Women in Green and women from Beit El demonstrated outside President Moshe Katzav\'s home today, demanding that he grant a pardon to Beit El resident Margalit Har-Shefi. She has served about half the nine-month sentence meted out to her for \"not preventing\" the assassination of Yitzchak Rabin when, as a 19-year-old student, she heard her acquaintance Yigal Amir boast of his wish to commit the crime. \"We expect the President of the entire nation to do justice, and not merely attempt to find favor in the eyes of the Left,\" spokespersons said. Har-Shefi\'s request for parole was recently turned down on the grounds that she had not \"internalized\" her punishment. She was brought to court at the time in handcuffs and leg irons, prompting the Association for Civil Rights in Israel to ask for a review of the policy requiring this.
President Katzav\'s decision on whether or not to pardon her is expected to take into account some or all of the following considerations (most of which were enumerated by Ze\'ev Segal of Ha\'aretz today):
* the growing debate surrounding the Presidential authority to grant such pardons;
* the fact that she was convicted of a rare offense, namely one of omission, not of commission;
* the continuing delay in the trial of GSS agent-provocateur Avishai Raviv of a similar offense;
* her conviction in three separate judicial instances, including appeals;
* the minority opinion of Judge Dvorah Berliner of the Tel Aviv District Court, who acquitted Har-Shefi of all guilt;
* the minority opinion of Supreme Court Justice Yaakov Turkel, who recommended only a six-month sentence that would have been commuted to community service;
* the recent rejection of her request for parole;
* the message of conciliation it would send to one portion of the public, while possibly sending an opposite message to another portion.
In addition, shortly before Har-Shefi began serving her prison sentence, President Katzav himself commented on the conviction by saying, \"If a person knows of someone\'s intention to kill the Prime Minister and does nothing to stop it, that person deserves not nine months in jail, but rather 90 years.\" This may or may not signal yet another consideration, namely, his own personal doubts, echoed by many other judicial experts, about the validity of the conviction itself. Circumstances of the case can be read at \"www.harshefi.org.il/Eng/CaseEng.htm\'. President Katzav may be faxed at (+972-2) 561-1033.
President Katzav\'s decision on whether or not to pardon her is expected to take into account some or all of the following considerations (most of which were enumerated by Ze\'ev Segal of Ha\'aretz today):
* the growing debate surrounding the Presidential authority to grant such pardons;
* the fact that she was convicted of a rare offense, namely one of omission, not of commission;
* the continuing delay in the trial of GSS agent-provocateur Avishai Raviv of a similar offense;
* her conviction in three separate judicial instances, including appeals;
* the minority opinion of Judge Dvorah Berliner of the Tel Aviv District Court, who acquitted Har-Shefi of all guilt;
* the minority opinion of Supreme Court Justice Yaakov Turkel, who recommended only a six-month sentence that would have been commuted to community service;
* the recent rejection of her request for parole;
* the message of conciliation it would send to one portion of the public, while possibly sending an opposite message to another portion.
In addition, shortly before Har-Shefi began serving her prison sentence, President Katzav himself commented on the conviction by saying, \"If a person knows of someone\'s intention to kill the Prime Minister and does nothing to stop it, that person deserves not nine months in jail, but rather 90 years.\" This may or may not signal yet another consideration, namely, his own personal doubts, echoed by many other judicial experts, about the validity of the conviction itself. Circumstances of the case can be read at \"www.harshefi.org.il/Eng/CaseEng.htm\'. President Katzav may be faxed at (+972-2) 561-1033.