabbi-yehuda-glick) a Palestinian man who was suspected of having tried to kill a far-right Jewish activist (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/29/rabbi-shot-seriously-wounded-jerusalem-conference) the night before. It was reopened on Friday (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/31/israel-alaqsa-mosque-reopens-closure-friday-prayers) for Muslim women and men over 50 for Friday prayer but the grounds were closed to other faiths and tourists.
According to Israel’s justice ministry, the proposed change to Israel’s penal code would make it possible for police to charge someone with throwing objects in a manner that is likely to cause harm. A jail sentence of 20 years would be possible. Previously those caught throwing stones could be sentenced to up to two years in jail.
A committee led by the Israeli cabinet secretary, Avichai Mandelblit, found during its meetings that under current law the police and courts had limited power to punish stone throwers because the state had to prove the intent to cause harm.
There would be two major sentences for stone throwers – those who endanger the safety of someone inside a vehicle could be jailed for 10 years without proof there was intention to harm; those throwing stones at people could be sentenced for up to 20 years in prison without the need to prove they intended to cause serious bodily harm.
“Israel is taking vigorous action against terrorists and those who throw stones, fire bombs and fireworks,” said the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu.
“We will also pass stronger legislation on the issue. All of this is in order to restore quiet and security throughout Jerusalem. I have ordered massive reinforcements be brought into Jerusalem and that additional means to used in order to ensure law and order in Israel’s capital.”
The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, said he wanted to see calm restored to Jerusalem and did not want an escalation of the situation. He added that Palestinians would not tolerate attacks on the al-Aqsa mosque grounds.
Barak Medina, professor of law at Hebrew University, said harsher sanctions on stone throwers was not going to be effective. “Many young people who throw stones are unaware of the law and are not often rational about their actions. I don’t think the justice system should be giving up on the rights of the accused just because of panic and concern.”
According to the Haaretz newspaper, the Jerusalem district prosecutors office has had a harsher municipal policy against Palestinian stone throwers in place since July, requesting remand for suspects until the end of proceedings. The new policy also applies to children and as a result dozens of Palestinian children have been jailed for a month or two before their trial begins.
The bill approved by cabinet needs to be brought to the ministerial committee on legislation and to the Knesset for a vote.




http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/04/israel-palestinian-stone-throwers-jail

[Sasha]

By Mairav Zonszein (http://972mag.com/author/mairavz/) |Published November 2, 2014

The only way to stop stone throwing is to end the occupation


If Israel was serious about restoring security to its capital, it would recognize the Palestinian claim to East Jerusalem and find a way for all residents to live in dignity.

Trying to make good on his promise to restore quiet in Jerusalem, Prime Minister Netanyahu and his cabinet approved an amendment to Israel’s penal code on Sunday, which would prescribe up to 20 years in prison (http://www.timesofisrael.com/ministers-okay-bill-jailing-stone-throwers-for-20-years/) for someone caught throwing stones at a vehicle (and 10 without having to prove intent to cause harm).
Currently, Palestinians convicted in Israeli civil courts of throwing stones receive around two years in jail (http://www.timesofisrael.com/ministers-okay-bill-jailing-stone-throwers-for-20-years/), so if this is enforced, it would be a significant increase in degree of severity. While in theory such a law would apply to Israeli citizens, the country’s history of discrimination and granting settler impunity (http://972mag.com/tag/settler-impunity/), it is hard to imagine Israeli Jews will be more than nominally affected. While the amendment still needs to pass through committee and three Knesset votes, the message of the bill is clear: a Palestinian caught throwing a stone will go away for a long, long time.
http://static1.972mag.com/wp-content/uploads//2013/02/teargas.jpg (http://static1.972mag.com/wp-content/uploads//2013/02/teargas.jpg)

Palestinian youth throw stones during a solidarity protest with the hunger striking Palestinian prisoners jailed in Israeli prisons, outside the Ofer military prison, February 15, 2013. (photo: Activestills)


While the potential law would apply to all citizens of Israel, it is clearly directed at Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem — occupied, annexed and ruled under Israeli civil law. A similar law is already in place in the West Bank, which under direct Israeli military occupation is governed by Israeli military law. This strengthens the notion that Israel is looking to treat East Jerusalem Palestinians more like it treats West Bank Palestinians.
Whether or not the bill goes through, the Israeli government’s approach to the intensifying unrest in Jerusalem is clearly designed to, as Netanyahu put it, “[take] vigorous action against terrorists and those who throw stones, fire bombs and fireworks…in order to restore quiet and security throughout Jerusalem. I have ordered that massive reinforcements be brought in [to Jerusalem] and that additional means be used in order to ensure law and order in Israel’s capital.”
The Israeli security establishment sincerely believes that it will be able to put a stop to Palestinian resistance by placing more Palestinians — many of them minors (http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.616650) — behind bars. While that may solve the problem in the immediate short-term (and even that is doubtful, as riots have only increased despite the arrest of over 700 people since the start of the summer), history and common sense show it will do nothing for the security of Israeli Jews in the long-term.
Since the First Intifada in the late 1980s, thousands of Palestinian men have sat in Israeli jails — many of them more than once. This has not proven to be a long-term deterrent of Palestinian resistance – whether armed or unarmed. Arguably the most popular leader of the Palestinian people is Marwan Barghouti, serving five life sentences in Israeli prison for his involvement in armed Palestinian resistance and terror. Muataz Hejazi, who allegedly shot Rabbi Yehuda Glick at point blank range last week, spent 11 years (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4586296,00.html) in Israeli prison, and according to reports, his violent behavior only got worse during his imprisonment. Abd al-Rahman al-Shaloudi, who rammed his car into a group of people at a light rail station in Jerusalem, killing a three-month-old and a woman a week earlier, also did time in Israeli prison (http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=734719).
http://static1.972mag.com/wp-content/uploads//2014/10/aqsa-background-clashes.jpg (http://static1.972mag.com/wp-content/uploads//2014/10/aqsa-background-clashes.jpg)

Palestinian youth throw stones during clashes in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Ras al Amud, with the Aqsa Mosque seen in the background. (Photo by Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)


While I am in no way condoning these acts of violence, Israeli authorities have not convinced me that what they are doing will bring any calm or safety to Jerusalem or any other territory under its control. They certainly don’t seem to be taking into account the adverse effects putting young Palestinians in Israeli jail for years for throwing a single stone has on them and their families.
There is no reason to think Palestinians will give up on their claims to East Jerusalem, to self-determination, to freedom and human rights after being dealt an even heavier hand by the entity occupying them. It has been nearly half a century and they haven’t done so yet. It’s pretty obvious that compromise, sacrifice and agreement are the only way to put a stop to it once and for all.
Israeli journalist Amira Hass, who wrote an op-ed in Haaretz (http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/the-inner-syntax-of-palestinian-stone-throwing.premium-1.513131) in April 2013 explaining the act of stone throwing and defending the Palestinian right to resist occupation, said it best:
Often hurling stones is borne of boredom, excessive hormones, mimicry, boastfulness and competition. But in the inner syntax of the relationship between the occupier and the occupied, stone-throwing is the adjective attached to the subject of “We’ve had enough of you, occupiers.”
In an interview with Democracy Now!, she went on to explain why it is so problematic to see Palestinians as violent and Israelis as victims:
Any hegemonic group, sees its hegemony, and the violence it uses, as self-evident, as a natural thing. And we do everything possible to protect this hegemony…Palestinians have tried many ways, diplomatic ways and others to resist Israeli domination and it has not succeeded. Stone throwing is a message, and the Israelis don’t listen to it. Twenty-five years ago in the first Intifada, Israelis did listen – they did understand it’s a message — not in order to kill or hit somebody but to tell, you are unwelcome visitors in our midst.
If Israel was serious and pragmatic about “restoring security to Jerusalem,” it would once and for all recognize the Palestinians’ claim to East Jerusalem as their capital, find ways to end the occupation and find a way for everyone to live in the city equally. At the very least it would invest in East Jerusalem’s infrastructure and schools — even while continuing to be the occupying force. But it is doing neither. Instead, it is deepening its control and amping up its means of violence, whose only realistic outcome is more stone throwing. That will lead to more arrests, which, based on experience, will only lead to more violence.
source: http://972mag.com/the-only-way-to-stop-stone-throwing-is-to-end-the-occupation/98321/