ISRAELI DEFENSE MIN. SHIELDS HAMAS OPERATIVE

Israeljustice.com

  JERUSALEM -- Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak shielded from prosecution a
Hamas operative accused of attacking Jewish farmers in the West Bank, a
court was told.  
    Barak signed a gag order that concealed the publication of the identity
of the Hamas attacker who was also the chief complainant in a kidnapping and
assault case against three Jewish residents of the West Bank community of
Assael in the southern Hebron hills.  
    "There is a gag order because the complainant is a Hamas terrorist and
they [State Prosecution] recruited the Israeli Defense Minister to sign a
document so that the terrorist won't come into Israel and threaten the
security of the State," Defense Attorney Yoram Sheftel said. "This is a
political issue. It is persecution [against the Jewish residents]."  
    Barak's office refused to respond to a request by Israeljustice.com to
clarify the gag order.  
    On Saturday July 5, a group of Arabs accompanied by members of the
extreme left-wing Tayush organization entered Assael. Minutes later 40
dunams of olive groves went up in flames.  
    "Their goal was two-fold," Sheftel told the Beersheba District Court on
September 7. "Firstly to burn the olive groves and secondly to provoke the
residents and they brought cameras to record."  
    In the ensuing melee, video footage showed the defendants chasing the
Arabs, tying one person to a tree and beating him. They then called the
security forces.  
    The three Jews, Lior Ben-David, Mordechai Azouriel and Eyal Rachamim,
were indicted on charges that included kidnapping and imprisonment and
brutal assault and destroying evidence, punishable by more than 20 years.  
    Police refused to investigate the cause of the fire and accepted the
version of the Arab that he dropped a cigarette that caused the fire. Police
said they closed the investigation for lack of evidence and the Arab was
released. The case was closed despite charges of negligence and trespassing.  
    The State Prosecutor's office placed a gag order signed by Barak on the
identity of the Arab, who was the chief complainant against the Jews, and
refused to disclose any information to the defense. Sheftel appealed to the
High Court that revealed that the Arab was a Hamas operative and could not
appear in an Israeli court because it was a security threat.  
    Sheftel asked the court to dismiss the case on the basis of selective
prosecution and faulted the prosecution on two counts. Firstly that the
chief complainant is a Hamas operative and secondly that the defendants were
denied their legal right to a hearing before the indictments were issued.  
    "I'm not canceling anything," Judge Hannah Slutky said "We don't have
information about arson and my concern is that the complainant was
assaulted. We cannot ignore the assault."  
    The judge added the gag order was legitimate and didn't merit closing
the case.  
    "The gag order that was signed by Defense Minister Ehud Barak comes to
prevent the exposure of Israel Security Service [Shabak] sources in the
territories," Slutky said. "Evidence [in court] is likely to expose
information sources of the Shabak and their methods of information
gathering."  
    Sheftel said the Southern District prosecutor's office, headed then by
attorney Yiska Leibovitz, discriminated in the prosecution of settlers and in the severity of the charges against them.  
    "The Hamas man who came to burn the fields is the complainant and the
residents are accused of 10 charges," Sheftel said. "They are charged with
kidnapping for the purpose of imprisonment punishable by 20 years. Ms.
Leibovitz only prosecutes settlers like this. They [Hamas and Tayush] also
burn their house and also put them [the settlers] on trial."  
    Furthermore, Sheftel said, "the prosecution has carried out
the bidding of Hamas and the extreme left. The prosecution asked that the
defendants would be detained until the end of judicial proceedings and
they were then forbidden to enter their settlement of five families."  
    Assael residents had previously complained to police that the Arab
complainant had come to their community and torched their crops at least
three times. The head of Tayush, Ezra Nawi, an Israeli who frequently
accompanies groups of Arabs to infiltrate Jewish communities in the West
Bank, is currently being prosecuted for assaulting police officers.  
    The defendants filed an appeal against the closing of the police
investigation against the Arab for arson but so far have not received any
response.  
    The next hearing in the case is scheduled for November 2 after the judge
ordered the sides to come to an agreement.  
    "The defendants have already served time in prison," Slutky said. "My
recommendation is for arbitration and to take into account the normative
behavior of the defendants of whom one has a rich record of public service
for the army."