Letter from Yigal Bronner and Neve Gordon
London Review of Books, Vol. 29 No. 9, 10 May 2007
Almost a year and a half has passed since our friend Samir Dari was gunned down by an Israeli policeman. Samir, an Israeli resident and father of two, approached a group of policemen who had just detained his brother on a street corner not far from his house and demanded his release. There are conflicting versions of what happened afterwards, but there is no dispute about the following facts: Samir was unarmed and the policeman, Shmuel Yechezkel, shot him in the back at close range.
The Israeli police were quick to disseminate a version of the incident that portrayed the killing as an act of self-defence. When an Arab is killed, he is said to have been violent; when he is beaten up, he is said to have struck the policeman first; when he is oppressed, he is the one who is guilty. Also typical was the lack of public interest in Samir’s death. The killing of an Arab is, after all, not the kind of event that makes headlines in Israel.
The non-violent protest that Samir’s friends organised in response to the killing did attract attention, however. Israeli Jews do not welcome the presence of angry Arabs on the street, and were quick to threaten the protesters. ‘An immediate and forceful response is necessary,’ letters in the local newspaper argued. ‘A missile attack on their village is needed.’
The Israeli legal system, it turns out, shares the public’s perception. Judge Noam Solberg recently acquitted Yechezkel, even though in his verdict he stated that Samir had not threatened Yechezkel, that at no point was there physical contact between Samir and the policemen on the scene, and that Samir was actually moving away from the policemen when he was shot in the back. ‘The accused made an awful and terrible mistake,’ the judge concluded; ‘the deceased was killed for no reason.’ Solberg nevertheless exonerated Yechezkel because, in his opinion, it was not beyond reasonable doubt that the policeman felt he was acting in self-defence.
Since September 2000, 34 Arab citizens have been killed by the police, security guards and soldiers. Only four indictments have been issued, and only after a vigorous public campaign. Not one of these cases has resulted in a conviction. And yet, when Samir was killed, we thought it was worth demanding justice. Initially, Samir’s family refused to allow an autopsy. Only after considerable pressure from friends and lawyers, who argued that without concrete evidence Yechezkel would walk free, did the family agree, against their religious convictions, to permit the forensic procedure. The doctor’s report was unequivocal: Samir had been shot in the back at close range.
Solberg did not allow the autopsy results or, as he put it, the ‘objective dimension’ of the case to alter his verdict, making it clear to Arab citizens of Israel that evidence is not the most important consideration in determining guilt. It will, accordingly, be no surprise if the next victim’s family refuses to consent to an autopsy.
The verdict also sends a clear message to the police: ‘Don’t worry.’ Israeli policemen can rest assured that everything will be done to cover up violence against Arabs. If they can’t take care of it themselves, then a judge can be found who will acquit the policeman, even when the officer is guilty of shooting a man in cold blood. At the same time the verdict reinforces the idea among the Jewish public that not all blood is the same. Not that this should really surprise anyone.
Yigal Bronner
Neve Gordon
University of Chicago
Ben-Gurion University