Court Refuses to Take a Stand on Home Demolitions
PRESS RELEASE
This morning, Wednesday, March 24, 2004, Judge Rivka Feldman of the Magistrates Court in Jerusalem rejected the claim of “defense of justice” at the trial of the three defendants: Rabbi Arik Ascherman – Executive Director of “Rabbis for Human Rights”, Shai Eliezer and Omer Ori, accused of opposing home demolitions.
Rabbi Arik Ascherman responded to the Judge’s decision saying: “We are very disappointed with the decision handed down at this, the beginning of the month of Nissan in which we celebrate the exodus from Egyptian injustice. It saddens us to find out that we have a court of law, but not a court of justice at a time we should especially be sensitive to the situation of the stranger who lives among us: “because strangers you were in the land of Egypt” (Leviticus 19: 33-32).
Rabbi Ascherman said that more than 30 “administrative” home demolitions have taken place in Jerusalem since the beginning of the calendar year. The Or committee has already criticized the policy of home demolitions and has stated that the Israeli government limits the possibility of Arab citizens (and even more so of Palestinians) to build legally. There needs to be legal implementation of this finding, in order to immediately stop this injustice immediately which affects so many lives. It appears that the judge did not take into account the full meaning of the concept of civil disobedience. We intend to continue our struggle to persuade the court to acknowledge the real injustice of the policy of home demolitions. The whole world is watching this trial and we do not intend to lose”.
Present at the court this morning were Sufian Maswadeh, whose home the defendants were trying to protect when arrested, Jacob Picheny, a representative of Rabbis for Human Rights supporters in North America, rabbis and activists. As at the first cession, an overflow crowd was forced to wait outside the courtroom.
For more details:
Documents submitted to the court include:
1) Court Decision/Minutes
Rabbis For Human Rights
http://www.miftah.org |