Palestinian gets death sentence for selling land to Israel

[Fozzledick]

By The Associated Press

A Palestinian military court has sentenced a man to death by hanging for selling land to an Israeli company.

Land sales are considered treason by the Palestinians because of their long-running dispute with the Israelis, however the sentence is unlikely to be implemented.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas routinely withholds the required approval for executions. Several others are on death row as suspected informants for Israel.

The sentence was handed down Tuesday in a military court in the West Bank city of Hebron after two days of closed-door hearings.

Prosecutor Issa Amer said the defendant sold land that didn't belong to him in the village of Beit Ummar using forged documents.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1081813.html

[aquart]

1. A "military court."

Hmm, so if he sold land with forged documents to an Arab, that would be okay? Or just not treason?

[ProgressiveMuslim]

2. Fozzle, what's your stand on the 1400+ death sentences Israel implemented in January '09?

[Fozzledick]

3. That your claim is a disingenuous misrepresentation of a defensive war caused by Hamas

and that Hamas bears full responsibility for the consequences of their decision to violate the peace of the world by aggressive warfare.

I'd prefer not to have to rub your nose in the ugly details of Hamas' political strategy of deliberately creating civilian casualties for propaganda purposes - that's already been hashed over here more than enough.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

4. Your concern for Palestinian well being is staggering.

Not.

[Fozzledick]

5. At least equal to yours for Israelis

Quite possibly a bit more.

But I thought we were discussing who was responsible for the deaths in Gaza. I have no doubts about that, however passionately you may disagree.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

7. I find your line of reasoning morally reprehsible. Along the lines of

"we can never forgive them for *making* us kill them."

You know, there is an alternative to wanton massacre of civilians. One could always respect democracy and negotiate.

[winter999]

9. Try telling that to Hamas. Their dialog consists of Rocket Fire.

[Douglas Carpenter]

12. link to Human Rights Watch Video: Rain of Fire: White Phosphorus in Gaza

I hope EVERYONE watches this film, downloads it and passes it on to EVERYONE on their address book!!

The most powerful and moving 6-minute film I have ever seen!!

Please do this NOW!!


Rain of Fire: Israel's Unlawful Use of White Phosphorous in Gaza

link:

http://www.hrw.org/features/rain-fire-white-phosphorus-gaza

link on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRuzEs9Y5KE



link to 71-page Human Rights Watch Report on the use of White Phosphorus in the Gaza:


http://www.hrw.org/node/81760

.

[azurnoir]

6. Keep telling yourelf that I am sure its comforting

on some level but unfortunately few believe that anymore, its got something to do with F-16's tanks WP bombing UN facilities you know little stuff like that oh and the term "voluntary Human Shields". And yes the Hamas strategy of not lining up in front of tanks and saying here kill us, as IDF most certainly would have done if the circumstances were to be reversed, it is not as though Israel would ever put any military installation anywhere near a civilian population.

But the UN investigation will be interesting don't you think, and Ahmadinejad will most likely not be part of that shucks

[ProgressiveMuslim]

8. Waaaaah. They *made* us do it. Waaaaaah. nt

[Fozzledick]

10. Isn't that your excuse for advocating violent "resistance"?

[ProgressiveMuslim]

16. Wah! They make us massacre women and children. Now *there's* a T-shirt for the IDF! nt

[oberliner]

23. Massacre women and children? Most of the casualties were adult men

Only about 8 percent were women according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights.

Not sure why you single out "women and children" when the vast majority of those killed were neither.

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[azurnoir]

13. Seen it whens the X-Box version coming out

the CGI was pretty good

[LeftishBrit]

21. I'm not Fozzle, but my stand on them is that they were utterly wrong

But that does not justify the violent actions of Hamas and to some extent the PA toward their own people.

[Meshuga]

22. Exactly n/t

[IndianaGreen]

14. Death sentence for selling land that didn't belong to you and using forged documents?

This is laughable on its face were it not for the clear illegal kangaroo court that convicted this crook. One of the requirements of nationhood is to have a working legal system with courts, judges, attorneys, and due process for the accused. This so-called "military" court is as abominable as America's military commissions that Bush established to railroad Guantanamo detainees.

If you want a country of your own, you better start acting like you can run one.

[azurnoir]

15. A detail left out of the Ha'aretz article

Hebron – Ma’an – A special Palestinian Authority (PA) military court in Hebron in the southern West Bank sentenced a Palestinian man to death by hanging after he was found guilty of selling land to Israeli settlers on Tuesday.

This is the first time a Palestinian court has handed down a conviction for treason in a case relating to land sales. The suspect is from the Hebron area.

Presiding over tribunal was judge Brigadier General Abdul-Karim Al-Masri. The jurists were the judge Major Mihriz Atyani, and Major Nabil Jabir. Head of military prosecution in Hebron Issa Amr attended the sentencing as well as the military prosecuting attorney in Hebron Hani Al-Heih, the court’s clerk Abdul-Rahman Fannun. Lawyers defending the suspect were also present.

The military court held a hearing session on 21 April, on the charge of “leaking lands to Israel.”

The PA announced just over a week ago that it is investigating Palestinians who sell land to settlers.

PA courts have convicted Palestinians for collaborating with Israel in the past, usually for providing information about resistance fighters to the Israeli intelligence services. These convictions are based on the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Revolutionary Code.

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=37424

[IndianaGreen]

17. So Fatah is acting just like Hamas, doing their own version of guerrilla summary justice

Not the sort of people that can come to a negotiating table to argue for sovereignty.

How is this different from sharia courts, other than the religious flavour?

[azurnoir]

18. Well then I guess you are amongst the

"there's no one to negotiate with" party I am surprised by that kind of

It's different in the fact that as Haaretz pointed out the sentence will most likely not be carried out

[Douglas Carpenter]

19. I was under the impression that you are the supporter of other movements of national liberation

such as in Latin America and elsewhere. Do you honestly think those movements don't frequently engage in far worse tactic?

I don't like the idea of such courts handing out such punishments either. But this is the norm in movements of national liberation. In revolutionary America, the Sons of Liberty publicly stripped British collaborators naked and tortured them in front of the entire community. The ANC in modern day South Africa put burning tires around their neck in the anti-apartheid struggle.

It's not a pretty picture and I think they should find other ways to deal with traitors and collaborators. But if the Palestinians methods and tactics disqualify themselves for governance then the same would have to be said for almost every other successful movement of national liberation in history.

[Jim Sagle]

20. So antisemitism in the pursuit of national liberation is just ducky.

Got it.

[Douglas Carpenter]

25. I was talking about how Liberation movements throughout history and the world view collaboration -

nothing to do with anti-Semitism

[cali]

24. So what if it's the norm? Why on earth is that EVER a justification

for something? And let me remind you that the Son's of Liberty did what they did over two hundred freakin' years ago. That's simply not relevant. There's really no excuse for the despicable practice of necklacing. Period.

There's a much better argument to be made here, and that is that the death sentence is a statement of how the society, as a whole, feels about these kinds of acts. Clearly, it's more of a formality than anything else as these sentences are not carried out. I still don't think it's appropriate, but it does seem to be more of a statement than any sort of real move to execute those who run afoul of these laws.

[Douglas Carpenter]

26. I completely 100% agree

I'm not talking about justification. I was simply stating the obvious. If brutal tactics disqualify a movement from holding power, then we would have disqualify the vast majority of liberation movements.

[cali]

27. true enough

most liberation movements are stained by some pretty horrendous acts.

[excess_3]

28. who can own land in the West Bank?

what etfnic groups, I mean

Palestinians
Arabs
non-Arab Muslims
non-Jews

[azurnoir]

29. Which of those ethnic groups

has an army which comes and guards them?