arens@UCBKIM@ucbvax.UUCP (06/01/83)
From: arens@UCBKIM (Yigal Arens)
Received: from UCBKIM.ARPA by UCBVAX.ARPA (3.341/3.31)
id AA04067; 31 May 83 21:30:18 PDT (Tue)
To: net-politics@BERKELEY
>From Ha'aretz, May 17, 1983
Punishment Increased for Jewish Students Who Assaulted Arabs
============================================================
The Supreme Court yesterday increased the sentences of four Jewish students
from Haifa who assaulted two Arab students at the Technion, and fined each
one of them 10,000 I.S. [$220], five times more than the original fine
levied by the Haifa district court. The court left unchanged the suspended
6 to 9 month jail sentences given to the attackers. [Such a sentence will be
served only if these people are convicted of another attack within a fixed
period of time --YA].
On October 2nd, 1981, 4 youths, Parzun Parashek, Shmuel Bobrov, David
Kadosh, and Arie Mrassis, all college students from Haifa and members of
"YESH -- Our Israel" movement, conspired to assault two Arab students who
lived in the student dormitories of the Technion, and who were known as
extremists, supporters of the PLO.
They prepared wooden clubs, nylon stockings to cover their faces, and
gloves, and in the early morning they broke into the housing unit of the two
Arab students, beat them and the girlfriend of one of the Arabs, who was
also present. One of the Arab students suffered severe injuries, and the
other two were also injured. Two of the four Jewish students actually took
part in the assault, and the other two aided them.
The district court in its decision found that the background for the case
was continued taunting by the PLO supporting Arab students of their Jewish
colleagues.
The district court judge forcefully denounced the attackers acts, but
refrained from sentencing them to actual time in prison, citing their law
abiding past, their positive character [?? -- YA], and the fact that they
had fulfilled their obligations to the state [i.e. Had served in the army --
YA]. The judge had also been convinced that the attackers showed true
remorse for their actions and wouldn't repeat them.
The defendants were fined 2,000 I.S. [$44 -- YA], and were given a suspended
jail term of between 6 and 9 months. The prosecutions appealed to the
supreme court, arguing that in this case the need to publicly denounce such
acts, and to deter others from committing acts of violence because of
opposing views, should have prevailed over consideration of the personal
circumstances of the defendants.
The defense attorney argued that in this case there were provocations on the
part of the assault victims, and that the defendants had suffered
considerably as a result of their conviction.
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Yitzhak Kahan, and Justices Shlomo Levin
and Eliezer Goldberg decided to accept the state's appeal. They stated that
the defendants actions deserve actual imprisonment, but that the court does
not, as a rule, make the punishment more severe when the defendant has been
shown clemency by the lower court. "Our position, that the sentence given
by the district court was overly lenient and should not be considered a
precedent for punishment of such crimes in the future, will be expressed by
our increasing the fines levied upon each of the defendants", the justices
emphasized.
[For an idea of what *is* considered a serious crime in Israel today,
compare this to my submission from a couple of weeks ago, where 13 year old
Arab girls were sentenced to fines of $1750 - $2000 for throwing rocks at an
Israeli car. -- YA]
Yigal Arens
UC Berkeley