A sick police force
A police commissioner who criticizes the Supreme Court is a commissioner who damages the rule of law.
By Gideon LevyA police force that does not immediately expel an officer like Shahar Mizrahi out of shame is a sick police force. When Police Commissioner David Cohen, instead of condemning an officer convicted of killing alleged car thief Mahmoud Ganaim, says the police will continue to back him, he cannot remain commissioner. A commissioner who by implication criticizes the Supreme Court is a commissioner who damages the rule of law. True, these are serious accusations, but the conduct of the police is no less serious.
The public's identification with Mizrahi, the wave of lament over his bitter fate and the threat that the police will not be able to fulfill their role have totally obscured the serious act he committed. This was intentional, of course. The criminal has become a hero, so let's recall the details of the incident that retired justice Dalia Dorner termed an "execution." Mizrahi killed an unarmed civilian who was not threatening the officer's life. With live ammunition from close range, Mizrahi shot in the head a civilian who was trying to flee the scene. He violated both the law and procedures for opening fire.
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Israel Police Commissioner David Cohen |
| Photo by: Archive) |
This was the basis of his conviction, and justifiably so. An acquittal would have given the police a license to kill whenever they felt like it. It's discouraging to see how the members of the public who are siding with Mizrahi are eager to have a police force that kills, but just Arabs, of course.
True, Mizrahi didn't have any luck. His case was assigned to the right judges. If he had the luck of another policeman, Shmuel Yehezkel, who in 2005 shot Samir Dari in the back and killed him, he would have been acquitted.
Yehezkel's fate fell into the hands of District Court Judge Noam Solberg and his intellectual mentor, Supreme Court Justice Eliyakim Rubinstein, so he was acquitted, despite Solberg's ruling that Yehezkel "senselessly killed the deceased." Mizrahi was less successful even though he had the same lawyer, David Libai. His fate fell into the hands of Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch. She did her job with integrity and courage, and now she is being attacked for it. Almost no one is coming to her defense. Instead of thanking Beinisch, they're attacking her.
Mizrahi's defenders, who launched an outrageous media campaign that included the particularly cynical and repulsive use of a policeman, Shlomi Asulin, who was seriously injured in another incident, sends a frightful message to other officers: Keep on killing. They are trying to mislead and terrorize with the claim that there are no police departments that don't kill unnecessarily, and no war against crime without excessive violence.
That's a lie - as if the more than 40 civilians killed by the police in the past 10 years were not enough. (And the spokesman for the national police headquarters didn't bother to respond to Haaretz's request for more exact figures ). It's a horrifying figure that is accepted here with complacency because almost all the victims have been Arabs. (Imagine what would have happened if Mizrahi had killed Tal Mor, the suspect in the hit-and-run incident in which the son of a former Supreme Court justice was killed last month. What a commotion it would have caused, and what a punishment the policeman would have received without anyone voicing criticism. )
As if police violence against criminals and innocent civilians were not enough, not a week goes by in which a civilian is not battered by violent police officers. Instead of halting this dangerous trend, we accept the backing the police criminal receives, which is accompanied by shameful silence on the part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman and Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein. The Supreme Court is again alone against this whole wave of violence, which receives a tailwind in the media.
They say that now the police "will think twice before every operation." Great. Does anyone want policemen to shoot without thinking first? They argue that the police can no longer defend civilians. In the meantime it's actually the court that has come to the defense of civilians. They also contend that "the court doesn't know the situation on the ground." Nonsense. How is it that the court knows the situation on the ground when it convicts civilians, but doesn't know the situation on the ground when it convicts policemen? And finally, they make the ridiculous statement: "We will respect the court's decision," as if they are hinting they have a choice.
The ink on Beinisch's just ruling has not yet dried, but the campaign for a pardon for Mizrahi is already beginning, under the scandalous direction of Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch. This has to be stopped immediately. If Mizrahi doesn't serve his sentence, we will know that policemen can kill without restraint. Yesterday they needlessly killed Mahmoud Ganaim. Tomorrow they are liable to kill Jewish civilians, too. And then we are sure to protest.
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The first installment is always cheap. I give Iron Dome 2 years before it will be declared obsolete and Iron Dome II will be for sale, at higher cost, of course. After all it is only American tax money. 1000 missiles = $40 million 8 more batterires @ 102.5 million each = $820 million 8000 more missiles = $320 million. total = $462,500,000 You want to put a stop to war? Then encourage government to come down hard on the military-industrial complex the way they are purportedly coming down on Wall Street. Of course, that may cost America 200 jobs, or so. Can America survive usch a loss?
Killing of non-jews comes easy to IDF and the police it seems. Public acceptance speaks volumes.
Come on guys. Make your point but don't be so inflammatory in the headline. There is no adavantage to this and it is simply not true.
The time for Israel-bashing on the part of megalomaniac Gideon Levi has to come to an end. Since Gideon Levi hasn't anything positive to say about Israel, it's time for Gideon Levi to hand in his Israeli ID and passport and join Azmi Bishara in Syria.Enough is enough.
When I lived in segregated Virginia in the late 1950s, a cop would never get in trouble for shooting a 'colored'.
And Arabs for Arabs . The way Arab/Muslims massared from Bali to Belsen and then Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, but never massacred Arabs they massacred Jews. . It;s the way the World goes Gideon. If you think it's not justice, remember that horrid Palestinian/Arab Suicide-bomber at the Beach-front Disco in Tel Aviv.? They were not Arabs who were massacred but Jews.. Let;s remember Arabs for Arabs and Jews for Jews
Whether the police, the TDF or the border guards, there is a level of disregard for the Supreme Court decisions. A perception of the Supreme Court as too soft on security is used to justify military-police excesses. It is incumbant that administrative and policy leadership uphold Court decisions regardless of political inclination. Democracy requires a balance of power to protect all from the excesses of the few.
You say 'almost all' of the 'more than forty' people killed by the Israeli police in the last ten years have been Arab. Exactly how many have not? Zero? One? Five?
Mizrahi is probably not the type of Israeli policeman, especially of the infamous "Border Police", who kills innocent ethnic Arabs preemptively. He killed an unarmed car-thief who happened to be an ethnic Arab. That was unprofessional because it was an excessive use of power - but the fact remaines that the "victim" was a criminal who tried to get away. Thus the court sentence seems to be measured and sagacious. Now the minister and the police commissioner bump in, blurring the murky line between solidarity and complicity. What is it that they want? A "carte blanche" for uniformed people to kill? Presumably not: they are rather primitive populists!
..... it is so absolute, that I will not even open my mouth to discuss why I disagree with the Supreme Court (and I disagree quite strongly)..... But if we do not respect the Supreme Court, we cease to exist.
Everybody in Israel knows, that lately we had several controversial court decisions against the Police. These are absolutely internal issues, and not connected with Arabs. The controversy arises from the public perception that courts of Law should do more to help the police fight crime. These are standard polemics in Western democracies, where the court has to follow a strict adhesion to legal issues, and the public wants to see felons punished, and couldn't care less about the means. And this goes the same for Israeli or Arab criminals. A proper left-wing article would be to defend the court decision, within the realm of Western-standard justice, and not to drag it into the Arab-Israeli conflict where it clearly does not belong. The main question is how much force should the police be given in order to combat crime, and this concerns all democracies.
That is the problem! The same for Israeli or Arab. The law should be the same FOR ALL ISRAELIS- they are all Israelis - do you not understand that? Jew and Arabs are equal and should be treated equally and it is not internal when you advertised your country as a Western Democracy. Your country is not in the West and it does not behave in civilized manner. In fact Israel is behaving worse than many of the worst communist dictatorships during the cold war and you really should not ever criticiae Islamic countries because you are really outdoing them these days when it comes to inhumane treatment of women, children etc., and I am speaking of your own.
...arabs are internal to Israel? It's certainly telling that you see Israeli arabs as an 'external issue'. It sounds like older rhetoric directed against us jews.
He keeps getting better and better, and more and more brutally honest... decent journalism.
There is obviously the wrong element in the police force in ALL countries. Look what they are paid and made to do. BUT I AGREE WITH ZERO TOLERANCE. Particularly to criminal activivty. Go Blues go.
I take exception to your presentation of the so-called 'facts' to the case. You have deliberately omitted a clear description of the incident and only made claims and accusations about what happened. There was no 'evidence' presented in your article. The job of the police is to solve crimes and if possible to bring the accused before the courts for administration of justice. The police have no directive to 'protect' the citizenry. Protection of individuals is the right and responsibility of the individual himself. That is the reason for the 2nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution--the right to keep and bear arms. To put it another way: I carry a gun because 1) cops are too heavy to carry around, and 2) when seconds count, the cops are only minutes away, and 3) my personal protection is my job.
Aside from the fact that Israel is not (yet) part of america, your argument rests on the idea that laws are a set of abstract imperatives. If this was the case, then there would be precious little reason to follow them in the first place. However, as might be clear with a liitle more inspection, laws are put in place to protect society. If that isn't a directive to 'protect and serve' then I don't know what is.
What is wrong with criticizing the Supreme Court. It is made up of people, sure not a divine force not to be challenged? Right?
they are supposed to be here to serve and protect ... oh wait i must of got confused with another countries cops ....
They say; Israel's policeman has killed Mahmoud because he was trying to steal a car. OK. He was a thief . But who are the real thiefs?! . Occupation and land confiscation by military force is theft. House demolitions carried out by military force against civilians who have no recourse to the law clearly constitute violent theft. The forcible confiscation of natural resources such as water by a military administration or by armed settlers is theft. The effort to show Israel as always an exemplar of high moral values and the Palestinians as unable to maintain those values, is extremely hypocritical and sanctimonious. …. Israel doesn't care about the killings of arabs.
Penalty for attempting to Steal a Car: Execution on the Spot. no arrest, no charge, no trial, no judge, no verdict Just the cop who he saw him attempt to steal the car and: EXECUTED HIM ON THE SPOT
for reasons i cannot detail.apart from that prof' david libai is a fine individual ,most liberal, if not a bit of a leftie.
...in Israel" is most evidenced by the apparent wide-spread willingness of various "executive" entities to disregard edicts of the High Court they disagree with or find politically inconvenient --and do so with impunity. (If that situation were prevalent in the US it would be considered a "constitutional crisis"--but I hasten to admit that such an event DOES require a "constitution.")
It appears from many reports that I have read recently that Israeli society is becoming more and more intolerant of Arabs and sees them as of less value than Jewish people. How can this be? The Jews were one of the most abused people in history. How can it be that when they now have their own state that they can no longer identify with the abused ? For me this is very sad ! It is well known that when people suffer abuse as children they often go on to be abusive adults. Is it something like this that is going on in Israel on a societal level ?
As an Israeli Jew this situation makes me very sad. Most Israelis I speak with don't seem to care all that much about the suffering of our minorities and the people in the occupied territories. You may have hit on something here. Richard Ben Or Jerusalem
Not that there are no racist among Israelis, but comparatively speaking Israelis are a model of tolerance compared to the Arabs, for example. It is so tempting to apply your efforts where it is easier to achieve results, instead of applying them where results are really needed.
Ron, Israel may well be a more tolerant society than Arab states but is that the benchmark with which to compare. Also, I notice that you did not comment on why a people who have known such suffering are prepared to oppress another people for the past 60 years or more. I would have expected that moral impetus would have existed amongst the Jewish, in remembrance of their own past, to equitably resolve the conflict as soon as possible.
All you see are Arabs, Ethiopians, Sephardim. Soon there will be no room for real Jews in Israel. We need to address a permanent solution.
On the surface it appears puzzling, but the truth is that the mantra of "Never again!" merely allows the ends to justify the means, and to cast questions of loyalty, intelligence, or sanity on those who dare question the means. In this way, we say that "What happens to my tribe means everything. What happens to my neighbor's tribe is his own fault." The sorry irony is that (while not equivalent) "Never again!" was also the response to the abuse stemming from a treaty at Versailles.
Maybe we should move you to crime-infested areas. The cop in question was about to be run over by the car the perp was driving. He called for him to stop, and he didn't. Bang, you're dead. This is what happens to crooks, and rightly so. Want people to not get shot by the police? I've got a great idea - don't steal cars.
Police violence and impunity exists, probably in every country in the word. In Sweden, where I live, it is unfortunately all too common. What makes the Israeli situation extreme is that the violence almost exclusively is directed towards the arab minority. And the palestinians in the occupied territories, of course, where the violence and harassment by soldiers and border police are everyday experiences in people's lives.
No comparison at all! Barabbas was zealot who was convicted of murdering a Roman soldier. He was not a policeman or any type of person that you would count as a hero as a policeman should be. The pharisees wanted him released because they thought that Jesus was more of a danger to their way of life than Barabbas was. Interesting that the name Bar Abba means 'from the Father'. It was corrupted, no doubt, the same way that 'phillistine' became 'palestine'.
How did these Arab Refugees get away with it? It was the idea of Yasser Arafat in unison with the Arab League who conjured up the idea of of turning their refugees into Palestinians after the defeat of the Arabs in the Aab/Israeli War of 1948, The Arab Leaue did not want these refugees, , nobody did, so they hurled them on to the Jews and called them Palestinians with a claim to the region of Palestine. in which was the homeland of the Jews, . Then as Palestinians they became a thorn in the life of the Israelis whose homeland was in the region of Judah/Palestine.. and today that is the point of the conflict.
the Police dept looks pretty grim to a personna writes such columns as this one my question to the writer of this very important piece of work or a masterpiece knocking the police to the world is are you a criminal or did time? Thats why you are so against the Police? a thought
human rights, civil right, human dignity... pick one.
I am from Victoria, in Australia and we had similar statistics there (35 killed between 1984 and 1995, double any other state). People were justifiably outraged calling the police “trigger-happy”. In the end, the police force underwent training and now it’s a non-issue. I hope that the same thing can happen here, thanks for the article.
Police conduct regardless of the national origin of the victim is at issue here. For all of those who rejoice at police brutal deadly action, because the escaping thief, now is an Arab; would not want to see the day when this mentality of shooting from the hip, is generalized to the rest of the population. The police force must be taught to protect the public, not to threaten the public. I am running scared in this so called bastion of democracy.
Whatever you see within the green line is a thousand times worse beyond it. Remember Ziad Jilani, a driver killed outright by a policeman in a Wadi Joz street a few weeks ago? Anyone at all remember his name? Is anyone talking about it? Did the case ever get to the courts at all?
This is exactly what Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch is trying to prevent. But is there any hope? On the ground, it really seems already too late as this grave development was supposed to trouble everyone in the country, yet it clearly doesn't.
There is more concern over damaged Jewish graves than there is for the death of Arab citizens or rogue policemen.
It's obscure, but one can work out what you're suggesting. You're exactly the kind of 'friend' who is a living indictment of what Israel is becoming.
Its scary that a Minister of Police would respond the way Aharonowitz did. If it was only for populist reasons I wouldn,t be so alarmed. I think he truly believes Mizrahi was done an injustice. This places a black mark on our society and let no one rest assured that they are immune to the excesses of the ploice - Jew and Arab alike.
Thank you, Gideon Levy! And once, again, my deepest respect for Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch
Law must stay constant through time to allow for the formalization of (Just) rules; however, Law also must allow for timely revision when the underlying social and political circumstances have changed. So the critique and actions of a weak and incompetent (untouchable) Police Officer can be taken into account, but in this case can be totally ignored by the Supreme Court and have little or no impact on the Rule of Law. Justice is blind, but not deaf. Shalom.
I have always found the Israeli police to be especially unprofessional and never feel good after any interactions with them.
I feel agree with you about Israeli police being unprofessional and I also have never had a good experience so I try to avoid them all together. They also don't seem to be so well educated when I first moved to israel before I learned hebrew I needed some directions or something there were 2 police officers walking in the street together so I politley asked them if they spoke any english and non of them did... I would have thought that at least a basic knowladge of english would be a requirement for a job like policing in Israel. I also remember reading an article on ynet couple of weeks ago police were called out because somebody heard groans from the apartment next door turns out they were having sex. The angry woman said to one of the police officers in a sarcastic way dont you ever moan when your having sex stupid yes but sarcastic not insulting. They were given a fine. When the police left the apartment the woman chased after them to ask them to drop the fine. So the police asked her for her ID card which she didnt give and the police then left the apartment with the couple in handcuffs because they refused to show ID. Now there is no way they would have asked for ID of the individuals apartment you have just left unless you want them to refuse and arrest them just out of spite.
Were you there when that incident happened? Did you see it with you own eyes? No? Why then are you spreading gossip?
Did you see it with you own eyes? No? your gossip has led to but the spread tyranny and oppression and occupation.
When Israel was founded a horrific oversight was committed. Actually several, but I'll speak to just one. Israel should have been given a written constitution in which the principals of law and justice were defined. This case, once again, demonstrates how Israeli justice is pliable and uneven.