Shai Dromi. 'We returned his horse'
Photo: Herzl Yossef
Bedouin burglar's family: What if Jew had been shot?
Family of Khaled al-Atrash who was killed by Shai Dromi when he tried to break into his property, outraged by acquittal verdict. 'If Bedouin had killed Jew, he would sit in jail for many years for murder, not manslaughter,' said burglar's brother
Just as Negev farmer Shai Dromi and his family were celebrating his acquittal
of manslaughter charges pressed against him, the relatives of Khaled al-Atrash, the burglar shot dead by Dromi as the former broke into his farm, did not hide their anger at the ruling.
"This is a racist decision," said Khaled's brother, Ramadan al-Atrash. "If it were a Jew, the story would be entirely different."
The al-Atrash family opted not to show at the verdict reading at Beersheba District Court because they felt certain Dromi would be acquitted.
Ramadan said, "In the south, the law is different for a Jew and for a Bedouin. It all depends who is being accused. If a Bedouin would have killed a Jew, he would sit in jail for many years and would be accused of murder, not of manslaughter."
Ahmad al-Atrash, Khaled's father, was amazed that the judges ruled his son to be a criminal. "I was a tracker in the IDF for many years. I served alongside Jews. When someone goes to steal, you shoot in the air, and the thief runs away."
According to the father, his son was not killed on the farm's property and never sought to steal flocks of sheep.
Ramadan added that his family intends to appeal the decision. "There will be a different panel of judges then," he said.
Khaled's father said he believes in the rule of law, but, according to him, this court case was a failure. The family is not angry with Dromi, but with the court. For instance, they noted that one of Khaled's brothers who served in the army returned Dromi's horse to him that was stolen in the past.
In response to the Dromi Law, Ramadan said that the law is no good, not for Arabs and not for Jews: "There are soldiers doing navigational exercises on our land at night. Every so often, we help them out with their navigations. What would happen if I shot at a soldier because I thought he was breaking into my property? Will the law protect me?"
Ramadan also said that his family never intended to hurt Dromi, but hoped that the law would deal with him. "But it turns out that the law in Beersheba is different," he said.
