Showing posts with label Knesset. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Knesset. Show all posts

Monday, May 11, 2026

A Country That Has Not Believed In The Death Penalty, Israel

Nadene Goldfoot                                             

    October 7, 2023 slaughter of Israelis, 2nd only to Holocaust, person or people dragged out and then killed.  Hundreds of people were killed or caught in their cars during the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in southern Israel, with many vehicles burned, shot at, or used to block roads. Over 1,650 destroyed vehicles were gathered into a "graveyard" near Tkuma,, where forensic teams worked to identify remains.  The day will never be forgotten.  
                                             

Israel has technically maintained capital punishment for specific crimes, but for most of its history, it was a de facto abolitionist state. 

Being born as a state in 1948,  6 years later, Israel formally abolished the death penalty for murder in 1954, retaining it only for extreme cases like treason, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, with only two executions ever carried out (Meir Tobianski, 1948; Adolf Eichmann, 1962).

Meir Tobianski

Meir Tobianski (1904–1948) was an IDF officer executed by firing squad for treason at age 44 during Israel's 1948 War of Independence, but was fully exonerated one year later. He was wrongfully convicted in a swift, unlawful field court-martial for passing information to Jordan, but was rehabilitated by David Ben-Gurion in 1949.  Tobianski was born in Kovno, Lithuania.   He served in the Lithuanian Army and studied engineering in Russia and Lithuania, then  immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1925. He served as a major in the British Army during the Second World War, then a captain in the Haganah, and was later sworn into the IDF on 28 June 1948, during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. He was also the former commander of Camp Schneller, a military base in Jerusalem. In June 1948 Tobianski had been transferred to command of Jerusalem airstrips.    

Based on historical accounts of the Tobianski affair, Meir Tobianski was not strictly "giving up" on army work in 1948, but rather managing a complex dual role with the full knowledge of the Haganah (the pre-state Jewish defense force).  

On 8 July 1948, the Irgun arrested five British officials of the Jerusalem Electric Corporation. One of the men was Michael Bryant, to whom Tobianski had been accused of passing information. A month later, they were transferred to the Israeli authorities and on 12 August brought to trial. Three, including Bryant, were released due to lack of evidence. The remaining two men, George Hawkins and Fredrick Sylvester, faced a second trial on 16 September. Hawkins, who was charged with passing information to the Arabs, was released on 30 September. Sylvester, who was married to an Israeli and had been a member of the Palestine Police, was charged with espionage and complicity in the Ben Yehuda Street bombing. On 6 October, he was found guilty of three charges of espionage and sentenced to seven years in prison. The verdict rested on his possession of a radio with which he had been communicating with the British Consul in the Old City. Israel was born May 14, 1948.   In November 1948, he was acquitted by the Israeli Supreme Court and released.                   

Meir was an employee of the British-run Jerusalem Electric Corporation. Suspected of passing information on targets for Jordanian artillery, he was taken into custody and sentenced to death by firing squad. Meir Tobianski was selected to blame as a spy for Jordan in 1948 because the extreme accuracy of Jordanian shelling on Jerusalem's strategic targets created an urgent need for a scapegoat, with suspicion falling on the Jerusalem Electric Corporation, where he served as a manager. Dollars to donuts, I bet it was a Brit in the company that was the spy.  They had pinned it on the only Jewish soldier ! 馃槬馃槬馃槬馃槬馃槬

Otto Adolf Eichmann 19 March 1906 – 1 June 1962) was a German-Austrian official of the Nazi Party, an officer of the Schutzstaffel (SS), a convicted war criminal, and one of the major organizers of the Holocaust. In May 1960, 12 years after Israel's birth,  he was tracked down and abducted by Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, and put on trial before the Supreme Court of Israel. The highly publicised Eichmann trial resulted in his conviction in Jerusalem, following which he was executed by hanging in 1962 at the age of 56.
    Eichmann kept in glass booth in 1961:  Adolf Eichmann sat in a bulletproof glass booth during his 1961 trial in Jerusalem primarily for his own safety, protecting him from potential assassination by Holocaust survivors or others in the courtroom.
It was a crucial security measure designed to ensure he could stand trial for his role in the Holocaust. 

1962 (Only Civil Execution): Holocaust architect Adolf Eichmann was hanged, the only execution in Israel's history after a civilian trial.

After Germany's defeat in 1945, Eichmann was captured by US forces, but he escaped from a detention camp and moved around Germany to avoid recapture. He ended up in a small village in Lower Saxony, where he lived until 1950 when he moved to Argentina using false papers he obtained with help from an organisation directed by Catholic bishop Alois Hudal. Information collected by Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, confirmed his location in 1960. A team of Mossad and Shin Bet agents captured Eichmann and brought him to Israel to stand trial on 15 criminal charges, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes against the Jewish people. During the trial, he did not deny the Holocaust or his role in organising it, but said he was simply following orders in a totalitarian F眉hrerprinzip system. He was found guilty on all of the charges, and was executed by hanging on 1 June 1962. The trial was widely followed in the media and was later the subject of several books, including Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem, in which Arendt coined the phrase "the banality of evil" to describe Eichmann.

Now the worst attack on Israel has happened on October 7, 2023 since the Holocaust say many.  It isn't the number slaughtered that matches the Holocaust but the way Israelis were slaughtered;  beheaded, parts of bodies cut off, a heart of one with the murderer trying to eat it raw, rapes, knifings, every bad way to kill happened to the Israelis shocking those who saw it first hand, babies butchered.                               

Yariv Gideon Levin (Hebrew: 讬专讬讘 讙讚注讜谉 诇讜讬谉; born 22 June 1969) is an Israeli lawyer and politician who serves as Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Justice, Minister of Interior and Minister of Religious Services. He served as Speaker of the Knesset in December 2022, previously serving in that role from 2020 to 2021. He currently serves as a member of Knesset for Likud, and previously held the posts of Minister of Internal Security, Minister of Tourism, and Minister of Aliyah and Integration.

Justice Minister Yariv Levin on Sunday presented a bill that would create a special legal framework to prosecute terrorists involved in the Oct. 7 massacre and including rapes and allow courts to impose the death penalty. Levin said the law would grant full authority to impose death sentences, and that if such sentences are handed down, “they will be carried out.”The law establishes a legal framework for unprecedented trials, expected to be the largest and most significant in Israel since the 1961 trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann.

A  position ISIS terrorists puts their captured in if they don't fork up what they want;  the terrorist type that should be committed to the jury.  These men will be decapitated by ISIS.  

Levin was born in Jerusalem to Gail and Aryeh Levin, an Israel Prize laureate for linguistics. His mother's uncle, Eliyahu Lankin, was commander of the Altalena ship and a member of the first Knesset, representing Herut, whilst Menachem Begin was the Sandek at Levin's circumcision ceremony.

Yariv Levin served in the IDF Intelligence Corps during his national service in the Israel Defense Forces. : He served as an Arabic translator. : He later served as a commander of an Arabic translation course within the Intelligence Corps. 




Tuesday, October 29, 2024

Knesset's New Law Long-Time Coming, Preventing UNESCO FROM Aiding/ Abetting Hamas In Israel OR Judea/Samaria

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                     

Israel's single chamber parliament is called the Knesset, created in 1949.  It has 120 seats which are filled by proportional representation based on the total vote in the country.  All men and women with Israel citizenship above the age of 18, have the right to vote.  Candidates for election must be above the age of 25.  In 1966, it moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.  

We must remember that the state of Israel was proclaimed by the Palestine Jewish authorities on May 14, 1948, on the eve of the day Great Britain relinquished its control.  When the Arab armies invaded Israel, no concrete help was afforded by the UN in implementing its resolution but UN mediators negotiated the subsequent cease fire and armistice agreements supervised by a Truce Supervision Organization with headquarters in Jerusalem.  Our tsuris (problems)  with Palestinians has gone on for a long time!  

Israel has finally done what it should have done a long time ago!  Israel’s Knesset has approved a law banning the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine from operating inside Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The U.N. agency, known as UNRWA, is tasked with providing food, healthcare and social services to Palestinians and is a critical lifeline to Gaza’s surviving 2.3 million residents who, they say,  face widespread famine and malnutrition due to (Israel’s unrelenting, yearlong assault). They can't even come out and admit that this has happened since October 7, 2023, when Israel suffered a horrible surprise attack by Palestinians who maliciously slaughtered young dancing Israelis with their friends at the end of a Jewish holiday.  Israel's unrelenting, yearlong assault, my eye!  Finally, after putting up with the PLO who Hamas has replaced, of their vicious attacks, Israel is rebelling against the UN who has aided and abetted the Palestinians in many ways.  UNRWA has gotten away with murder because they have operated under the UN.                                

Sharren Haskel, 40,  of the Likud Party was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada to a Jewish family, the middle of three sisters. Her father, Amir, was born in Israel, and is from a family of Palmach veterans from moshav Tzofit. Her mother, Fabienne, was born in Morocco.   She is a member of the Knesset for the National Unity Party, having previously served as a member of Likud and for New Hope. When she was first elected, she was the youngest member of Likud and the second youngest member of the 20th Knesset.

The ban on UNRWA was approved in a 92-10 vote with the full support of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party. Israeli lawmaker Sharren Haskel co-authored the legislation.  UNRWA hasn't done a thing to bring back the over 200 Israeli hostages that Hamas has held nor have they taken steps to have Hamas end their attack on Israel.  

 However, Israel claims that the agency of UNRWA has ties to Hamas, the militant group Israel is battling in Gaza.  馃帶 Israel is saying that some Palestinian UNRWA staffers took part in the Oct. 7 attack, NPR’s Daniel Estrin tells Up First. Israel claimed to have discovered a Hamas command center located directly beneath UNRWA's headquarters in Gaza. The United Nations has warned that implementing a ban could have devastating consequences, while the U.S. State Department emphasized that UNRWA plays an irreplaceable role in Gaza. The U.S. has cautioned Israel in a letter that if it proceeds with this plan, there could be repercussions under U.S. law, which could include withholding weapons and military aid to Israel.  Isn't that what "friends" are for?  It would have been nice if the USA patted Israel on the back and said something like, We admire you for the gumption of speaking up!  And, "everybody figured a long time ago that they were helping out Hamas ! " 

The latest is that Iraq has gone to the UN complaining of Israel using their air-space in bombing Iran's military sites that produce missiles that have attacked Israel recently.  I do believe they have paved the way to let the UN hear of our complaints against terrorism.  

After the knesset outlawed UNRWA, (and they called the knesset "the Parliament"  NBC came up with this magnified report:  More than 90 people, including 20 children, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in Gaza early Tuesday, local officials said, the deadliest attack in months as it wages a renewed assault on the north of the Palestinian enclave.  They added that it was in a move that could throttle the supply of medicine, food and education in the devastated territory. Well, I have news for NBC.  Hamas steals the shipment of medicine and food and sells it to the Palestinians at very very high prices, so rich come, rich are served.  And as for education, all along since the beginning of their organization they have taught children anti-Semitic slogans and a make-believe history against Jews.  


"In the U.S., the first Jewish member of the House of Representatives was David Levy Yulee in 1845 who was also the first Jewish senator and was from Florida.  "Yulee was born on the island of St. Thomas, then under British control, to a Sephardic Jewish family; his father was a trader from Morocco and his mother, also of Sephardi descent, was born in Sint Eustatius and raised in St. Thomas.  So, Trump;  look at this Jewish Latino, so close to Puerto Rico, and take back those anti-Semitic comments !  

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

TV News

https://www.democracynow.org/2024/10/29/headlines/israeli_lawmakers_ban_un_aid_agency_for_palestinian_refugees

https://www.npr.org/2024/10/29/g-s1-30605/up-first-newsletter-trump-campaign-speeches-israel-unrwa

Monday, July 17, 2023

Israel's and Other Supreme Courts of the World and What They Are Made Up Of

 Nadene Goldfoot                                           

  Knesset in Jerusalem. It is a single chamber parliament.   This permanent building was finished in 1966. Created in 1949, it has 120 seats.  All male and female citizens vote above the age of 18. Candidates must be above the age of 25.   

Members of the Knesset have certain privileges and immunities, especially immunity from arrest, which can only be waived by the Knesset as a whole.  Language is all in Hebrew but there are translators for Arab members.  Speeches in Arabic are translated into Hebrew.  There is no presidential power to veto laws passed by the Knesset, nor has the Israel Supreme Court the power of the US Supreme Court to declare a law unconstitutional, as there is no complete written constitution.  

  Wonder women of new cabinet:  

With this new government sworn in on June 13,2021 Israel is boasting the highest number of female ministers in a government since the state’s founding: One-third of Israel’s 27 Cabinet ministers are women and three of them are members of the powerful security Cabinet.  Israel also now has the highest number of women, seven, holding the most senior professional positions in Israeli public service including director-general – the most powerful role in a ministry.  And just like the coalition itself, the nine ministers have widely different backgrounds ranging from far right to far left and another who is one of two Knesset members with disabilities.  After two years of repeated elections and failed attempts at forming a coalition, this new government has made history in many ways including becoming the first coalition to include a Muslim party and the swearing in of the first member of Knesset who is deaf, Shirley Pinto.

        The head of the Supreme Court is also a woman, Esther Hayut.    

Israel, born in 1948, already had an Israel’s "Constitutional Revolution."

Israel's Declaration of Independence called for the swift drafting of a written constitution for the new country.  That did not happen.  Instead, beginning in 1958, the Knesset enacted 11 “Basic Laws” which establish the country’s basic political institutions.  Of these, the most consequential for the Supreme Court (in addition to, of course, the Basic Law on the Judiciary) have been the Basic Law on Human Dignity and Liberty and the Basic Law on Freedom of Occupation, enacted in 1992 (though the latter was replaced by a revised version in 1994). The Supreme Court interpreted the 1992 Laws as implicitly affording the Court the power of judicial review.  

The watershed decision was United Mizrahi Bank v. Migdal Cooperative Village (1995).  In his opinion in Mizrahi, President Barak described passage of the 1992 Basic Laws as "a constitutional revolution."  That phrase is often quoted, though generally with regard to the Mizrahi decision itself rather than the Basic Laws on which it relied.

      Netanyahu and Hertzog in front sitting

Now Netanyahu's decision about the Supreme Court has shook up his population  Under pressure from protests, Netanyahu's coalition already tabled the most controversial part of the plan, which would give the ruling government the power to override the Supreme Court. The push for more control widely is seen as a preemptive step toward enacting a controversial legislative agenda  and they are demonstrating according to NPR, an American opinion who think that Netanyahu's government thinks the Supreme Court is too liberal and blocks policies promoted by ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox politicians.  

               Benjamin Netanyahu, just taken to hospital for dehydration and possible chest pains.  After all-night hospitalization, Sheba Medical Center says premier’s heart is ‘completely normal’ and that doctors used a subcutaneous Holter monitor ‘as is customary.’ Sheba is said to be the best hospital in Israel.  

 Netanyahu now has Orthodox Jewish ministers who have different expectations for Judea and Samaria than the usual.  Biden has not asked Netanyahu to Washington, but just gave an invitation to Hertzog, the President of Israel who is on his way now.  That's a snub to Netanyahu.  


FINANCE MINISTER BEZALEL SMOTRICH

A West Bank settler who heads the hardline Religious Zionism party, Smotrich will lead the Treasury under a rotation deal with Aryeh Deri from the religious Shas Party. After raising concern by saying Israel would prosper if it embraced biblical values, Smotrich has clarified that he champions free markets.Smotrich, 42, opposes Palestinian statehood. In the past, he has agitated against Israel's Arab minority citizens, condemned LGBT activists and called the justice system too liberal. He now says he will serve all Israelis.His new cabinet duties include a role within the Defence Ministry overseeing West Bank settlements, which he wants to see expanded and, eventually, annexed by Israel. He previously served as transport minister. 

Update: 7/21/23  I believe I know why Smotrich is for building in all areas of A,B, and C.  It happens that this is what the Palestinians have been doing; ignoring the law of where each are allowed to build and they could in A and B only.  C was reserved according to the Oslo Accords to Jewish building.  So he figures, why not Israel, then?                    


INTERIOR AND HEALTH MINISTER ARYEH DERI

Deri, 63, an ultra-Orthodox rabbi, is the veteran leader of Shas, which draws support from religious Jews of Middle Eastern descent. His appointment to the new Netanyahu government has been challenged in Israel's Supreme Court given his conviction for tax fraud - without prison time - last year.

In 1999, Deri was sentenced to three years in jail for taking bribes. He returned to politics in 2012. Under his coalition deal, he will become finance minister in two years.

Shas, along with another ultra-Orthodox party, United Torah Judaism, has long raised concerns among secular liberals by demanding welfare benefits and military draft exemptions for its constituents.

So, what is life like in other countries for a Supreme Court?

In October 2009, The British UK Supreme Court replaced the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords as the highest court in the United Kingdom. The Supreme Court's 12 Justices maintain the highest standards set by the Appellate Committee, but are now explicitly separate from both Government and Parliament.

The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom (initialism: UKSC) is the final court of appeal in the United Kingdom for all civil cases, and for criminal cases originating in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. As the United Kingdom’s highest appellate court for these matters, it hears cases of the greatest public or constitutional importance affecting the whole population.

This is distinguished by the number, 12 judges.  This means they can have a draw of 6 to 6.  In the USA, there are 9 judges, an uneven number, and in Israel, the Supreme Court currently consists of 15 justices; that number is established by the Knesset and has varied over the years.  

France has  unique Supreme Court of many levels.  The Court of Cassation (French: Cour de cassation [ku蕘 d蓹 ka.sa.sj蓴̃]) is the supreme court for civil and criminal cases in France. It is one of the country's four apex courts, along with the Council of State, the Constitutional Council and the Jurisdictional Disputes Tribunal. It primarily hears appeals against the decisions of courts of assizes and courts of appeal (appeals-in-cassation). The Court only reviews questions of law (but not questions of fact) and bears ultimate responsbility for a uniform interpretation and application of statutory law throughout France. It also filters out appeals challenging the constitutionality of statutes before forwarding them to the Counstitutional Council, reviews lower court verdicts on request of the European Court of Human Rights and hears several other types of cases.

Being Israel is the only Democracy in the Middle East, there is no other country to compare with there.France is a Republic, and there's no current royal family recognized by the French state. Still, there are thousands of French citizens who have titles and can trace their lineage back to the French Royal Family and nobility. According to a report from the BBC, there are between 50,000 and 100,000 people who claim to be "aristocrats."

England is ruled by a king or queen, but does have a Democratic system with a parliament.  

Resource:

https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2023/07/comparison-of-democracy-of-usa-and.html

https://allisrael.com/the-wonder-women-of-the-israeli-cabinet

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Court_of_the_United_Kingdom

https://versa.cardozo.yu.edu/about-supreme-court-israel#:~:text=The%20Supreme%20Court%20currently%20consists,has%20varied%20over%20the%20years.

https://www.npr.org/2023/03/27/1166200532/israel-civil-war-netanyahu-court-control#:~:text=Under%20pressure%20from%20protests%2C%20Netanyahu's,enacting%20a%20controversial%20legislative%20agenda

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/top-ministers-israels-new-religious-nationalist-cabinet-2022-12-29/.