In a controversial decision, Israel’s High Court has ruled that Israeli policemen will not face trial in the shooting of a 10-year-old Palestinian schoolgirl Abir Aramin in 2007 because it feels too much time has passed. An earlier court found that there was “no debate” that Abir was shoot by border guards. Yet, her family will not receive a trial — or a hope for justice in the case.
Abir Aramin was killed after being shot in the head during a school break when she was buying snacks with her sister and two friends in the West Bank town of Anata. Witnesses gave statements that the identified guards fired from a passing jeep. While police insisted that she probably died from a thrown rock from other Palestinians, an autopsy showed that she was killed by the police with a rubber bullet to the head.
The court noted that the investigation of the police into the case was shoddy and negligent. It concluded that a trial would be too difficult given the passage of time. Just to remind you. This was 2007. We have tried murders from the 1950s decades later without difficulty. This is just five years ago. Indeed, it is not uncommon to have murder trials in this country that do not come to trial for years due to appeals and other delays.
I find the decision difficult to fathom given the earlier ruling that the culpability of police in the case was clear. One would think there was sufficient evidence for a trial — and defense lawyers could argue issues of evidence sufficiency.
Source: Independent
Because it’s a special request from my friend mespo and this is such an injustice . . .
ISRAEL!
What in the Hell is wrong with you people?
You complain about past injustices done to your people yet use any rational you can lay your hands on to perpetrate injustices against others if it allows you to keep territory or save political face with the right wing conservatives or even save a shekel in potential damages from a wrongful death suit. Would you be so complacent about this if it had been a Jewish girl shot by a soldier? No. Does it not count as a tragedy since it’s only one dead little girl instead of six million? Apparently so. As Bob is so fond of saying “Jesus H. Tap Dancing Christ!”
Abir Aramin was a little girl.
Little.
Girl.
Engaged in the business of little girls – buying some treats with her friends. She wasn’t a “threat to Israel” unless you’re afraid of an attack from My Little Pony or an outbreak of pillow fights. Do you encourage your soldiers to ride through the streets firing from their moving vehicles around civilians? Is the PR value with your Neocons so great as to merit not punishing one soldier for what is at best manslaughter and at worst negligent homicide? And let’s look beyond domestic politics and ask is the PR value with your lil’ warhawk buddies so great as to merit another international black mark against your country as people everywhere – from Beijing to Boston – say . . .
“WTF, Israel! She was a little girl minding her own little girl business!”
Seriously you should be ashamed Israel. This isn’t about justice. This is about political expediency and a depraved lack of respect for the lives of others but especially if they’re not Jewish. This is the kind of crap that makes people join “Jews for Jesus” or ask “Hey, maybe those clowns in Likud don’t really know how to run a country without being bigots and thugs themselves?”
You unjust bastards.
Now if you’ll pardon me, I have a long crappy day ahead of me, but at least I can go about it knowing I had nothing to do with aiding and abetting the murder of a little girl.
Is it easier to…nah…that is the right thing to do…What is the SOL for murder there? I am having a hard time believing this…
they wrote a bunch of excuses on slips of paper and put them in a hat. this is the one they pulled out of the hat.
it’s easier than having to plant a gun.
This is a Buddha is Laughing moment! Shame on that “court.”
Janna, your post is confusing. How does the observation of an injustice by a government make one hate oneself? If I criticize the U.S. government for one of its many misdeeds, does that make me a “self-hating American?”
Also, do you believe that only “leftists” believe that authority figures should be held accountable for the mistakes they make? If so, why?
Typical self-hating American leftist Jew. Why do American Jews hate Jews?
They walked right into the ovens of the Holocaust and are doing it again now.
Blouise,
The wheels of justice can and often to turn slowly. Unless, of course, you’ve got somebody deliberately stopping them for political reasons. Unless it’s a crime in antiquity and all parties concerned are dead? It’s never too late for justice.
Gene H,
Yep … after all it took them 15 years to get their hands on Eichmann.
This isn’t a failure of law, it’s a failure to respect the law by the people charged with implementing it. Israel’s high court is acting as a political arm of the government and not a servant to law. This is a shameful decision.
What else is new?
A travesty of justice.
” One would think there was sufficient evidence for a trial — and defense lawyers could argue issues of evidence sufficiency.”
Justice is blind indeed
It is always a danger letting things go too far into the courts. On rare occasions the system goes haywire and fairness and justice unexpectedly appear .
By that reasoning, we should forget about punishing Nazi war criminals because too much time has passed.
One would think there was sufficient evidence for a trial — and defense lawyers could argue issues of evidence sufficiency. -Jonathan Turley
Yes, one would think….
I take some comfort in naively believing that the officer/s who fired the rubber bullets must live with the fact that s/he or they killed this beautiful child. In reality, it probably isn’t even a passing thought…
Bad law, very bad law.
It is an essential underpinning of both Israeli and US governments to avoid recognizing Palenstinians as human beings lest they must be accorded human rights. It is despicable and has caused me to wonder what Star Chamber must first approve US foreign policy vis-a-vis Israel.
Israel reminds me of the pre-Civil rights era South in the US. Even in later times it is near impossible to get cops to trial for killings in Texas.
Typical.