Today the Arab world used the death of a convicted terrorist Maysara Abu Hamdiya in an Israel jail as an excuse to riot and rile against Israel. If Abu Hamdiya had throat cancer as reported and the PA pathologist was present as a witness, there should be no questions other than did Maysara have other relatives with cancer and if he smoked. But heck, what have the facts and the truth got to do with anything when PA is involved. If something can be used to incite ignorant masses against Israel, then it must be a good thing.
But there is another prisoner in an Israeli jail, who is someone that I do know about.
Wa’al al-Araji sat in the defendant’s box in Ofer Military Prison on June 3, 2012.
His legal proceedings for the rock-throwing murder of Asher Palmer and his infant son Yonatan in September 2011, has schlepped out from months to years.
Michael Palmer, Asher’s father, and a small, but very loyal group of supporters have attended every trial session possible. Often they would travel to Ofer to find that instead of a scheduled session there was but another excuse for a delay.
Michael Palmer, in the red shirt, and his lawyer, Adv. Adrian Agassi, met with US representatives outside the court room before the June 3 session.
The room that day was mostly empty of Arab spectators. A co-defendant was meant to testify against Wa’al.
He was afraid of the al-Araji gang of Halhoul, not of the Israelis, and wanted no witnesses. In the end he was so scared that he chickened out and did not testify that day after all.
There were more defendants in the rock-throwing moving car, their fate is still unclear.
Palmer supporters could demonstrate their support only by holding this photo of Asher and Yonatan in some of the hearings. Just to be allowed to hold a picture had to be approved by the court and was not always permitted. So slow, so careful, was Israeli military justice to protect the rights of the defendants.
Wa’al has finally been convicted and sentenced. Throwing a large rock from a moving car was a new technique to kill innocent victims and it took this long to for the court to call it murder.
Now we can wait for a new protest against this verdict. As I said before, what do the facts or the truth have to do with anything?
