ISRAELI GOVERNMENT PRESSURES JUDGE TO SENTENCE JEWISH DISSIDENTS

Israeljustice.com

  JERUSALEM -- An Israeli magistrate is under pressure by the government to reverse an acquittal and order stiff prison sentences for three Jewish dissidents.  
    Jerusalem Magistrate Rachel Shalev-Gertal quoted a senior government official as being personally interested in pursuing the conviction and sentencing of Jewish dissidents even after their acquittal. Shalev-Gertal questioned the motives of Deputy State Prosecutor for Special Affairs Shai Nitzan in relentlessly prosecuting the case of three young Jewish dissidents who organized a mass road-blocking in May 2005 to protest the government's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank after she had acquitted them of sedition in September 2007.  
    "I spoke to Shai Nitzan and he has taken this case personally and there are personal motives," Shalev-Gertal said during the Feb. 19 hearing at the Jerusalem Magistrates Court. "This case is important to me personally. I am pleased that the [District] Court convicted them," the judge quoted Nitzan as saying.  
    The Justice Ministry denied that Nitzan acted unethically or illegally by ordering the State Prosecutor's office to appeal the acquittal by Shalev-Gertal to the higher court. The Jerusalem District Court later convicted the three on the charge of sedition and returned the case to Shalev-Gertal for sentencing.  
    "Every activity and decision by the State Attorney [Shai Nitzan] in this matter is done in the framework of his job. We have nothing else to add," Moshe Cohen, spokesman for the Justice Ministry, said.  
    State Prosecutor Dan Padan asked for a stiff sentence for the three defendants, Shai Malka, Adiel Sharabi and Ariel Vangrover, arguing that since they had committed an ideological crime, they would repeat the offenses.  
    Shai Malka, Adiel Sharabi and Ariel Vangrover, deemed the leaders of the National Home [Bayit Leumi] movement, were charged with sedition and incitement in connection with the blocking of Israeli highways on May 16, 2005, prior to the August 2005 expulsion of 10,000 Jews from the Gush Katif bloc in the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank. The three defendants, arrested on the eve of the protest, were acquitted on Sept. 20, 2007 by Jerusalem Magistrate Rachel Shalev-Gertal on the basis of selective enforcement of the law. The State Prosecutor's office appealed against the acquittal and the Jerusalem District Court announced its decision to re-indict them on Nov. 19.  
    "I made a mistake with the indictment," Padan said. "I now realize that there are many more offenses. I'm not asking to convict on more offenses...If this case would have come before the court after the case of Beit HaShalom [government's expulsion from Jews in Peace House in Dec. 2008] in Hebron, it's clear that you [Shalev-Gertal] would have ruled to imprison them," Padan said.  
    Shalev-Gertal, who had expressed skepticism throughout the two and half-year trial over the prosecution's claim that the defendants were the sole architects of the campaign against the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank, once again chided State Prosecutor Dan Bahat.  
    "Where does this arrogance come from?" Shalev-Gertal asked. "How do you know what I would do?"  
    The maximum sentence for sedition is five years but Shalev-Gertal said that a conviction or community service is often a stiff enough penalty.  
    "The conviction itself is a harsh sentence and probation is a harsh sentence," Shalev-Gertal said. "Given the parameters of the case and take in to account that the defendants don't have any criminal past and we don't send people to prison after so many years and that they already spent four months in jail, you come to an agreement for community service, even with much more serious cases," she said. "The time has come to end this case."  
    Malka, Sharabi and Vangrover, deemed the leaders of the National Home [Bayit Leumi] movement, were charged with sedition in connection with the blocking of Israeli highways on May 16, 2005, prior to the August 2005 expulsion of 10,000 Jews from the Gush Katif bloc in the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank. The three defendants, arrested on the eve of the protest, were acquitted on Sept. 20, 2007 by Shalev-Gertal on the basis of selective enforcement of the law. The State Prosecutor's office appealed against the acquittal and the Jerusalem District Court announced its decision to convict them on Nov. 19, 2007.  
    Defense Attorney Ido Stouber argued that the District Court, which convicted the three of sedition, never mentioned the sedition charge and it was "swallowed up" in the other charges of incitement and executing a crime as a unit but Stouber said Sharabi didn't participate in any demonstrations and therefore the conviction is questionable.  
    "There is no place to convict these defendants," Stouber said. "The District Court didn't relate specifically to the offense of sedition but only related to the incitement to go out and demonstrate."  
    Stouber filed a request with the Supreme Court to hear the case and the answer is still pending.  
    Shalev-Gertal said she would rule on the lesser charges and the next hearing would be scheduled after the defendants had met with a probation officer and the Supreme Court had responded to the petition for a hearing.  
    "They're doing everything to glue to us a sticker of criminals," Malka said of the State Prosecution.