The demand was raised at this morning's stormy Knesset Law Committee session. Committee Chairman MK Michael Eitan (Likud) said that there exists a strong fear that the police and prosecution acted out of "vengeance and collective punishment" in deciding to hand down the indictments. He said that the civil rights of the protestors were not preserved, and that they were treated with dis-proportionate harshness in comparison with other protestors, such as university students and Arabs.
Atty. Amikam Hadar, counsel on behalf of the Honenu civil rights organization for many of the accused youngsters, participated in the session. He told Arutz-7 afterwards that in many cases, legal requirements regarding the indictment of minors were not fulfilled.
"The law is that minors must be brought before a probation officer," Hadar said, "to see if they should be indicted, but in many cases - in most cases in the Tel Aviv district, for example - this did not happen. Instead, many youngsters aged 13-14 and up were indicted, their cases are being quickly processed, and our requests to delay the proceedings have all been rejected by the Attorney-General, the State Prosecution and the police."
MK Sha'ul Yahalom (National Religious Party) blamed Justice Minister Livny for "turning the justice system into a government servant."
Minister Livny, who left the session before the end, said, "You may not speak in terms of vengeance; this is not acceptable to me." Chairman Eitan said, "Answer to the point, don't lecture me on ethics."
Atty. Hadar said that most of the indictments are on minor charges such as illegal assembly, acting wildly, blocking roads, and, in a minority of cases, attacking policemen and interfering with the investigation. It should be noted that in almost all cases in which the charges involve attacking policemen, the accused youngsters say they were merely defending themselves or responding to police force.
"There is no need now to have criminal proceedings against these youngsters," Atty. Hadar said. "The disengagement is over, and they are very positive youth. In addition, I see that because of the proceedings against them, some of them are already being told that they can't enlist in the army - or they themselves don't want to enlist. What does our society gain from this?"
MK Yitzchak Levy (National Union) also participated in the session, and said afterwards, "The committee officially filed a request to Attorney-General Mazuz to review the 600 indictments handed down by the police - but not the 100 more serious ones that the State Prosecution decided on. We were informed that there was no uniform policy by the various police departments in determining when to indict, and often the youngsters did not see a probation officer, etc. ... Mazuz has our request, and we will have to follow this closely."
MK Zahava Gal'on (Meretz) was also present, and mainly said that the religious MKs were only concerned about their population sector and not about other injustices.
In conclusion, Atty. Hadar said, "I'm not very optimistic, because we've been here before, but we'll keep trying. Keeping these minors out of the army is harmful to all of us."
Atty. Amikam Hadar, counsel on behalf of the Honenu civil rights organization for many of the accused youngsters, participated in the session. He told Arutz-7 afterwards that in many cases, legal requirements regarding the indictment of minors were not fulfilled.
"The law is that minors must be brought before a probation officer," Hadar said, "to see if they should be indicted, but in many cases - in most cases in the Tel Aviv district, for example - this did not happen. Instead, many youngsters aged 13-14 and up were indicted, their cases are being quickly processed, and our requests to delay the proceedings have all been rejected by the Attorney-General, the State Prosecution and the police."
MK Sha'ul Yahalom (National Religious Party) blamed Justice Minister Livny for "turning the justice system into a government servant."
Minister Livny, who left the session before the end, said, "You may not speak in terms of vengeance; this is not acceptable to me." Chairman Eitan said, "Answer to the point, don't lecture me on ethics."
Atty. Hadar said that most of the indictments are on minor charges such as illegal assembly, acting wildly, blocking roads, and, in a minority of cases, attacking policemen and interfering with the investigation. It should be noted that in almost all cases in which the charges involve attacking policemen, the accused youngsters say they were merely defending themselves or responding to police force.
"There is no need now to have criminal proceedings against these youngsters," Atty. Hadar said. "The disengagement is over, and they are very positive youth. In addition, I see that because of the proceedings against them, some of them are already being told that they can't enlist in the army - or they themselves don't want to enlist. What does our society gain from this?"
MK Yitzchak Levy (National Union) also participated in the session, and said afterwards, "The committee officially filed a request to Attorney-General Mazuz to review the 600 indictments handed down by the police - but not the 100 more serious ones that the State Prosecution decided on. We were informed that there was no uniform policy by the various police departments in determining when to indict, and often the youngsters did not see a probation officer, etc. ... Mazuz has our request, and we will have to follow this closely."
MK Zahava Gal'on (Meretz) was also present, and mainly said that the religious MKs were only concerned about their population sector and not about other injustices.
In conclusion, Atty. Hadar said, "I'm not very optimistic, because we've been here before, but we'll keep trying. Keeping these minors out of the army is harmful to all of us."