While the justice system enthusiastically prosecutes Hareidi Jews or “hilltop youth” from Judea and Samaria for being in the wrong place at the wrong time – specifically in an area where police are breaking up demonstrations and riots – the same doesn't apply to Arabs, in this case MK Hanin Zouabi and Arab religious leader Ra'ed Salah, says National Union MK Michael Ben-Ari. It isn't fair to let the two Arabs off for their participation in the 2010 Gaza flotilla, while youths who protest against the IDF's attempts to dismantle new communities – also known as “outposts” - are detained, and often prosecuted, even though they haven't actually done anything other than be in the way of police who are sent to break up the protests. And Ben-Ari, along with rightwing activist Itamar Ben-Gvir, demand that the two Arabs pay at least the same price as those youths do.
Specifically, Ben-Ari and Ben-Gvir are petitioning against a recent decision by Justice Minister Yehuda Weinstein not to prosecute Zouabi and Salah for participating in the flotilla last year. Weinstein last week closed the cases against the two, along with numerous other Israelis, because of what he termed “legal difficulties” in proving that they had violated Israeli law. The violations in question would include illegally entering Gaza – Weinstein said he could not prove that they had done so – and that those on the ships had acted against IDF soldiers.
The Ministry said in its decision that it did not intend this to set any precedents for the future, but Zouabi, for her part, said that she was not surprised at being exonerated – because she had not done anything wrong. “I argued all along that what I did was political, legal and legitimate. Participating in the flotilla was a moral imperative,” she said
But Ben-Ari and Ben-Gvir said that Zouabi's – and Weinstein's – positions were ridiculous. “There is a basic injustice in the Attorney General's position, and the state cannot afford to present such a stance, especially when it comes to terror and violence against IDF soldiers,” such as that that member of the flotilla committed against soldiers.
The petition states that Weinstein, by excusing participants of the flotilla, was actually acting in an undemocratic manner. Even if the Israeli participants did not raise a hand against IDF soldiers, the fact that they were participants in an event sponsored by a group Israel itself recognizes as a terrorist group – in this case the Turkish IHH – would be enough to prosecute the flotilla participants, for aiding and abetting terrorists. But as it happens, the petition says, the State has plenty of evidence linking participants to the actual events harming IDF troops.
“When it comes to Hareidim who were present at protests that turned violent,or residents of Judea and Samaria who participated in riots – even if they themselves did not do anything violent – police arrest them and they are put on trial. Apparently the law is different for Zouabi and Salah, and this is a great danger to the concept of equality before the law,” the petition adds.