Summary of indictments against Israeli-Arabs, Jews amid growing violence
A statement from the Justice Ministry said the vast majority of the indictments had a “nationalist-racist background” to them.
By YONAH JEREMY BOBUpdated: MAY 20, 2021 19:56Violent riots broke out in Ramla last night amid the ongoing violence between Palestinians and Israelis in east Jerusalem.(photo credit: YOSSI ALONI/FLASH90)
As of Thursday, the Justice Ministry had announced that there have been approximately 110 indictments filed against 174 Israeli-Arabs and Israeli-Jews relating to the recent wave of ethnic violence within the Green Line.The offenses they are accused of included a wide variety of crimes, such as: attacking police officers, security forces and fellow citizens, endangering the lives of persons driving in vehicles, public disorder, throwing rocks, arson, purposeful destruction of property based on racial motivations.A statement from the Justice Ministry said the vast majority of the indictments had a “nationalist-racist background” to them.Further, the statement said that there was a clear connection between such Jewish or Arab offenders trying to cause instability and racial strife at a time when the country is extra vulnerable due to the war it is fighting with Hamas in Gaza.The ministry said it viewed ethnic violence as especially severe when it was taking place as Israeli civilians were also facing attack from Hamas’s rockets across the home front.Acting State Attorney Amit Aisman said that he had directed prosecutors across the country to streamline ethnic strife cases so that they were dealt with promptly.He seemed to indicate that promptly handing such cases would send a message of zero tolerance for such ethnic strife and might deter future incidents.Yet in the numerous Justice Ministry statements sent out about ethnic strife-related indictments last week and this week, there has been no reporting to the public about the rates of Arab vs Jewish indictments.In fact, while the ministry is emphatic that it prosecutes all ethnic groups equally and without favoritism, it is just as emphatic about refusing to disclose ethnic backgrounds.Though the prosecution’s principles behind this policy is to show its even-handedness and to respect each individual defendant’s rights, the absence of such information makes it difficult for the public to evaluate whether the prosecution is indeed acting in a balanced manner.
However, The Jerusalem Post has managed to learn that out of the approximately 170 persons indicted for ethnic strife, approximately 161 to date are Arabs and approximately 13 to date are Jews.Eight Jews have been indicted in the Southern District while five have been indicted in the Tel Aviv District.Surprisingly, no Jews have been indicted to date yet in the Central District, which includes Lod.This is especially surprising since a number of Jews were arrested in Lod for ethnic violence and, at least at initial stages, were denied bail by the courts despite a loud public campaign by the Honenu right-wing legal aid organization.What happened to these cases if the prosecution, the police and the courts initially thought their actions were so serious that they arrested the Jews and initially refused them bail?The Post has learned that the Jews in question were released on bail at a later stage, but are still under police investigation and may yet be indicted.However, once defendants are released from custody, the prosecution tends to take more time to decide and finalize their indictments.The reason for this is actually concern for the defendants’ liberties.In other words, as long as a defendant is detained without having yet been indicted, there is a risk that they are being kept in custody for no substantive reason.Therefore, the law and custom require most indictments of persons being held in custody to be filed within about a week if the prosecution wants to keep the individuals in custody.In complex cases, the prosecution can get special permission from the courts and senior prosecution officials to have up to 21 days to file an indictment.Yet, once a defendant is released on bail, there is less of a rush as their liberty is not in jeopardy.The next question this raises is why it might be that more Jews might be released on bail than Arabs?This is an even more difficult phenomenon to study as whether a suspect is released on bail involves a variety of factors, including: the crimes in question, the likelihood of flight risk, continuing danger posed by the suspect and whether there is a viable house arrest alternative.Of course, after all of the above, whether one thinks Arabs are being discriminated against by law enforcement or whether there are simply more ethnic crimes emanating from the Arab sector, is likely to depend on a variety of a person’s political views about the state and its institutions.
