Posted on 02/18/2005 6:38:47 AM PST by Piranha
In one of his first policy decisions as head of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) has approved death sentences for three Arab men accused of helping Israel.
Gaza governor Sakher Bseso announced earlier this week that Abu Mazen had transferred several cases of people sentenced to death under Yasser Arafat’s regime to the mufti (arbiter of Islamic law) of Jerusalem, Sheikh Ikrima Sabri. Abu Mazen then signed the decisions, authorizing PA executioners to carry out the death sentences.
Shurat HaDin – The Israel Law Center condemned the decision, and though the identity of the three men was not released, speculated that the condemned men were most probably Yusef Hassan Sinwar, Muhammad Abu Kainas and his son, Rami Kainas.
Sinwar, 31, was sentenced to hanging by a PA military tribunal in October 2004, after an hour long "trial." He was convicted of assisting the IDF in capturing fugitive terrorists.
Abu Kainas and his son were similarly convicted in a Gaza military court of charges that they tipped off the IDF to the whereabouts of Hamas chief Abdel-Aziz Rantisi in June 2003, even though it lead to a failed assassination attempt, and that they also gave away the location of Ra'fat Za'anin, a Hamas leader the IDF successfully killed in 2003. The father and son were displayed to journalists in September 2004 at a police station in Gaza operated by Mohammed Dahlan's PA forces.
Another PA prisoner, Walid Hamdiya, has been on death row since 1995. In October 2002, he was sentenced to death by firing squad. Hamdiya's sentence, however, has not yet been carried out. Several other accused Israeli agents being held in PA prisons are facing capital charges although they have not been "convicted" as of yet.
"At a time when Israel is recklessly preparing to release hundreds of dangerous Palestinian terrorists from its jails as a goodwill gesture to Abbas," stated Shurat HaDin Director Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, "The Palestinians are reciprocating by carrying out the executions of suspected Israeli agents. Israel must immediately abandon the planned terrorist release and takes steps to stop the death sentences from being implemented."
In August 2002, Shurat HaDin petitioned the Palestinian Authority's Minister of Justice for permission to appear in the Gaza security court to defend another accused Israeli agent, Akram Mohammed al-Zatma, who was charged by the Palestinian preventive security forces with assisting Israeli military forces in their targeted killing of Hamas and Fatah leaders. The PA rejected its request.
In December 2000, Shurat HaDin filed a similar petition with former Justice Minister Freih Abu Meddein on behalf of another accused Palestinian collaborator, Alan Bani-Odeh. Again, the Shurat HaDin request was denied by Abu Meddein. The next day, a Palestinian security court sentenced Bani-Odeh to death in the course of a ten minute "trial" during which masked Hamas gunmen roamed the court room. Shortly afterwards Bani-Odeh was brought to the public square in Shechem (Nablus) and executed by a PA firing squad.
Even a PA human rights groups joined the condemnation of Abu Mazen. Bassam Eid, director of the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group (PHRMG), said that Abbas' decision to refer the cases to Sabri doesn't bode well for PA democracy. “On the one hand, Abbas talks publicly about democracy, human rights and pluralism; but on the other hand, he transfers the names of 51 Palestinians to the mufti, which is against international rules and human rights,” Eid said. “I see it like the other side of the same coin that was Arafat.”
Do you know that Israel has agreed to release from jail into the hands of the Palestinian Authority some 500 terrorists? There is discussion about another 400, but the issue is whether Israel should free terrorists with "blood on their hands" (i.e., unlike the first 500, these terrorists actually wounded or killed one or more people).
Of the 500, Abbas already has said that he will integrate 350 of them into his Palestinian Authority security force.
Not Israel. See my post 21. Israel releases them so that they can terrorize and kill again.
Nothing screwms fairness to me like a one hour capital crime trial.
Yep!
Yep!
Why is it a different issue though?
Israel captures terrorists who shoot at cars. It imprisons them. Then, in an attempt to change the atmosphere, it frees them as long as their gunshots cracked the windshield or blew out the tires but didn't hurt the driver or passengers.
After all of this has been negotiated. the Palestinian Authority announces that the Prime Minister himself has condemned three people accused of working with Israel to stop the terror -- which the Palestinian Authority agreed to do as the first step of the so-called Road Map to peace!
I think that they are exactly two sides of the same coin. Unfortunately, for Israel the coin is "heads I win, tails you lose."
Why is it a different issue though?
Israel captures terrorists who shoot at cars. It imprisons them. Then, in an attempt to change the atmosphere, it frees them as long as their gunshots cracked the windshield or blew out the tires but didn't hurt the driver or passengers.
After all of this has been negotiated. the Palestinian Authority announces that the Prime Minister himself has condemned three people accused of working with Israel to stop the terror -- which the Palestinian Authority agreed to do as the first step of the so-called Road Map to peace!
I think that they are exactly two sides of the same coin. Unfortunately, for Israel the coin is "heads I win, tails you lose."
I don't know about the "and more" part, but he is thought to have been the mastermind and financial backer (by authorizing payments) for the Munich Olympics massacre. He was awarded his Ph.D. for Holocaust denial, and he was one of the Palestinian arabs living in Tunisia who moved to Israel with Arafat at the beginning of the Oslo process in 1993-1994.
Excuse me but what does executing Palestians have to do with peace? It's an internal matter. No Israelis involved. Dont you think Israel has the right to justice within its own borders. Some people, perhaps you, are just looking for an excuse to kill every arab on the face of the earth.
There is a difference. The people that Israel is releasing are Palestinians, not Israelis. The ones that the PA is going to execute are Palestinians. They are not Israelis. You would have a case if they in fact were Israeli citizens planted as spies but no they are traitors. And just like that American Jew who betrayed the US to the Israelis (and the Russians) they should at the least remain imprisoned for life.
Looks like I was right when I said "Meet the new Abbas, same as the old Abbas".
Further proof the PLO does NOT want peace.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
The Palestinian Authority is an "Authority". It is not a state. I don't know whose passports its residents (I can't say "citizens" travel under, but I don't believe it is the Palestinian Authority's. Israel, as you may know, has administered the land on which these people lived from 1967 through some time in the 1990s. It is natural for them to have had relations with Israel and Israelis, since Israel made the laws and enforced them before the Oslo accord of 1993.
Don't you find it odd that one of the first laws enacted by this non-state "authority" is the death penalty for people accused (I'm not going to comment on the likely due process received by these people at "trial") of working with the very party that the PA supposedly is trying to negotiate peace with?
Even if the PA were a country, it does not make sense to do what they are doing. Let's say that North Korea and South Korea were trying to make peace. South Korea released North Koreans who had snuck into the country in order to blow up railway stations, power plants, etc., and make mayhem among citizens of Seoul. After the first stage of this release, North Korea announced that it was going to execute three North Koreans it had accused of working with South Korea to identify the terrorists. Wouldn't that make your blood boil?
This just goes to show that the world condones Arabs killing themselves and everybody else but America is evil if it harms one little hair on one little head of these rabid psychopath islamics.
Take your logic to its fulsome conclusion, Dave. By executing these people, Abu Mazen and the PA are acknowledging that they are at WAR with Israel -- for only in War do you execute those who secretly help other countries, for only in War can those countries be you enemies.
Yet by executing the Rosenbergs, we clearly indicated that we were then at War with the Soviets. That execution was unConstitutional without a more formal declaration of War or enemy status accorded to the Soviets.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.