Ida Nudel, an ex-Prisoner of Zion in the former Soviet Union, demands that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert intervene to save the life of an Arab who collaborated with Israel.
Nudel, represented by Nitzana Darshan-Leitner of the Israel Law Center, submitted a petition Tuesday morning to the Supreme Court. She demands that Olmert take immediate action to prevent the Palestinian Authority from carrying out the execution of Imad Sa'ad. Sa'ad, 25, was sentenced to death last month by a PA military court for having collaborated with Israeli security forces when they killed four Palestinian terrorists.
The Israel Law Center states that the plea is urgent, in that "past experience has shown that the PA is liable to carry out this sentence at any time, with no advance notice."
The petition asks that Olmert apply immediate pressure on Fatah chief Mahmoud Abbas, either by calling off talks with the PA or by threatening not to release any further PA prisoners or make good-will gestures. Nudel also demands that Olmert raise the issue with third parties, such as the United States, the European Union, the Vatican and/or the United Nations.
If Nothing Else Works, then Military Force
As a last resort, Israel must use military force to rescue Imad Sa'ad from PA prison, Nudel insists.
Nudel and the Israel Law Center have worked together in the past on saving Arab collaborators from death at the hands of the PA. They succeeding in having Israel's General Security Service effectively intervene in one case, and three years ago, they successfully filed suit to have then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon pressure the PA not to carry out the death sentence on 15 Arabs sentenced to death for helping Israel.
Exiled to Siberia
Nudel who grew up in Moscow, was harassed by the Soviet authorities for seven years because of her request to move to Israel. Finally, in 1978, she was convicted of "malicious hooliganism" and sentenced to four years in Siberian exile. The specific acts for which she was charged began with her hanging of a placard on her balcony stating, "KGB: Give me my Visa!" When plainclothesmen tried to take down the poster, she drove them away by dousing them with water. When they finally succeeded, on the third try, in removing the placard, Ida quickly placed another one in its place.
In 1987, Ida Nudel finally arrived in Israel, and now lives near Rehovot. She has been active in civil-rights causes, and runs "Mother to Mother," which organizes after-school activities for children of Russian immigrants. The organization is estimated to have helped close to 5,000 children.