Opinion: Non-violent Palestinian demonstrators subject to military courts in Israel

The Jerusalem Post - Larry Derfner- Here’s a look at justice for Palestinians in the only democracy in the Middle East.

This was justice as I’d never seen it, as very, very few Israelis have seen it.

The judge was an IDF officer in a light-green uniform and knitted kippa. The prosecutor was an IDF officer in a light-green uniform, no kippa. The defendant was a Palestinian in a brown prison jumpsuit. This was last Thursday afternoon in a bungalow that serves as military appeals court on the grounds of Ofer Prison, the towering, concretewalled monstrosity on Route 443 between Modi’in and Jerusalem. Ofer is Israel’s prison in the West Bank for Palestinians.

...Another wrinkle in Israeli justice for Palestinians is that Abu Rahmah’s wife and children, who live in Ramallah, weren’t in court on Thursday; the IDF didn’t let them through the checkpoint. Furthermore, they’ve only been allowed to visit him in prison once or twice in the last year, Lasky said, because even though the prison is in the West Bank, they need a permit to enter “Israel proper” to go there, and Palestinians whose spouses are in prison cannot get a permit to enter Israel proper.

...SO WHAT was the remorseless Abu Rahmah convicted of? Organizing illegal demonstrations and incitement. (Originally, he was also charged with stone-throwing and possession of arms – piles of spent IDF bullet cartridges and tear gas canisters he’d collected from the ground in Bil’in for an exhibit – but was acquitted on those two counts.)

...If the army says a demonstration is illegal, then demonstrating is a crime – certainly in military court. Read more