The gravest offenses?

[Englander]

By Yuval Yoaz

It is hard not to raise an eyebrow at the legal treatment the state gave Tali Fahima, as if she was a cruel enemy endangering state security. What began as administrative detention with secret evidence turned into a standard arrest and a criminal indictment. From the plethora of offenses - "the gravest in the law" according to a district court - that appeared in the original indictment, including abetting the enemy at war, and supporting a terror organization, all that was left after the plea bargain was passing information to the enemy, contact with a foreign agent and violating a legal order (the prohibition on Israelis entering Palestinian cities).

The Fahima trial could be considered an entirely political trial, of the kind that Israel's justice system mocks its neighbors for holding. In the end, Fahima served two and a half years for translating a secret IDF document left behind by a soldier for Fatah leader Zakariya Zubeidi and some of his armed militants. "We cannot underestimate the extreme severity of the offenses on the national, social and moral level," the judges wrote in Fahima's sentencing. "She was personally involved with terrorists, strongly identifying with them," Justice Elyakim Rubinstein waxed poetic in the ruling that revoked her house arrest and put her back behind bars.

Fahima was punished not only for violating the law, but also for the defiance exhibited in her deeds, her opinions, her beliefs and her comments. The authorities wanted to stain her with moral, not just criminal, turpitude. The judges almost automatically bowed before the "sensitive security information" the Shin Bet security service revealed for their eyes only in ex parte proceedings. Time and again, Fahima asked the court to reveal to her the secret evidence against her, so she could defend herself, and time and again, her motions were rejected.

"The criminal charge was used to silence Fahima's criticism of Israeli belligerence and the pinpoint assassination policy," said attorney Avi Lubin who is writing a Master's thesis on political trials. "It is hard to treat her trial as an offense like any other offense. Her deeds raise questions Israeli society refuses to confront. Instead of listening to Fahima's criticism of Israeli policy, the state slanders her and presents her as a danger to the public."

Link;
Haaretz

Israeli jailed for holding contacts with militants gets early parole

By Yuval Azoulay, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service

Tali Fahima, who was convicted of aiding Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades militants, including the group's Jenin head Zakariya Zubeidi, was released Wednesday from Neve Tirzah Prison.

"I don't regret anything, and I will continue to work against the occupation and for peace," Fahima said following her release.

Fahima said, however, that she would not meet with Zubeidi due to the restrictions placed on her.

According to a statement released by Prisons Authority spokeswoman Orit Shtelzer, Fahima is "banned from leaving the country in the coming year, contacting a foreign agent or entering unauthorized territories," the statement read.

Roughly one hundred supporters waited for Fahima outside the prison, along with her attorney Smadar Ben-Natan. "I am very happy," said Ben-Natan. "I don't think she needed to sit (in prison) at all, obviously not for this long."

More at;
Haaretz

[breakaleg]

1. So, they held a trial with secret evidence that she couldn't see and couldn't properly

defend herself. This from a democracy.

[Tom Joad]

2. A not so atypical response of Israel to nonviolent resistance.