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The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil,    but because of the people who don't do anything about it

Occupation magazine - Commentary Home page  back Print  Send To friend Life has value and human beings are not instruments for leveraging pressure Human rights lawyer Michael Sfard (translation from Haaretz Hebrew, posted in facebook by Sol Salbe): Let every Hebrew (Jewish-Israeli) mother know and let every Hebrew father know that their law enforcement system is headed by a man who is willing to put to the death women who did nothing wrong to anyone. These women do not endanger anyone`s safety, but they are being punished just because the men in their lives are (allegedly) connected to Hamas. Quietly, without media reports and without a public storm, Dr Avichai Mandelblit defended a policy that can only be described as criminal in the High Court of Justice. The policy calls for the prevention of passage of Palestinian women from Gaza who suffer from brain cancer and who are in need of life saving medical treatment in East Jerusalem, in order to leverage the pressure on members of their family who are Hamas members (according to the contention). There are no words in my vocabulary (except swearwords) that would describe the depth of the moral deprivation that has struck the Attorney-General*. He has sold his soul to the defence minister and agreed to defend the violation of the most basic, universal AND Jewish, moral values. We must condemn, we must be angry, we have to point an accusing finger at the man who turned his job into a consigliore who protects the government`s crimes. But we must also give the proper credit to the good people who on this occasion halted the crime in the bud: the champions of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, Gisha, Adalah - the Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, and the Gazan al-Mezan Centre for Human Rights, who filed a petition with the Israeli High Court of Justice On behalf of the Palestinian women. And credit must also go to Supreme Court judges Uzi Fogelman, Yitzhak Amit and Ofer Grosskopf, who saved us from this crime and in a sharp ruling rejected the defence minister`s position and Mandelblit`s contentions, and reminded both of them that life has value and that human beings are not instruments for leveraging pressure. A lot of bad things happen here, we cause a lot of injustice, but somehow this case is the final proof for me that we do not have a moral gatekeeper. *Dr Mandelblit’s position is officially translated as attorney-general, but the role is much closer to an Australian Solicitor-General -tr. Links to the latest articles in this section Is there still a chance to break the cycle of revenge and bloodshed? Israelis Against Apartheid Statement Following ICJ Hearing Three weeks into the Gaza War - a somber and sober assessment, with some historical perspectives