What the IDF and Shin Bet do is a reflection of the IDF and Shin Bet, not the supreme court.

Not true. The IDF & Shin Bet do whatever they think they can get away with. They violate Supreme Court rulings with impunity. Even when they are filmed doing it they face no judicial sanctions. That is unfortunately a toothless Supreme Court. If it were the U.S. there would be an injunction slapped on the military faster than they could say “human shield.”

I am not saying the Supreme Court is useless. When it does rule is often does so in helpful & constructive ways. But it is often honored in the breach if at all.

Hey Azmi, if you hate Israel so much, why don’t you give back your kidney.

This is a craven & offensive comment. Medical care should be provided w/o regard to political affiliation or ethnic origin. If you don’t share that view then I’d invite you to either keep yr trap shut on that subject or move on to somewhere where people like that sort of snark.

Besides he loves Israel. He just envisions a diff. Israel than you do.

Be well. Lennybruce

Can you back this up with some facts. The Israeli supreme court is widely respected in the world.

The Supreme Court has for years entirely ducked a major case brought by Israeli human rights groups charging the IDF with war crimes. It has used every legal tool to deny & delay for years hearing & ruling on the case. It’s laughable. Second, it’s not just that the Supreme Court has temporized over many issues related to national security & human rights, but the decisions it does make are routinely violated by the IDF & security services:

Israeli security interrogators routinely mistreat and sometimes torture Palestinian detainees, meting out abuse that includes beatings and contortion, Israeli human rights groups said in a new report on Sunday.

…In a report based on the testimonies of 73 Palestinians from the occupied West Bank detained between July 2005 and January 2006, the groups said the Shin Bet security service employs a seven-step
“interrogation system.”

The methods for trying to extract information include solitary confinement “in putrid, stifling cells,” the painful binding of a detainee’s hands and feet to a chair, sleep disturbance and cursing and humiliation, the report said.

Such practices, the groups said, constitute “ill-treatment” under international law and violate an Israeli Supreme Court ban against interrogation methods aimed at breaking a detainee’s spirit.

The IDF has also ignored a Supreme Court ruling prohibiting it fr. using Palestinian civilians as human shields. Ynetnews featured a video of an actual IDF violation in the field. What good is a Supreme Court is its ruling are ignored?

And as far as medical treatment in Israeli jails, you have no evidence to support your claim

Do you mean to tell me that you believe that the Israeli prison system is medically prepared to treat a prisoner who has had a kidney transplant including providing dialysis treatment & other advanced emergency treatment that might be required including provision of proper medications & medical consultations w. specialists as needed? If you were an Israeli prisoner with such a condition would you feel confident you would be properly treated??

I, myself, have no objection that the same committee (with both Arabs and Jews in it) make the curriculum for ALL public schools including religious schools.

I’m glad to hear that we agree on something. However, you & I both know that most rightists & all haredi Jews would object vehemently to Arabs having any say in a religious school curriculum.

The AG & Supreme Court are notoriously lenient in allowing the skirting of rules by intelligence agencies esp. when alleged national security issues arise.

Can you back this up with some facts. The Israeli supreme court is widely respected in the world.

Now, that same Jewish state wants potentially to execute his son for treason.

No one in their right mind thinks that Bishara will be executed. And as far as medical treatment in Israeli jails, you have no evidence to support your claim in a previous thread that it is inadequate. If you have some, you should present it. Anyway your argument that this represents “hounding” is applicable to any suspected criminal.

And now for some compare and contrast: Savri Rezawei, 26 years old, was picked up by goons from the al Aksa Martyrs Brigade (those would be Fatah Abu Mazen affiliated goons). He “confessed” to collaborating with Israel and was immediately executed. That was three days ago. No courts, no lawyers no interviews with al-jazeera and no one cares. No results for his name on a google blog search. That’s all. And please, don’t even try to comparing this to targeted killing by the IDF in theterritories, since Savri was a Palestinian (one oftheir own) and they had him in custody.
As far as Israel’s public schools goes, I don’t know how the curriculum is decided. I, myself, have no objection that the same committee (with both Arabs and Jews in it) make the curriculum for ALL public schools including religious schools. That means Arabs (professioanal) educators would make a contribution for policies in Jewish religious schools. If everyone acts in good faith, I see no problem.

I’m generally in favor of equal opportunity, equal treatment & equal funding for both groups. I’m not keen on schools which separate groups or encourage segregation or chauvinism. But personally I’m not that strongly opposed to it either. Jewish schools are essentially segregated anyway since most Jewish students will hardly ever see an Arab student. Personally, I wish there was real intergration in which all Jews had to study with some Arabs & vice versa. That would be socially & culturally very tense & stressful, but it should happen nevertheless.

But many Israeli citizens consider him an Israeli patriot and I predict that in time, if the nationalist divide between Jews and Arabs is ever worked out (& I believe it will) Bishara will come to be seen as the father or one of the father’s of his ethnic group & hence an Israeli patriot.

The interogation was closely scrutinized by the attorney general and reviewed every three months by the supreme court.

Which means precisely very little. The AG & Supreme Court are notoriously lenient in allowing the skirting of rules by intelligence agencies esp. when alleged national security issues arise. I wouldn’t be surprised if we find out that something like this has happened in this case.

Nobody “hounded” him into exile.

Oh, you don’t think an intelligence agent telling you you may be brought up on charges which could cost you your life can be described as “hounding?”

I don’t recall Bishara ever fighting for civil rights. He fights for national rights.

You live in a bizarro world. A Jew who fights for Jewish national rights is fighting for human (i.e. civil) rights. An Arab who fights for Arab national rights is no less a fighter for civil rights.

As for Bishara’s father, I’d phrase the irony of this entirely differently. He was a Communist who supported the creation of the Jewish state. Now, that same Jewish state wants potentially to execute his son for treason.