Silence in the Courtroom

[Violet_Crumble]

Israeli authorities beat Palestinians - in Court
by Amira Hass
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/424687.html
May 12, 2004


Palestinian detainees who tried to greet their families in a military courtroom were set upon and beaten by police guards, their lawyers say. Here is their testimony

The lawyers who were sitting in the waiting room at the Military Court at the Ofer Israel Defense Forces base, southwest of Ramallah, suddenly heard a scream. This was on Sunday, May 2, at around 1 P.M. They ran out. "I saw a heap of policeman, maybe eight or 10 of them, flailing and flailing, and I could see some heads, legs, arms of the beaten detainees, maybe three of them, or four, who were lying on the floor. The lawyers shouted 'Why? Why? Why?' and the police officer in charge shouted, 'Guys, guys, get all the lawyers out of here,' related attorney Khaled Kuzmar of Ramallah.

Attorney Faiz al-Shami of Be'er Sheva was inside the courtroom (which is located in a prefabricated structure) when it all began, and tells this story: "There were five detainees in the courtroom. The families were also there. One of the detainees - I don't know his name - was talking to his family, to his mother. He was standing there and speaking from a distance. A policeman (prison service official) said to the detainee: 'Don't talk. Sit down. I decide what happens here,' and they began to argue. The policeman sat him down forcibly, pushed him down onto the bench. After he pushed him, the detainee stood up again. The other detainees stood up to tell him to let him talk to his family and then about 10 policemen came in. They attacked the people and a whole mess broke out. One of the policemen, an older man, who came from outside, tried to calm things down and spread his hands on one of the detainees to get him to sit down. But the rest of the policemen got the detainees out of there by hitting them, dragged them outside and closed the door. The family members were crying. The judge wasn't in the courtroom. Only the military prosecutor, the interpreter, the stenographer and some lawyers. We couldn't do anything to get them to stop hitting."

Attorney Saleh Ayoub of Jerusalem was also in the military courtroom. "Six detainees came in, and they were seated in their places. They were accompanied by a police unit. One of the detainees who was sitting in the middle stood up and waved hello to his mother, from a distance. There was no chance that he could touch her. The detainees sit behind a low fence. The families sit on the benches at the rear. There are soldiers separating them. The detainee waved, the policeman grabbed him by the neck and sat him down by force. The detainee asked: 'What are you doing?' and the policeman cried out, 'They're rioting, they're rioting.' Reinforcements of policemen came, and they beat them. The families, from a distance, were crying. They couldn't do a thing. They too were immediately ejected."

Ahmad Yusuf, 18, of the Aida refugee camp, was among the detainees who were beaten. He has been under arrest at the Russian Compound in Jerusalem since March 25. On Sunday afternoon, lawyers Mohammed Shadsan of Al-Aroub and Khaled al-Araj from Wallaja, transcribed what the beaten men had to say about the sequence of events.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=22&ItemID=5506

[7th_Sephiroth]

1. more proof

of why i dislike the isralies