Ziad Jilani with his three daughters.
The family of Ziad Jilani, an East Jerusalem resident shot and killed at point blank range by Israeli Border Police, will have to keep searching for justice. Last week, the Israeli attorney general announced that no charges would be pressed against the two officers who killed Jilani.
The decision is the latest in a legal saga that began when the state prosecutor closed the case after the incident occurred. But after that decision, the Jilani family appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court, which decided that there was some evidence that might justify a criminal case. The court sent it back to the attorney general–who has now decided not to press any charges.
In a statement printed by Ma’an News, Yehuda Weinstein, the attorney general, said:
We cannot rule out, beyond reasonable doubt, that one of the fighters (border policemen) really did believe in real time that the deceased, that moved his hand while he was lying wounded on the ground, was yet to be finally neutralized, and was still considered a danger. As a result, (Vinogradov) was startled, and committed another shooting in his direction from close range.
(Hebrew readers can find the attorney general’s decision here on blogger Richard Silverstein’s website.)
Weinstein is referring to Maxim Vinogradov’s defense of his actions two years ago. Vinogradov is the Israeli officer who executed Jilani on a dead end street while Jilani was lying, injured, on the floor. Vinogradov’s Internet history is littered with racist comments about Arabs and Turks, and the Jilani family has argued that “Maxim was planning to kill any Arab.”
In an interview with Mondoweiss in May, Ziad Jilani’s sister, Iman, described what happened to Ziad on June 11, 2010:
We definitely know it was an accident, his car was hit by a stone before he probably got confused and was trying to get out of the situation, and that’s why the soldiers that were walking got somewhat hit by him. It was very minor–if he wanted to kill soldiers, he would go full force and hit them very hard. And in this case, he barely brushed them, and they started firing right away. And of course when someone fires at you, what are you going to do? You’ll try to run. He knew they were going to kill him. And actually they just started shooting randomly–a little girl got injured, an old man also got injured in the whole shooting, and so [Ziad] said, maybe I can take refuge at my uncle’s house.
He went into a dead end, which he knew was a dead end because my uncle lives there. And he thought maybe they’ll stop shooting, but they shot him in the back, he fell on the floor, lying on the floor on his belly, his hands are up, and they knew he was no threat whatsoever because his shirt was up and there was nothing there. Initially, they said they were worried he had a bomb around his body, which he didn’t, and this guy Maxim, trigger happy, comes over, steps on his neck and shoots him in the head. And of course rejoicing after that, “I killed him, I killed him.” I really don’t believe this should have happened, and we think this was an act of hatred from Maxim, and we want justice. And it seems they won’t prosecute any soldier as long as they say they say that they suspect a terrorist.
The Jilani family has been pushing for the prosecution of Ziad’s killers since his death, and recently launched a campaign, “Killing Without Consequences,” to bring attention to Ziad’s death and the larger problem of impunity for Israeli officers who kill Palestinians. Nearly 3,000 people have signed a Change.org petition calling for charges to be filed against Ziad’s killers, and memorials and rallies on the two-year anniversary of Ziad’s death were held outside Israeli consulates earlier this month.
The Jilani family says that they will keep searching for justice through other avenues.
No surprise. Did anyone expect justice from these Nazis running the israeli state? At the very least, the A-G should have had the balls to say what the rule is in that god-damned shithole of a state: “He was an Arab and the Russian who murdered him was a Jew and, as such, the Arab had no human rights which any Jew needs to respect.”
It is heartbreaking. But the idea that an occupation court room could apply justice here is a stretch. It cannot happen. Will not happen.
The ruling is a message that executions of civilians….just because a soldier feels threatened is legal, is ok. This is not the first time, nor will it be the last that a soldier can murder others if he feels afraid.
Israeli’s are trained to be fearful of all Arabs from time of birth. Which means if they feel afraid for whatever reason — a look, a movement — murder is ok.
“…The ruling is a message that executions of civilians….just because a soldier feels threatened is legal, is ok…”
You understate matters. Clearly, the soldier had no reason to feel threatened. He merely finally had an opportunity to kill a Palestinian with impunity, and took it.
It’s interesting to reflect that he’s still out there. Will he kill again? Less observably, will others be encouraged by his example?
It may not be a matter of all Israeli Jews being murderous vermin. It may be a matter of Israel creating a situation where the murderous vermin among us know they can kill with impunity. Of course, there is also the point that we are all children of our culture. If we are raised in a society where we are repeatedly told covertly and sometimes overtly that it is okay and even praiseworthy to kill members of a certain group, fairly inevitably, we will be more likely to kill them. There will be guys like this of course — but also, many more of us will kill if we are irritated, or provoked, or frustrated by a member of that group.
It will just start falling within the range of acceptable responses. If here in the States we might give someone the finger, or vent with a racist rant, there we would kill.
…and of course the Palestinians know this is the situation. And this sort of thing makes me think that while I’m all for an attempt to implement a single-state solution, I doubt very much if it can work — at least not in the sense that the more idealistic among us assume it would.
The Israeli Jews have made their own bed, and now they must lie in it. They can attempt to perpetuate a Sparta built on racist oppression, or they can leave. No other outcome is realistically possible at this point.
It may be a matter of Israel creating a situation where the murderous vermin among us know they can kill with impunity.
yep
I disagree with your assessment that the soldier had no reason to feel threatened. The man he shot had just run down two police officers, then fled the scene. Such hit and run attacks were known to have been committed in the past by Palestinians acting deliberately. So as far as he knew he was dealing with an attacker brazen enough to run over border policemen and then run. Palestinian terrorists are known to dress as civilians, have used suicide bombs under their clothing, and have used tactics of multiple attacks to kill first responders to initial attacks. Given all that, why wouldn’t he think the man might have a bomb on?
how utterly deplorable. a license to kill. mindcrunching.
my sorrow for the Jilani family having to endure this after all they have gone thru.
end apartheid government.
Injustice heaped on injustice.
One day it will all be exposed to the light. For the moment the Jews in Israel have circled their wagons but the higher the bodies pile up the harder it will be to maintain discipline. For the moment there are too many of them who are happy with the status quo.
The shooter was bragging on Facebook that he wanted to kill arabs wasn’t he?
Yes, he was. He is psychopath and murderer, but he lives in a state where such people are the norm.
“…He is psychopath and murderer, but he lives in a state where such people are the norm.”
He also lives in a state where such people are permitted to indulge their proclivities. In Israel, you can shoot and kill a Palestinian who asks you for a light, and nothing will come of it. There was an American who used to travel back and forth to Israel and commit what could only be described as ‘murder tourism.’ He’d kill a Palestinian, and then go home. The Israeli police were aware of his activities, and didn’t interfere — until he started showing signs of widening his field of interest to Jews.
You can be filmed killing a Palestinian — and the police will say there ‘aren’t sufficient grounds for an investigation.’ It’s all really okay. Israel is the only country in the world where you can hunt and kill human beings. They should offer safaris.
Cite?
Oh come on, you censor that? As I’ve said before, every time you censor something that isn’t against your comment policy, it proves that you know your readers can’t win in a fair fight.
I doubt very much if you could win a rigged fight, much less a fair one.
“I doubt very much if you could win a rigged fight, much less a fair one.”
On reflection, that is a bit unfair. There is, after all, nothing whatsoever to be said on Israel’s behalf. No doubt Fredblogs could make a reasonable showing if he were defending something with some potential merit to the position, like either side of the abortion debate, or school vouchers, or even child pornography.
But Israel? I seriously don’t see how it’s possible to construct an argument on her behalf that isn’t simply a tissue of lies. Fred does more or less all that can be done with the material.
So if it’s so hopeless, why does your side resort to cheating to win?
He didn’t prosecute because the soldier had reasonable doubt on his side. If he believed the guy was trying to activate a bomb, he was justified. And other Palestinians have gone for bombs under similar circumstances, so he may well have thought that.
Nonsense. In every civilized state, the question of reasonable doubt is one for the fact finder, not the prosecuting attorney. There was clearly enough here to prosecute.
But, of course, your shitty state isn’t civilized, but a barbaric, judeo-supremacist apartheid state. It’s the Klan, but Jews. And like the state failing to prosecute the scum that did the lynchings in the South, the filth that inhabit your country don’t prosecute fellow Jews for murdering Arabs.
Come on, does anyone actually believe that there was any chance that Yehuda Weinstein was going to prosecute a Jew for killing an Arab?
In every country that requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt a prosecutor has to determine whether he has that level of proof. If he doesn’t then he isn’t supposed to bring a case.
And that’s a really nasty way to talk about America, BTW. Calling it a “shitty state” and all.
As for whether there was a chance that Yehuda Weinstein was going to prosecute a Jew for killing an Arab. The question in this case was whether he was going to prosecute a policeman who shot a hit and run driver who had run over two policemen. When the policeman said the looked to be going for a detonator when he was caught.
As to whether he has prosecuted Jews for killing Arabs, I don’t know since I am not familiar with his entire prosecution history.
Fred
The settlers and the Israeli conscripts kill Palestinians with impunity. When a Jew kills someone in Israel the Jew is punished with a jail term. When a Jew kills someone in the West Bank nothing happens .
What is it about the Green Line that makes this happen?
It is systematic. Due process yada yada. You can’t fob us off.
“…In every country that requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt a prosecutor has to determine whether he has that level of proof. If he doesn’t then he isn’t supposed to bring a case.”
In Israel the case isn’t investigated — much less taken to prosecution — even if the suspect is on film committing the act and has been identified.
This has nothing to do with normal standards of legality. This has to do with the fact that in Israel, Palestinians do not enjoy even the rights a dog would.
Seriously, you probably could get away with doing more to a Palestinian than you could get away with doing to a dog. I imagine Israel does prosecute gross cases of animal abuse.
“He didn’t prosecute because the soldier had reasonable doubt on his side…”
Nonsense, and unless you’ve reached the point where you literally cannot look at what’s in front of your nose, you must know that.
We all know why he didn’t prosecute. It has nothing to do with the law. You can make up any feeble excuse, particularly using racist stereotypes and the kind of bigotry which finds a ready audience in Israel to get yourself off the hook, and the attorney will only be too happy to let off murder or any other crime. If you are Jewish. If you are Palestinian there is no justice, because you are a non-person, with no human or civil rights.
“In every country that requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt a prosecutor has to determine whether he has that level of proof. If he doesn’t then he isn’t supposed to bring a case.”
And if every prosecutor assumed the truth of every weak excuse like this murderer’s, then there would be no prosecuations. Hell, Eichmann had a better defense than Vinogradov, and Eichmann was guilty as they get. This wasn’t a case of a prosecutorial discretion, as the israeli Supreme Court — not a organization known to have any interest in justice for Arabs — already found that there was sufficient evidence to prosecute. But the poor victim had the misfortune of being a non-Jew, murdered by a Jew in a country filled with hordes of racists like Weinstein and Vinogradov.
No one in his right mind, who isn’t — like you — dedicated to defending all Jews, regardless of the facts, could read the vile racism that Vinogradov wrote, examine the facts of this case, and not conclude that there is a basis for a trial.
“And that’s a really nasty way to talk about America, BTW. Calling it a “shitty state” and all.”
I didn’t call America a “shitty state.” The USA is my state. Your state — israel — is the shitty little state.
“As for whether there was a chance that Yehuda Weinstein was going to prosecute a Jew for killing an Arab.”
Nope. This is just you exercising your bigotry to excuse Weinstein’s bigotry in excusing Vinogradov’s lynching of an innocent man. Again, you people are like the Klan, but Jews.
“And that’s a really nasty way to talk about America, BTW. Calling it a “shitty state” and all.”
Woody was referring to Israel, not to America. I realize that functionally, the line is a bit blurred, but technically, Israel is not part of America.
I would add, however, that I too object to Woody’s comparison. A perfectly natural and necessary waste product of the human body that serves a positive purpose, however humble, shouldn’t be compared to something like Israel.
Israel really is unique, when you think about it.
There are countries where you can go and buy access to an eleven-year old of either gender and have at him or her. The occasional court case makes it clear a certain degree of discretion is expected, but…
There are also countries which are so violent, lawless, or corrupt that you probably could go there and kill someone with reasonable impunity.
El Salvador, for example. The problem is that as a foreigner, you’ll be conspicuous, and you’ll probably find yourself more the hunted than the hunter.
Israel offers the visitor an unmatched combination of personal safety and plentiful prey. I don’t know about indulging one’s other tastes, but it’s certainly the perfect place to go if you want to kill with impunity. Just be sure your target is an Arab rather than a Jew, and you should be fine.
Fredblogs
On the issue of Israel slowly wiping the Palestinians off the map for the last 64 yrs, both Israel and the US are complicit. Both are states are sh*tty and immoral.
“As to whether he has prosecuted Jews for killing Arabs, I don’t know since I am not familiar with his entire prosecution history”
LOL .. Start with how many Israeli Jews have been prosecuted for killing Arabs in the entire 64 yr history of modern Israel.
“When the policeman said the looked to be going for a detonator when he was caught.”
Very funny. Suicide bomber runs away from target.
I would call it “twitching defense” when police is beating up or shooting a victim because of the perceived danger, where perception is caused by some twitching motion. In USA it is almost always a successful defense, for example link to en.wikipedia.org
Thus there exists a legal standard “reasonable, as perceived by homicidal idiots that inevitably get recruited to an underpaid police force”. Not a universal standard, but surely one that exists in USA, come countries of Central America and Israel.
I did some research because I did not remember well the case of Tyisha Miller killed by police in California while asleep, and like in Jilani’s case, the killers were in the eyes of the law as innocent as newborn babies. The number of similarities is quite startling. One involves the frame of the mind of the killers who were “reasonable”, “defended the law and public safety” and had deep contempt for the “type of people” represented by the victim, but the latter is irrelevant according to the state lawyers. The second is that even if a part of police testimony is false as proven by physical evidence, they deserve full “benefit of the doubt” concerning the other parts. (Another similarity is that the killing happened in front of the family members, and an alleged hand movement of the victim allegedly prompted the split second decision of the killers. A huge difference is that in California some effort was made to decrease the number of such killings.)
link to solidarity-us.org
Another officer arrived at the scene within a minute after the shooting: Rene Rodriguez, who is Puerto Rican. He was key to finding out what happened. He reported, first to the police department’s internal affairs and, when nothing was done, he eventually went public with the outrageous comments the police officers made after the shooting. The supervisor compared the crying of family members to “a Kwanzaa festival,” “Watts death wails” and “animals coming in by the busload.”
Internal police communications also show that a call went out afterward reporting HNI, which means “No Humans Involved.”
——–
It is quite interesting that we see a number of appeals to “shared values with Israel”, including references to “normal Israelis” as “Anglos”, which exactly makes analogy to the situation in states like California where the civilized “Anglos” have to keep various non-pale groups in check, which results in totally split “narratives” which are surprisingly similar, for example:
the version of reasonable majority: the fact that initial testimony of police about who shot and when is totally bogus is natural given the chaos at the scene
leftist radicals: they are lying bastards and one cannot believe their single word
I dislike attempts to equate miscarriages of justice in the United States with what goes on in Israel.
First off, it ignores the question of how often it happens proportional to the population — or even in absolute terms. Secondly, it ignores the circumstances accompanying the acts. Thirdly, it often ignores the moral texture of the acts themselves.
I’ve been assaulted by American cops (for refusing to answer their questions, as it happens). I have no love for them, and my respect for them is decidedly qualified. As a friend of mine said, ‘give them two guns, and they’d work for free.’
However, their abuses of authority are nothing like what goes on in Israel.
To argue otherwise is simply to defend Israel, since you are effectively saying ‘this happens everywhere’ — which in fact, in one form or another, is a standard Hasbara tactic.
If you want to indulge in generalized anti-Americanism, I can’t stop you –but be aware that the net effect is going to be to simply dull your criticism of Israel. You’ll wind up talking to and agreeing with the same little circle of uber-progressives that have been stuck on this page for the last fifty years, and those are the only people you’ll be talking to, and the rest of the world in general will go on its way, and in particular, Israel will go on its way.
I am a conservative. I don’t expect the millennium any time soon, and I feel most attempts to accelerate its arrival make matters worse rather than better. I reserve my ire for matters of clear and acute evil, and in particular matters of clear and acute evil that I am implicated in, and that spells Israel, not some cop in wherever doing what cops occasionally do. Believe me: I don’t like cops — certainly not in principle and often not in person. However, I’d just as soon stick to Israel.