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On 27 February 2002, the Israeli High
Court accepted the petition filed by attorney Dr. Saher Ali
with the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group (PHRMG)
and gave the respondents seven days to reply. The petition
names the Minister of Police represented by the State
Attorney’s Office, the Attorney General, and the Commander
of the Hebron police as respondents. The petition requests
that the Court issue an order requiring the Hebron police,
under the authority of the Attorney General’s Office, to
respond to numerous requests for information from the PHRMG
regarding criminal complaints filed by Palestinian clients
who were victims of Israeli settler violence. The Attorney
General is required to respond to this petition within seven
days.
In June 2001,
the PHRMG launched its Settler Violence Hotline project to
provide legal counseling and legal assistance to Palestinian
victims of settler violence. Virtually none of our letters
to the Israeli police requesting information on the status
of such cases have been answered to date. The following are
some of the examples presented in our petition:
Taysir Muhammad
Abu Eisheh, his wife and their family, were attacked in
their home in Hebron by Baruch Marzel, Sharon Alkoni, and
Binyamin Itzhak. A complaint was lodged with the police in
July 2001, and Abu Eisheh identified the assailants with
certainty. For the past five months, PHRMG has requested
details on the progress of the investigation, but has
received no response.
On August 18th,
2001, Baruch Marzel, together with his wife, Sara Marzel and
other settlers, broke down the door of Mohammad Hamed
Mahmoud Abu Eisheh’s home, and threw stones. This
despicable act continued throughout the night. Mr. Abu
Eisheh lodged a complaint with the police, but no action has
been taken against the assailants, nor has the victim been
summoned to the police station for the purposes of
clarifying and continuing the investigation. On September
23rd 2001, the same assailants repeated their
attack on the property of the Abu Eisheh family. Again the
police were called, and again no measures were taken against
the assailants, who were again positively identified. A
letter was sent by PHRMG on December 9th 2001 to
the Hebron police and a copy was sent to the Attorney
General, Elyakim Rubinstein, but no answer has been
received.
On October 15th
2001, Mr. Abdullah Ibrahim Sultan, aged 75, was attacked in
the Old City of Hebron by a settler who he was able to
positively identify and photograph. On November 14th
2001, a letter was sent to the Kiryat Araba police station.
The letter requested that Mr. Sultan’s lawyer receive
updates on the status of the investigation. No answer was
received despite numerous follow-up phone calls to the
Hebron police. |
