Michael Palmer, lawyer hope such a large monetary judgment will block any future attempt to free Arjeh in any prisoner release deal.
By YONAH JEREMY BOBMichael Palmer at the Ofer military court 370(photo credit: JOANNA PARASZCZUK)
The late Asher Palmer’s father, Michael, on Wednesday morning will ask the Judea Military Court for approximately NIS 10 million in damages against Waal al-Arjeh, the convicted murderer of Asher and grandson Yonatan, sentenced to two life sentences plus 58 years on April 23.Palmer and lawyer Adrian Agassi hope that such a large monetary judgment will block any future attempt to free Arjeh in any prisoner release deal as well as setting a precedent for other victims to follow to block their murderers from being released.According to Agassi, the monetary damages for a murder victim’s family in such cases are equivalent to a special fine which, according to general legal principles, must be paid off before prisoners can be released, regardless of the amount of time they are sentenced to prison.Agassi says that means that even if Israel wanted to commute a prisoner like Arjeh’s sentence, someone (the Palestinians or Israel) would need to foot the bill before the prisoner could be released.If the bill is around NIS 10m., Agassi said, he believes it might be intimidating enough to dissuade Israel and the Palestinians from releasing a specific prisoner and may cause them to pass over to another prisoner or a different issue.He also said that due to some procedural peculiarities regarding the status of the Military Courts, if the government tried to sidestep such a fine, he might be able to bring in the High Court of Justice to stop it.Agassi noted that, “It’s more of a moral victory and a statement of intent to all concerned – that we will fight them – the terrorists and the morally bankrupt government of Israel – for justice, and make it as hard as possible, legally and morally, to release terrorists – who then go and return to terror – in the name of peace.”Asher, 25, and his infant son, Yonatan, were murdered in 2011. According to the IDF, Arjeh and an accomplice, Ali Saadeh, intentionally threw a stone from a moving taxi through the front windshield of Asher’s vehicle. The stone broke the windshield, causing Asher to lose control of the car which eventually overturned.Initially, security forces thought Palmer and his son died in a car accident on Route 60 outside the Kiryat Arba settlement on September 23, 2011. It took days before the Defense Ministry recognized them as terror victims.According to the court, this was not an incident in which a random small roadside stone was tossed. The object thrown at Asher’s vehicle was large and deadly.
“It was thrown from an oncoming vehicle that was traveling in the opposite direction,” said Agassi, a former IDF military court judge. “At that velocity, it was like shooting a bullet.”Arjeh was the ringleader of a gang that developed this method of killing Jews, Agassi said. They had tried it many times before, he added. The attorney said the defendant had worked for the PA security forces and as a taxi driver, and knew the roads in the area very well.Arjeh and his lawyer have said they would appeal the conviction and sentence at the Military Court of Appeals.
