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Indybay Feature

Palestinians to resume executions of prisoners

by By Adel Zaanoun - GAZA CITY
15 executions of death-row prisoners are due to be carried out by end of March for first time since August 2002.
The Palestinian Authority is poised to resume executions of prisoners on death row for the first time since August 2002, with 15 due to be carried out by the end of the month, officials said Thursday.

Fifteen prisoners currently on death row "will be executed later this month", Palestinian military courts chief Saeb al-Qidwa said.

The top Palestinian Muslim cleric, Jerusalem mufti Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, said he was reviewing the files of several death row inmates at the request of Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas.

"I am looking at these files to ensure the fairness, under (Islamic) sharia law, of the sentences handed down by the courts," he said adding that no execution would go ahead without a final greenlight from Abbas, who has the power to commute a death sentence to life imprisonment.

The last time the Palestinians carried out a death sentence was in August 2002, when Bashir Atari, 21, was executed by firing squad for cutting the throats of two women.

According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, nine death sentences have been carried out since the formation of the Palestinian Authority in 1994 out of a total of 70 imposed by the courts.

"The mufti will give the files to the president and if he ratifies them, the executions will take place later this month," Qidwa said.

In carrying out these executions, the Palestinian Authority "will be sending a firm signal to the population which will contribute to the reestablishment of security," he said.

"We need a radical solution to the current security chaos."

Qidwa said Sheikh Sabri was examining the cases of 51 prisoners condemned to death by the courts since the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1994.

The majority were handed down by the Palestinian security court, whose sentences cannot be appealed.

Two of them were convicted of collaborating with Israel, while the rest were found guilty of common crimes.

The first executions took place in August 1998, when two policemen convicted of murder were executed by firing squad.

Resort to the death penalty, especially the execution of two Palestinian collaborators in January 2001, has sparked a chorus of criticism from Europe and domestic human rights watchdogs.

In a new letter seen by AFP Thursday, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights appealed to Abbas "not to sign the execution orders and to stop the application of this cruel punishment which constitutes a flagrant violation of human rights".

Calling for the abolition of the death penalty, the rights watchdog said its use in the Palestinian territories "tarnishes the image of the Palestinian people in the eyes of the world".

Since the start of the Palestinian intifada, or uprising, in September 2000, dozens of Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israel have been summarily murdered by militants.

Palestinian human rights organisations have condemned the extra-judicial killings and demanded that suspected collaborators be prosecuted through the courts.
by AC
Where is the outcry?
by Joe
Leftists don't seem to mind when muslims slaughter muslims.

But if israelis shoot some islamic terrorists, it's an "outrage" and a "brutal holocaust."

by S/F- indymedia hides the truth
S/F- indymedia hides the truth
by Israel: rogue state
palisraelichildchart.gifkhlwww.gif
by pointer
U-IMC is about as credible as Pravda or the Weekly World News. And word of is getting around the rest of the internet, too, not just around the IMC network.

See:

http://www.prattle.net/archives/001714.html

(snip)

• sf/imc claims ufo's responsible for tsunami - Utah Indymedia, 11th January 2005. (added by Feòrag, 16th January 2005. Note that I cannot find any reference to this on the San Francisco Indymedia site.)

(snip)

by Becky Johnson (becky_johnson222 [at] hotmail.com)
And the Palestinian Authority has no process to appeal a death sentence.

The PA also performs public executions, a practice considered barbaric by most of the world.

"Collaborating with Israel" is a crime punishable by death.
No wonder there is no Palestinian peace movement!!
by gehrig
I took a look at the comments on SF-IMC. As of now, the comments that have been made there since midnight: one bloviation from Angie, one repost from nessie, and one four-word comment from someone else. Apparently there have been at least five other threads in which someone made a comment that did not pass nessie's personal dogma test, and the comment was removed.

Now compare that to:

http://sfbay.indymedia.org/comment_latest.php

And it's hard not to conclude: SF-IMC is essentially dead, just as we figured it would be after a year in Il Duce's hands.

@%<
by Israel: rogue state
the fourth largest military in the world is waging war against them, has occupied the entire place and imposed a brutal, apartheid regime.

No justice, no peace. Abolish Israel. One Palestine, united and secular.
by Critical Thinker
that Joe and the contributor above him are right. The silence originating even from the more decent anti-Zionist leftists here is deafening. They always seem to take every opportunity to level criticism at Israel for every excess on its part, but clam up when clear evidence of brazen official Palestinian violations of international law comes to the fore, apparantly hoping no one notices this double standard.

by ?
What about assasinations of Hamas leaders? When a court allows the military to kill rather than try to capture someone thats worse than an actual death penalty where there is a trial and a chance for a defense.
by boring
Not a rebuttal.
by Sefarad

Why are so so concerned about Hamas terrorists? Should the Palestinian Authority prevent them from murdering Israelis or detain them, Israel wouldn't have to kill them.

And you guys moarning for terrorists who murder children.
by WHAT ABOUT IT?
suicide_bombing_18_6_2002.jpgm37943.jpgkhlwww.jpg
What about assasinations of Hamas leaders?

well no one ever said the live of a terrorist was easy
by Critical Thinker
>>>"What about assasinations of Hamas leaders? When a court allows the military to kill rather than try to capture someone thats worse than an actual death penalty where there is a trial and a chance for a defense."<<<

The Israeli military and border police try to apprehend all the terrorists they can safely arrest. Hamas leaders had been too risky to try to apprehend.

§?
by ?
"Hamas leaders had been too risky to try to apprehend. "

Ok so Israel determined they should be executed since it was too hard to capture them. But isnt that still the death penalty? I mean to argue it isnt because Hamas does bad things is silly since that woulds be like arguing that the US doesnt have the death penalty and when someone points out that there is the death penalty for murder responding "what do you like murderers or something?". Israel has the death penalty.
by Sefarad

Instead of killing those terrorists, Israel should have let them go on with their murders. This would have had the advantage that more Israelis would have been killed.
by Sefarad
Mar. 6, 2005 2:40 | Updated Mar. 6, 2005 7:13
Sharansky opposes PA state executions
By JPOST STAFF


In an urgent plea to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Minister-without Portfolio Natan Sharansky said the government must demand that the Palestinian Authority immediately stop the execution of those alleged to have collaborated with Israel.

"Israel must immediately demand of the PA that it stop the planned execution of suspected collaborators," he wrote. "It is unacceptable that the PA demands the release of terrorists from our jails, and we respond affirmatively because of the hope for an opening to peace, while at the very same time the PA is about to commit state executions of people accused of helping Israel thwart terror."

He appealed to Sharon following a report that PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is expected to approve the execution of collaborators. According to this report, the director of the PA Military Court advised that between five and 15 Palestinians are expected to be executed. The mufti of Jerusalem has confirmed this report.

"It is impossible to build a peace process based on blood. Such a process can only be based on the goodwill of both sides.

The cold-blooded execution of those individuals accused of cooperating to deflect terror directly contradicts the gestures demanded of Israel, tramples human rights, and with it any spark of hope for a better future in the Middle East," Sharansky wrote.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1109995583526
§?
by ?
"Portfolio Natan Sharansky said the government must demand that the Palestinian Authority immediately stop the execution of those alleged to have collaborated with Israel"

Because its only moral when Israel kills them?
by Sefarad

The PA is asking Israel to release the Palestinian prisoners convicted of terrorism. However, they publicly execute, in horrible manners, Palestinians who have killed nobody.

by Critical Thinker
The US executes murderers or other types of criminals through its civilian, criminal court system which answers to the Justice Department.

When Israel assassinated Hams leaders, it was done through its armed forces that report to the defense establishment, not in a legal process that entails a trial in a court of law but according to military considerations.

A death penalty is decided and carried out by a judicial system.

Yes, Israel has the death penalty. But only Nazis and their aides have ever been likely to be executed by Israeli courts. Some terrorists have been sentenced to death but later on their sentence was commuted to a prison term.

These are the facts, like it or not. And the differences between military assassinations and executions through a court system aren't a matter of semantics. Deal with it.
by Critical Thinker
>>>"
"Portfolio Natan Sharansky said the government must demand that the Palestinian Authority immediately stop the execution of those alleged to have collaborated with Israel"

Because its only moral when Israel kills them?"<<<


You have any real argument here?
Under the Oslo Accords, the PA is authorized to arrest known terrorists like Shehada, Yassin, and Rantisi.

They didn't. They failed.

These mass murderers were convicted in Israeli courts. Warrants for their arrest issued, and the IDF and Israeli police did their best to arrest them and bring them to justice.

BECAUSE Israel no longer "occupies" Palestinian territories (since 1994 and Oslo) they cannot arrest suspected terrorists, even if they have mountains of evidence, in areas they no longer patrol.

These Hamas leaders continued executing attack after attack with hundreds of lives lost.

Israel was forced, after going thru Israeli courts, after pleading with the PA to do their duty, and after undergoing even more attacks, to take the pro-active methods of using Israeli intelligence to determine where these terrorists are hiding and to use helicopters with guns to execute (they use the word liquidate) those wanted terrorists.

If it werent' for the PA, Israel would just arrest them and jail them.
by JA
"BECKY'S BRAIN!!: An Amazing 'Interview' With Becky Johnson of Santa Cruz", by JA

http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/02/1719944_comment.php#1722028

SHE'S A REAL CHARACTER DOWN THERE IN SANTA CRUZ!!


For more, later, see (Becky Johnson):

Examiner ad demonizes Palestinian children, shows young girl with gun
http://santacruz.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/14842/index.php#15929


Albert Einstein Condemned Israeli Nazis
http://santacruz.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/15529/index.php#15842


Elise Cohen of The Fellowship Of Reconciliation talks about upcoming delegations to Israel
http://santacruz.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/14711/index.php


... YYYEP...!! SHE'S A REALLL *WWWACKO*!!
by JA is a loon
JA has no valid points.

That's why he has to just flood, spam, scream like an idiot, and post insane distortions of reality.

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