9 aug 2019
On July 29, 4-year-old Muhammad Rabi’ Elayyan was reportedly summoned for interrogation by the Israeli police in occupied Jerusalem.
The news, originally reported by the Palestinian News Agency (WAFA), was later denied by the Israeli police, likely to lessen the impact of the PR disaster that followed.
The Israelis are not denying the story in its entirety, but are rather arguing that it was not the boy, Muhammad, who was summoned, but his father, Rabi’, who was called into the Israeli police station in Salah Eddin Street in Jerusalem, to be questioned regarding his son’s actions.
The child was accused of hurling a stone at Israeli occupation soldiers in the Issawiyeh neighborhood, a constant target for Israeli violence. The neighborhood has also been the tragic site for house demolition under the pretext that Palestinians there are building without permits.
Of course, the vast majority of Palestinian applications to build in Issawiyeh, or anywhere in Jerusalem, are denied, while Jewish settlers are allowed to build on Palestinian land, unhindered.
With this in mind, Issawiyeh is no stranger to the ridiculous and unlawful behavior of the Israeli army. On July 6, a mother from the beleaguered neighborhood was arrested as a means to put pressure on her teenage son, Mahmoud Ebeid, to turn himself in. The mother “was taken by Israeli police as a bargaining chip,” Mondoweiss reported, quoting the Jerusalem-based Wadi Hileh Information Center.
Israeli authorities are justified in feeling embarrassed by the whole episode concerning the 4-year-old boy, thus the attempt at poking holes in the story. The fact is WAFA’s correspondent in Jerusalem had, indeed, verified that the warrant was in Muhammad’s, not Rabi’s, name.
While some news sources bought into the Israeli ‘hasbara’, readily conveying the Israeli cries of ‘fake news’, one must bear in mind that this event is hardly a one-off incident.
For Palestinians, such news of detaining, beating and killing children is one of the most consistent features of the Israeli occupation since 1967.
Just one day after the summoning of Muhammad, Israeli authorities also interrogated the father of a 6-year-old child, Qais Firas Obaid, from the same neighborhood of Issawiyeh, after accusing the boy of throwing a juice carton at Israeli soldiers.
“According to local sources in Issawiyeh the (Israeli) military sent Qais’ family an official summons to come to the interrogation center in Jerusalem on Wednesday (July 31) at 8 am,” reported the International Middle East Media Center (IMEMC). In one photo, the little boy is pictured while holding up to a camera the Israeli military order written in Hebrew.
The stories of Muhammad and Qais are the norm, not the exception. According to the prisoners’ advocacy group, Addameer, there are currently 250 children in Israeli prisons, with approximately 700 Palestinian children going through the Israeli military court system every single year.
“The most common charge levied against children is throwing stones, a crime that is punishable under military law by up to 20 years,” Addameer reports.
Indeed, Israel has so much to be embarrassed about. Since the start of the Second Intifada, the popular uprising of 2000, some 12,000 Palestinian children have been detained and interrogated by the Israeli army.
But it is not only children and their families that are targeted by the Israeli military, but also those who advocate on their behalf. On July 30, Palestinian lawyer, Tariq Barghouth, was sentenced to 13 years in prison by an Israeli military court for “firing at Israeli buses and at security forces on a number of occasions.”
As flimsy as the accusation of a well-known lawyer firing at ‘buses’ may sound, it is important to note that Barghouth is well-regarded for his defense of many Palestinian children in court. Barghouth was a constant source of headache for the Israeli military court system for his strong defense of the child, Ahmad Manasra.
Manasra, then 13-years of age, was tried and indicted in Israeli military court for allegedly stabbing and wounding two Israelis near the illegal Jewish settlement of Pisgat Ze’ev in Occupied Jerusalem. Manasra’s cousin, Hassan, 15 was killed on the spot, while wounded Ahmad was tried in court as an adult.
It was the lawyer, Barghouth, who challenged and denounced the Israeli court for the harsh interrogation and for secretly filming the wounded child as he was tied to his hospital bed.
On August 2, 2016, Israel passed a law that allows authorities to “imprison a minor convicted of serious crimes such as murder, attempted murder or manslaughter even if he or she is under the age of 14.”
The law was conveniently crafted to deal with cases like that of Ahmad Manasra, who was sentenced on November 7, 2016 (three months after the law was approved) to 12 years in prison.
Manasra’s case, the leaked videos of his abuse by Israeli interrogators and his harsh sentence placed more international focus on the plight of Palestinian children in the Israeli military court system.
“Israeli interrogators are seen relying on verbal abuse, intimidation and threats to apparently inflict mental suffering for the purpose of obtaining a confession,” Brad Parker, attorney and international advocacy officer at Defense for Children- Palestine, said at the time.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, of which Israel, as of 1991, is a signatory, “prohibits torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” Yet, according to Parker, “ill treatment and torture of Palestinian children arrested by Israeli military and police is widespread and systematic.”
So systematic, in fact, that videos and reports of arresting very young Palestinian children are almost a staple on social media platforms concerned with Palestine and Palestinian rights.
The sad reality is that Muhammad Elayyan, 4, and Qais Obaid, 6, and many children like them, have become a target of Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
This horrendous reality must not be tolerated by the international community. Israeli crimes against Palestinian children must be effectively confronted as Israel, its inhumane laws and iniquitous military courts must not be allowed to continue their uncontested brutalization of Palestinian children.
Join the debate on Facebook
More articles by:Ramzy Baroud
Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and editor of Palestine Chronicle. His latest book is The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story (Pluto Press, London, 2018). He earned a Ph.D. in Palestine Studies from the University of Exeter and is a Non-Resident Scholar at Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, UCSB.
The news, originally reported by the Palestinian News Agency (WAFA), was later denied by the Israeli police, likely to lessen the impact of the PR disaster that followed.
The Israelis are not denying the story in its entirety, but are rather arguing that it was not the boy, Muhammad, who was summoned, but his father, Rabi’, who was called into the Israeli police station in Salah Eddin Street in Jerusalem, to be questioned regarding his son’s actions.
The child was accused of hurling a stone at Israeli occupation soldiers in the Issawiyeh neighborhood, a constant target for Israeli violence. The neighborhood has also been the tragic site for house demolition under the pretext that Palestinians there are building without permits.
Of course, the vast majority of Palestinian applications to build in Issawiyeh, or anywhere in Jerusalem, are denied, while Jewish settlers are allowed to build on Palestinian land, unhindered.
With this in mind, Issawiyeh is no stranger to the ridiculous and unlawful behavior of the Israeli army. On July 6, a mother from the beleaguered neighborhood was arrested as a means to put pressure on her teenage son, Mahmoud Ebeid, to turn himself in. The mother “was taken by Israeli police as a bargaining chip,” Mondoweiss reported, quoting the Jerusalem-based Wadi Hileh Information Center.
Israeli authorities are justified in feeling embarrassed by the whole episode concerning the 4-year-old boy, thus the attempt at poking holes in the story. The fact is WAFA’s correspondent in Jerusalem had, indeed, verified that the warrant was in Muhammad’s, not Rabi’s, name.
While some news sources bought into the Israeli ‘hasbara’, readily conveying the Israeli cries of ‘fake news’, one must bear in mind that this event is hardly a one-off incident.
For Palestinians, such news of detaining, beating and killing children is one of the most consistent features of the Israeli occupation since 1967.
Just one day after the summoning of Muhammad, Israeli authorities also interrogated the father of a 6-year-old child, Qais Firas Obaid, from the same neighborhood of Issawiyeh, after accusing the boy of throwing a juice carton at Israeli soldiers.
“According to local sources in Issawiyeh the (Israeli) military sent Qais’ family an official summons to come to the interrogation center in Jerusalem on Wednesday (July 31) at 8 am,” reported the International Middle East Media Center (IMEMC). In one photo, the little boy is pictured while holding up to a camera the Israeli military order written in Hebrew.
The stories of Muhammad and Qais are the norm, not the exception. According to the prisoners’ advocacy group, Addameer, there are currently 250 children in Israeli prisons, with approximately 700 Palestinian children going through the Israeli military court system every single year.
“The most common charge levied against children is throwing stones, a crime that is punishable under military law by up to 20 years,” Addameer reports.
Indeed, Israel has so much to be embarrassed about. Since the start of the Second Intifada, the popular uprising of 2000, some 12,000 Palestinian children have been detained and interrogated by the Israeli army.
But it is not only children and their families that are targeted by the Israeli military, but also those who advocate on their behalf. On July 30, Palestinian lawyer, Tariq Barghouth, was sentenced to 13 years in prison by an Israeli military court for “firing at Israeli buses and at security forces on a number of occasions.”
As flimsy as the accusation of a well-known lawyer firing at ‘buses’ may sound, it is important to note that Barghouth is well-regarded for his defense of many Palestinian children in court. Barghouth was a constant source of headache for the Israeli military court system for his strong defense of the child, Ahmad Manasra.
Manasra, then 13-years of age, was tried and indicted in Israeli military court for allegedly stabbing and wounding two Israelis near the illegal Jewish settlement of Pisgat Ze’ev in Occupied Jerusalem. Manasra’s cousin, Hassan, 15 was killed on the spot, while wounded Ahmad was tried in court as an adult.
It was the lawyer, Barghouth, who challenged and denounced the Israeli court for the harsh interrogation and for secretly filming the wounded child as he was tied to his hospital bed.
On August 2, 2016, Israel passed a law that allows authorities to “imprison a minor convicted of serious crimes such as murder, attempted murder or manslaughter even if he or she is under the age of 14.”
The law was conveniently crafted to deal with cases like that of Ahmad Manasra, who was sentenced on November 7, 2016 (three months after the law was approved) to 12 years in prison.
Manasra’s case, the leaked videos of his abuse by Israeli interrogators and his harsh sentence placed more international focus on the plight of Palestinian children in the Israeli military court system.
“Israeli interrogators are seen relying on verbal abuse, intimidation and threats to apparently inflict mental suffering for the purpose of obtaining a confession,” Brad Parker, attorney and international advocacy officer at Defense for Children- Palestine, said at the time.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, of which Israel, as of 1991, is a signatory, “prohibits torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” Yet, according to Parker, “ill treatment and torture of Palestinian children arrested by Israeli military and police is widespread and systematic.”
So systematic, in fact, that videos and reports of arresting very young Palestinian children are almost a staple on social media platforms concerned with Palestine and Palestinian rights.
The sad reality is that Muhammad Elayyan, 4, and Qais Obaid, 6, and many children like them, have become a target of Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
This horrendous reality must not be tolerated by the international community. Israeli crimes against Palestinian children must be effectively confronted as Israel, its inhumane laws and iniquitous military courts must not be allowed to continue their uncontested brutalization of Palestinian children.
Join the debate on Facebook
More articles by:Ramzy Baroud
Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and editor of Palestine Chronicle. His latest book is The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story (Pluto Press, London, 2018). He earned a Ph.D. in Palestine Studies from the University of Exeter and is a Non-Resident Scholar at Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, UCSB.
5 aug 2019
The Petra hotel, one of the three properties at the center of the dispute
Supreme Court ruled in favor of Ateret Cohanim, which seeks to increase the Jewish presence in Arab areas of capital, in 2004 purchase of three Old City properties; but patriarchate says deal involved bribery, claims to have 'clear proof' of corruption
The Greek Orthodox Church on Monday filed a new lawsuit in Jerusalem District Court against the Ateret Cohanim settler organization in a bid to overturn a Supreme Court decision upholding the sale of three properties in predominantly Arab parts of the Old City of Jerusalem.
The Supreme Court ruled in June in favor of Ateret Cohanim, which seeks to increase the Jewish presence in Arab areas of the holy city. The sale included two Palestinian-run hotels — Imperial and Petra — located near the Jaffa Gate, and another building near Herod's Gate.
The ruling paved the way for the three properties to be leased for 99 years to Ateret Cohanim, which intends to evacuate the residents of the properties.
The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate initially denied the sale ever took place and said it involved acts of bribery and was illegitimate; however, both the Jerusalem District Court and recently the Supreme Court denied their claims and approved the legality of the sale.
But the Patriarchate claimed in a statement Monday that it had "clear proof" of corruption in the long-disputed 2004 sale. The church claims that the sales had been approved by a former official who had no authority to do so.
"The Patriarchate stresses that its properties located within the walls of Old City Jerusalem are for the service of pilgrims and visitors of the Holy City especially those on the pilgrim route to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre," the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem said in a statement Monday.
"The Patriarchate will continue to exercise its right and duty of defending itself, the holy sites and the Church heritage."
According to the church, Ateret Cohanim both falsified documents and bribed the official who agreed to the sales.
"The new evidence that the Patriarchate has obtained, confirm that Ateret Cohanim and its companies forged documents and initiated court proceedings based on these forged documents, despite Ateret Cohanim’s knowledge that they were forged," the Patriarchate said Monday.
"The evidence shows that the suspicious deals of 2004 involved bribes by Ateret Cohanim, and all indications point to the bribes being paid to the then Patriarchate employee, Nicholas Papadimas."
Ynet's sister publication, Yedioth Ahronoth, also revealed that former manager of the Petra Hotel, Ted Bloomfield, had received funds for years from Ateret Cohanim in order to push for the sale to take place.
Supreme Court ruled in favor of Ateret Cohanim, which seeks to increase the Jewish presence in Arab areas of capital, in 2004 purchase of three Old City properties; but patriarchate says deal involved bribery, claims to have 'clear proof' of corruption
The Greek Orthodox Church on Monday filed a new lawsuit in Jerusalem District Court against the Ateret Cohanim settler organization in a bid to overturn a Supreme Court decision upholding the sale of three properties in predominantly Arab parts of the Old City of Jerusalem.
The Supreme Court ruled in June in favor of Ateret Cohanim, which seeks to increase the Jewish presence in Arab areas of the holy city. The sale included two Palestinian-run hotels — Imperial and Petra — located near the Jaffa Gate, and another building near Herod's Gate.
The ruling paved the way for the three properties to be leased for 99 years to Ateret Cohanim, which intends to evacuate the residents of the properties.
The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate initially denied the sale ever took place and said it involved acts of bribery and was illegitimate; however, both the Jerusalem District Court and recently the Supreme Court denied their claims and approved the legality of the sale.
But the Patriarchate claimed in a statement Monday that it had "clear proof" of corruption in the long-disputed 2004 sale. The church claims that the sales had been approved by a former official who had no authority to do so.
"The Patriarchate stresses that its properties located within the walls of Old City Jerusalem are for the service of pilgrims and visitors of the Holy City especially those on the pilgrim route to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre," the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem said in a statement Monday.
"The Patriarchate will continue to exercise its right and duty of defending itself, the holy sites and the Church heritage."
According to the church, Ateret Cohanim both falsified documents and bribed the official who agreed to the sales.
"The new evidence that the Patriarchate has obtained, confirm that Ateret Cohanim and its companies forged documents and initiated court proceedings based on these forged documents, despite Ateret Cohanim’s knowledge that they were forged," the Patriarchate said Monday.
"The evidence shows that the suspicious deals of 2004 involved bribes by Ateret Cohanim, and all indications point to the bribes being paid to the then Patriarchate employee, Nicholas Papadimas."
Ynet's sister publication, Yedioth Ahronoth, also revealed that former manager of the Petra Hotel, Ted Bloomfield, had received funds for years from Ateret Cohanim in order to push for the sale to take place.
Nava Elimelech, who was 12 at the time, disappeared in 1982; her remains drifted onto the shore in Tel Aviv several days later; although gag order was put on new information, police source says no one would risk exhumation without substantial evidence
The remains of 12-year-old Elimelech, who was murdered some 37 years ago was exhumed Sunday after police said they have made new discoveries in the case. A gag order was put on the new details.
Elimelech was last seen leaving her home in the city of Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv, on Saturday afternoon, March 20th, 1982. She left a note for her parents who were resting, saying "I went to visit a friend, don't worry."
Elimelech was wearing red pants and a matching shirt. Her sister was the last one to talk to her when they met under the building, on the girl's way out to visit her friend.
The parents became anxious soon after, when the friend's mother called Elimelech's home and said she had never arrived for the planned visit. The family called the police, but efforts to locate the girl only started that evening.
Thousands of people joined the police search, Elimelech's photo was distributed, and police dogs sniffed the nearby dunes in vain.
Ten days later, the gruesome tale began to unfold: a bag containing the head the thigh of a teen drifted to a beach in the north of Tel Aviv, and quickly identified as the remains of Elimelech. Several days passed and more body parts drifted to shore, as the country was engulfed in hysteria over the haunting details of the case.
The Tel Aviv Central Police Unit was responsible for the investigation, but no lead was found. Life guards, boat owners and regular visitors to the beach were all questioned, but no one had seen a man carrying suspicious looking bags wandering around the beach.
Nava's 90-year-old mother, Mazal Elimelech, told Ynet that the family has agreed "to do anything to get to the truth, just to know who the killer is, who did this atrocity."
"I'll give my life, my family's life, our joy, anything to so we can get to the person who did it," said the mother.
She added that she doesn't have an idea who could have killed her daughter, but says she believes the friend Nava went to visit and the mother of the friend know.
"I'm almost certain that the friend and her mother know everything, but don't want to tell the truth. The girl (Nava) left the apartment and Tali (the friend) called me and I told her that 'Nava left a note, she's on her way to you," says Mazal.
"Tali said she was worried, that Nava never came, and after that she was caught, and she started screaming 'why cry over spilled milk.' Why did she have to say those things?" asks the mother of the victim.
Several years later, the than chief of staff Rafael "Raful" Eitan hinted that Palestinians were behind the murder, as a kind of initiation to join a terror organization. The theory quickly buried.
Researchers maintained that the killer wasn't acting on his own, since the body was sawed and moved from the murder scene to different beach locations. But no lead was discovered.
With no key suspect, the case was forgotten until 1998, when the ex-wife of a man named Yehuda Shelef claimed he had confessed to her for the murder of Elimelech. Police arrested him and his brother, searched his home and excavated the yard but found nothing, and the brothers were released.
That was the last the Israeli public heard of Nava Elimelech.
In past cases when an exhumation was ordered, the police had already had a key suspect in hand. "No officer would have taken a chance with an exhumation without having substantial suspicions," said an unnamed source who knows the investigation details.
Such dramatic orders were given in the murder case of Noa Eyal, who's murderer Daniel Nachmani was arrested 21 years after the 1998 murder, following new DNA evidence.
Elimelech's mother signed a document permitting to exhume her child's remains on Sunday, from a cemetery located in the Bat Yam and Holon border.
"No one told me anything," the mother says about the new information that led to the exhumation. "I wish I knew, and I hope they will know."
Mazal says that despite the long years, her daughter is still present in her life. "The house is full of pictures. I keep imagining the door opening, and in comes Nava, coming back from school. I still have this hope, I can't sleep at nights. She was a special girl, so kind hearted."
Eliezer Yair, who was a teacher at Elimelech's school for years, said that she was "a charming and good-natured girl, pretty and responsible, who always told her parents what she was up to."
"She wasn't the adventurous kind," Yair added, "she came from a good home with supportive parents and a supportive family. She was a hard-working student and very sportive, all the teachers were in love with her, since she had such a friendly character. Nava was a kind soul."
"We were shocked, all the students and staff. We didn’t know how to process it — first the disappearance and then the finding of the body. I was a gym teacher and we held a race in her honor every year after that, with her family present."
Retired police commander Isaac Gatenyu was part of the investigation team in 1982, and said "the case was the biggest, and most sensitive case of the Israel police at the time."
"My role was to go threw sex offenders, I checked hundreds and investigated dozens," Gatenyu said, and estimated the killer is either a sex offender or a terrorist.
"Today there are more things that can be done. We sent evidence to England for examination, but nothing came out of it," said the former investigator.
The remains of 12-year-old Elimelech, who was murdered some 37 years ago was exhumed Sunday after police said they have made new discoveries in the case. A gag order was put on the new details.
Elimelech was last seen leaving her home in the city of Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv, on Saturday afternoon, March 20th, 1982. She left a note for her parents who were resting, saying "I went to visit a friend, don't worry."
Elimelech was wearing red pants and a matching shirt. Her sister was the last one to talk to her when they met under the building, on the girl's way out to visit her friend.
The parents became anxious soon after, when the friend's mother called Elimelech's home and said she had never arrived for the planned visit. The family called the police, but efforts to locate the girl only started that evening.
Thousands of people joined the police search, Elimelech's photo was distributed, and police dogs sniffed the nearby dunes in vain.
Ten days later, the gruesome tale began to unfold: a bag containing the head the thigh of a teen drifted to a beach in the north of Tel Aviv, and quickly identified as the remains of Elimelech. Several days passed and more body parts drifted to shore, as the country was engulfed in hysteria over the haunting details of the case.
The Tel Aviv Central Police Unit was responsible for the investigation, but no lead was found. Life guards, boat owners and regular visitors to the beach were all questioned, but no one had seen a man carrying suspicious looking bags wandering around the beach.
Nava's 90-year-old mother, Mazal Elimelech, told Ynet that the family has agreed "to do anything to get to the truth, just to know who the killer is, who did this atrocity."
"I'll give my life, my family's life, our joy, anything to so we can get to the person who did it," said the mother.
She added that she doesn't have an idea who could have killed her daughter, but says she believes the friend Nava went to visit and the mother of the friend know.
"I'm almost certain that the friend and her mother know everything, but don't want to tell the truth. The girl (Nava) left the apartment and Tali (the friend) called me and I told her that 'Nava left a note, she's on her way to you," says Mazal.
"Tali said she was worried, that Nava never came, and after that she was caught, and she started screaming 'why cry over spilled milk.' Why did she have to say those things?" asks the mother of the victim.
Several years later, the than chief of staff Rafael "Raful" Eitan hinted that Palestinians were behind the murder, as a kind of initiation to join a terror organization. The theory quickly buried.
Researchers maintained that the killer wasn't acting on his own, since the body was sawed and moved from the murder scene to different beach locations. But no lead was discovered.
With no key suspect, the case was forgotten until 1998, when the ex-wife of a man named Yehuda Shelef claimed he had confessed to her for the murder of Elimelech. Police arrested him and his brother, searched his home and excavated the yard but found nothing, and the brothers were released.
That was the last the Israeli public heard of Nava Elimelech.
In past cases when an exhumation was ordered, the police had already had a key suspect in hand. "No officer would have taken a chance with an exhumation without having substantial suspicions," said an unnamed source who knows the investigation details.
Such dramatic orders were given in the murder case of Noa Eyal, who's murderer Daniel Nachmani was arrested 21 years after the 1998 murder, following new DNA evidence.
Elimelech's mother signed a document permitting to exhume her child's remains on Sunday, from a cemetery located in the Bat Yam and Holon border.
"No one told me anything," the mother says about the new information that led to the exhumation. "I wish I knew, and I hope they will know."
Mazal says that despite the long years, her daughter is still present in her life. "The house is full of pictures. I keep imagining the door opening, and in comes Nava, coming back from school. I still have this hope, I can't sleep at nights. She was a special girl, so kind hearted."
Eliezer Yair, who was a teacher at Elimelech's school for years, said that she was "a charming and good-natured girl, pretty and responsible, who always told her parents what she was up to."
"She wasn't the adventurous kind," Yair added, "she came from a good home with supportive parents and a supportive family. She was a hard-working student and very sportive, all the teachers were in love with her, since she had such a friendly character. Nava was a kind soul."
"We were shocked, all the students and staff. We didn’t know how to process it — first the disappearance and then the finding of the body. I was a gym teacher and we held a race in her honor every year after that, with her family present."
Retired police commander Isaac Gatenyu was part of the investigation team in 1982, and said "the case was the biggest, and most sensitive case of the Israel police at the time."
"My role was to go threw sex offenders, I checked hundreds and investigated dozens," Gatenyu said, and estimated the killer is either a sex offender or a terrorist.
"Today there are more things that can be done. We sent evidence to England for examination, but nothing came out of it," said the former investigator.
30 july 2019
L-R: United Torah Judaism leader Yaakov Litzman, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and National Union head Bezalel Smotrich
Despite regulations, the court's legal advisor sends religious party leaders' recommendations for legislation that would expand the rabbinical system's powers, including allowing Jewish law to be used in civil cases, constructing new building to match that of Supreme Court
Senior officials in Israel's rabbinical courts prepared a document suggesting legislation for ultra-Orthodox parties to use during coalition negotiations after the April 2019 elections.
The document, which goes against existing regulations on the separation of the rabbinical courts and the political echelon, was obtained by Ynet's sister publication Yedioth Ahronoth.
It was sent out from the personal account of the rabbinical courts' legal advisor Rabbi Shimon Yaacovi two weeks after the elections, in an email entitled "Clauses for the government's basic guidelines." It was sent to several members of the ultra-Orthodox parties' negotiators as well as Bezalel Smotrich, the head of the National Union party.
The document contained suggested legislation that the ultra-Orthodox parties should demanded from the government during the coalition talks.
The most noteworthy item was proposed legislation that states that, "the rabbinical courts will have the authority to decide financial cases according to Jewish law, if all sides in the dispute agree."
Similar legislative attempts meant to increase the power and scope of the rabbinical courts beyond divorce and conversion, have previously been stopped in the past by the Supreme Court.
Other items in the document dealt directly with employment conditions for rabbinical court staff, demanding they be equal to those of workers in the civil court system.
Yaacovi also recommends that the government commit to assigning a budget for a new rabbinical court building and the chief rabbinate that is of equal standard to the Supreme Court building.
The legal adviser also sought to increase his own jurisdiction, recommending that he be authorized to appear before the Supreme Court for any injunction involving rabbinical courts without receiving permission from the attorney general.
The attorney general's office declined to comment.
A spokesman for the rabbinical courts denied that there had been any effort to interfere with the political process.
"Attorney Yaacovi was not involved in the coalition negotiations," the spokesman said in response to a query from Yedioth Ahronoth. "He did not and does not provide guidance to members of Knesset."
He added: "A document regarding legislative and budgetary needs of the rabbinical courts was sent to the senior management of the courts as well as to the director-general of the Ministry of Religious Services, as part of documents prepared for a government committee looking into conditions in the various court systems... Copies of the letter were made available to other people as well.
Despite regulations, the court's legal advisor sends religious party leaders' recommendations for legislation that would expand the rabbinical system's powers, including allowing Jewish law to be used in civil cases, constructing new building to match that of Supreme Court
Senior officials in Israel's rabbinical courts prepared a document suggesting legislation for ultra-Orthodox parties to use during coalition negotiations after the April 2019 elections.
The document, which goes against existing regulations on the separation of the rabbinical courts and the political echelon, was obtained by Ynet's sister publication Yedioth Ahronoth.
It was sent out from the personal account of the rabbinical courts' legal advisor Rabbi Shimon Yaacovi two weeks after the elections, in an email entitled "Clauses for the government's basic guidelines." It was sent to several members of the ultra-Orthodox parties' negotiators as well as Bezalel Smotrich, the head of the National Union party.
The document contained suggested legislation that the ultra-Orthodox parties should demanded from the government during the coalition talks.
The most noteworthy item was proposed legislation that states that, "the rabbinical courts will have the authority to decide financial cases according to Jewish law, if all sides in the dispute agree."
Similar legislative attempts meant to increase the power and scope of the rabbinical courts beyond divorce and conversion, have previously been stopped in the past by the Supreme Court.
Other items in the document dealt directly with employment conditions for rabbinical court staff, demanding they be equal to those of workers in the civil court system.
Yaacovi also recommends that the government commit to assigning a budget for a new rabbinical court building and the chief rabbinate that is of equal standard to the Supreme Court building.
The legal adviser also sought to increase his own jurisdiction, recommending that he be authorized to appear before the Supreme Court for any injunction involving rabbinical courts without receiving permission from the attorney general.
The attorney general's office declined to comment.
A spokesman for the rabbinical courts denied that there had been any effort to interfere with the political process.
"Attorney Yaacovi was not involved in the coalition negotiations," the spokesman said in response to a query from Yedioth Ahronoth. "He did not and does not provide guidance to members of Knesset."
He added: "A document regarding legislative and budgetary needs of the rabbinical courts was sent to the senior management of the courts as well as to the director-general of the Ministry of Religious Services, as part of documents prepared for a government committee looking into conditions in the various court systems... Copies of the letter were made available to other people as well.
Israeli soldiers invaded, Tuesday, Sur Baher Palestinian town, south of occupied East Jerusalem, and confiscated privately-owned Palestinian lands to use for what the City Council called “public facilities.”
Hamada Hamada, the head of Wadi al-Hummus Committee in Sur Baher, said dozens of soldiers and police officers, accompanied by personnel of the Jerusalem City Council, invaded the area, and confiscated five Dunams (1.23 Acres) and 200 square/meters (2152.78 Feet), owned by Omar Ahmad Dabash, in addition to four Dunams (0.98 Acres) owned by Yasser Ali Dweiyat.
Hamada added that the lands are close to Talpiot area, which was built on illegally confiscated Palestinian lands owned by Sur Baher residents.
He also said that the Palestinians filed appeals with Israeli courts but were unable to get them to reverse the confiscation orders of their lands.
Israel claims it intends to build various projects, including a police station, and a public center in addition to a kindergarten for Israeli colonialist settlers.
The Palestinians who owned the lands were denied the right to use them for construction or agriculture.
It is worth mentioning that the illegal confiscation orders were first issued in the year 1999, when some residents went to the City Council to obtain construction permits to build on their own lands.
A week ago, Israeli forces launched a large-scale destruction operation against civilian property in Wadi al-Humus neighborhood, in Sur Baher casing hundreds of Palestinians to lose their shelter.
Hamada Hamada, the head of Wadi al-Hummus Committee in Sur Baher, said dozens of soldiers and police officers, accompanied by personnel of the Jerusalem City Council, invaded the area, and confiscated five Dunams (1.23 Acres) and 200 square/meters (2152.78 Feet), owned by Omar Ahmad Dabash, in addition to four Dunams (0.98 Acres) owned by Yasser Ali Dweiyat.
Hamada added that the lands are close to Talpiot area, which was built on illegally confiscated Palestinian lands owned by Sur Baher residents.
He also said that the Palestinians filed appeals with Israeli courts but were unable to get them to reverse the confiscation orders of their lands.
Israel claims it intends to build various projects, including a police station, and a public center in addition to a kindergarten for Israeli colonialist settlers.
The Palestinians who owned the lands were denied the right to use them for construction or agriculture.
It is worth mentioning that the illegal confiscation orders were first issued in the year 1999, when some residents went to the City Council to obtain construction permits to build on their own lands.
A week ago, Israeli forces launched a large-scale destruction operation against civilian property in Wadi al-Humus neighborhood, in Sur Baher casing hundreds of Palestinians to lose their shelter.
