Palestinian authorities are outraged by a new bill proposed by the Israeli government which would impose harsh penalties on anyone who throws rocks “with intention to harm” during confrontations between the two factions.
According to the new bill being considered by Israeli law makers, throwing rocks “with intention to harm” could land a person in prison for up to 20 years.
Activists say that although the new bill does not mention Palestinians alone that it will deal with, but from all indications, it is obviously targeted at Palestinians who don’t have any standing army and large guns like the Israeli’s do during clashes.
Confrontations between Palestinian youths and Israeli police routinely degenerate into violent clashes with stone-throwing becoming common in Jerusalem and across the West Bank.
In such confrontations, the Israelis use heavy weapons and tanks to aggressively oppress, whereas the Palestinians are left with nothing but rocks to defend themselves from the Israeli army.
It is said that the current laws on stone-throwing allow Israeli prosecutors to seek sentences of not more than three months in jail for offenders that do not cause serious injury.
According to commentators, the original stone-throwing law was promoted by the former Justice Minister, Tzipi Livni, after a wave of violent Palestinian protests in Jerusalem in 2014 that included frequent stone-throwing at the city’s light railway.
The demonstrations aresaid to have erupted after the kidnapping and killing of a Palestinian teen in the city, in July, by some Israelis. The Israelis were said to have murdered the teen in revenge for the deaths of three Jewish teenagers killed in the occupied West Bank.
Commenting on the new bill, the chief of the Palestinian Liberation Organization Delegation in Washington DC, Maen Rashid Areikat, said Israel has consistently showed its hatred towards the Palestinian people by always enacting inhumane laws for the purpose of oppressing.
“When it comes to the Palestinians and Israelis, Israel has two different judicial systems. One is applicable to Israeli citizens and the other for Palestinians. I don’t think it [the bill] will have any effect on Israelis, because it is, in terms of content, only applicable to Palestinians. It is discriminatory, singling out Palestinians,” he told aljazeera.com.
It has been confirmed by Israeli media outlets that the controversial bill got a preliminary parliamentary approval late last year. Therefore, it is said the amended draft law can now be fast-tracked through parliament, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government controls 61 of the total 120 seats.
One activist, John Vibes, wrote on the trueactivist.com site that, “In a situation like this, one must think about why a human being would throw rocks at a massive military power that is equipped with the most modern technology. Are they just people who are angry for no reason, or are they simply backed into a corner with no other options, by an oppressor with far superior military and technological power?”
SOURCES:
trueactivist.com/palestinians-could-soon-face-up-to-20-years-in-prison-for-throwing-rocks-at-tanks/
The Israelis can only imprison a small amount of people, if faced with a Ghandi-like protest that overwhelms their prison system, they will lose any advantage this new law would afford them.
Dont think a ghandi-like protest would work though as they will all mostly be killed in ‘defense’ of Israel