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 Arafats 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.
Already walled off, which is why there hasn't been a successful suicide attack launched from Gaza into Israel, forcing them to use mortars. IMO, there's no reason to keep the checkpoints open either, as long as they're under attack.
Is it treason for a Palestinian to cooperate with the Israelis?
So Abu Mazen should set an example and shoot himself first, since he promised to cooperate with the Israelis in the "peace process."
Lot's of them carry Jordanian passports. The Palestinian Authority has issued passports since 1995. They're recognized by most countries, including the US.
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?
It's even odder that they're being executed for the very job, combating terrorists, which the PA is obligated but thus far refuses to undertake.
Thanks for the ping!
Chris, I think that if you look at FR posts over the years, you'll find that moral relativism generally is not accepted as a winning argument.
What you are saying is no different than "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter," as Colin Powell put it. You're saying that one man's anti-terrorism is another man's hanging offense.
Unfortunately, your treason argument doesn't wash here, because the PA itself, by accepting the Road Map, agreed to act to halt terror. These individuals, from what I can gather from the article, were doing just that; they were helping the Israelis stop terrorist attacks, which the PA was refusing to do.
If the PA wants to have a death penalty, it should be used against those who plot to, attempt to and actually do kill innocent civilians, and not those who are trying to stamp out these terrorist activities.
You bet!
Guess we must have been in a true war with the Russians then in the 50's when the Goldbergs were executed for giving away the H-bomb.
Pollard should have gotten the Rosenberg treatment. He will only leave Federal prison in a body bag with a toe tag.
Using your retarded thinking then What are Jews doing in the Middle East to begin with it is full of angry Muslims?
If Jews cant live in Gaza then they cant live in Israel.
I agree, Gaza can go. But, no city in Judea should be given to these swine. Why do they so enjoy stringing up corpses? Do they think this makes them look frightening? It doesn't. It makes them look inhuman. Primative animals, or cockroaches that need to be exterminated.
Will this people never become civilized? They do not deserve to be at a table with civilized nations; with the rest of the human race. It is so sad.
---If Israel won't stay in Gaza, then they better completely wall off that area.
Allow one or two tightly screened checkpoints for Arabs to pass thru for work or commerce only.
The problem is that it won't stop the Arabs from launching Qassam rocket attacks on nearby Israeli settlements.---
A four hour artillery barrage might!
---If Jews cant live in Gaza then they cant live in Israel.---
Now that is some "retartded thinking".
---I agree, Gaza can go. But, no city in Judea should be given to these swine. Why do they so enjoy stringing up corpses? Do they think this makes them look frightening? It doesn't. It makes them look inhuman. Primative animals, or cockroaches that need to be exterminated. ---
That charming scene was right in the center of Ramalla if memory serves. Judea should belong to Israel in total. All that should remain of the Arabs there are old newsreels of them making like refugees.
What is with your mispelling? I did not spell anything wrong in last post.
Anyway that is what you are saying with your logic.
Except Israel -- and the rest of the world -- will get fooled again.
Why should they be allowed into Israel at all? It's not like they want to make a pali state open to Jews...
Amin Al Husseini seen inspecting his Hanzar Division made up exclusively of Muslims, mostly from the Crotia/Bosnia/Serbia region. They actively lead the genocide against Serbs, Serbian Jews and Gypsies.
Amin Al Husseini meets with Adolf Hitler in November 1942, weeks before the decision to implement the Final Solution which sent Europe's Jews to the gas chamber. The Third Reich provided Amin Al Husseini with a salary and appointed him Head of the Hanzar SS Division. The Hanzar Division was made of Nazi Muslims and implemented the genocide of 250,000 Serbs, Gypsies and Jews during WWII.
Amin Al Husseini shown here on a Nazi poster recruiting fellow Muslims to join Hitler in the fight against the West and the Jews. His disciples today include Yasser Arafat, Saddam Hussein and the leaders of Hamas, Al Qeida and Islamic Jihad.
Amin Al Husseini, future President of the World Islamic Congress (1961) and founding father of the Arab League (1944) inspects his Muslim Nazi troops, the Hanzar Division. Amin Al Husseini making the traditional nazi salute.
Yasser Arafat became a disciple of Amin Al Husseini since the age of 17. Here: recent picture of Palestinian soldiers under the leadership of Arafat making the traditional Nazi salute.
What, exactly, is a "Palestinian"?
Wake up! Its the U.S. State Department forcing the policy on them!
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