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Photo: Nir Shaanani
Yoram Kaniuk
Photo: Nir Shaanani

Ramon and Hebron

Legal norms prevalent in West Bank doomed Haim Ramon

When the British ruled the country, they didn't quite apply British laws here. At the colonies it was okay to introduce draconian laws, arrest people without a trial, and even place them at concentration camps.

 

What happened in the Ramon trial is that the other law, which dominates the country on the other side of the road, the law in the West Bank and Gaza, overcame the law that was in place in the country during the days of attorney generals such as Haim Cohen.

 

Those who apply draconian laws in the Territories that allow the abuse of innocent people and permit arrests for months without trial, and who thought that they can continue this way without undermining the laws in Israel proper, were wrong.

 

Those who start with the arrest of innocents in the West Bank bring the law that applies there to us. The three Ramon judges – not one, or two, but all three – got the hint and ruled unanimously that Ramon is guilty; guilty that a young woman hugged him and he, a man of urges, perhaps kissed her for three seconds, with or without tongue.

 

This way we learned who the rulers of law in Israel are are: Not judges, not justice, and not the law – but rather, the desire for revenge. Revenge against someone who they feared would introduce changes in the Justice Ministry that they didn't like, so they turned the kiss into a dangerous act. One slap on the face could have been or should have been an answer, but they wanted to take their revenge on Ramon and allowed the laws in place in the West Bank and Gaza to trickle back home.

 

If I was Ramon's age, I would leave this country immediately, because fear will be ruling here. If there's no law, everything's permissible.

 

British were wiser

The British, who conducted themselves in the colonies almost – and I'm being cautious here and saying "almost" – as we conduct ourselves in the Territories, were wiser than us and didn't want fear to rule in Britain.

 

Therefore, they didn't allow their own "Territories" to overtake the courts in London the way Israeli judges, with the assistance of frightened judges, allowed the rules of our Territories to overcome the Israeli legal fortress.

 

I know I’m taking a risk with this talk; that I'll be in their sights now. Yet the judges too, who aren't amateurs when it comes to learning the law, were scared, because after all we didn't have rape here or the use of rank for the purpose of acquiring perks. And if a young woman hugs an older man, with or without tongue, what is that? Forceful rape? Three seconds used to end someone's career? Destroy a person's reputation?

 

We discovered that the real law wanted Ramon's blood and got it from a frightened legal system, a fact that undermined Israel's legal authority. Those who fail to understand it today will get it tomorrow. Assuming there is a tomorrow.

 


פרסום ראשון: 02.04.07, 16:12
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