Two Israeli courts ruled on controversial issues Thursday. A Ramla district court judge imposed a stiff sentence on four Israeli leftists who violated a law against having contacts with terrorist organizations.
The Supreme Court, meanwhile, made a strong statement on respect for human life when it sentenced a West Bank settler to three years in jail for killing an Arab youth.
In Ramla, Magistrate Avraham Beiser made clear the state would no longer tolerate private contacts with the Palestine Liberation Organization.
The four members of an Israeli “peace delegation” that met with PLO representatives in Romania a year ago were each given six-month jail terms, a one-year suspended sentence and a fine of 4,000 shekels, including court expenses.
But the defendants may serve their jail sentences by doing public service. They are Mapam activist Latif Dori, journalist Yael Lotan, Hebrew University Professor Reuven Kaminer and Eliezer Feiler, a left-wing activist.
Judge Beiser found from the evidence that none of them had harmed the security of the state. He said he took into consideration that the meeting in Romania was for the purpose of promoting peace, that the accused were first offenders and that their case was the first to be brought to trial under the new anti-terrorist statute.
Nevertheless, Beiser decided to pronounce sentence because, he said, the law must be respected, even on an issue of national controversy.
Lotan told Israel Radio afterward that the sentence was intended to appease right-wing sentiment. She said after the judge had recited all of the mitigating circumstances, the defendants had expected suspended sentences and a smaller fine. They plan to appeal.
INCIDENT OCCURRED IN NABLUS
The case before the Supreme Court was of a different nature. The court overruled the six-month, community-service sentence a Tel Aviv district court gave Nissan Ishigayou, and handed him a three-year jail sentence instead.
Ishigayou, a settler from Hinanit, in the West Bank, was convicted of fatally shooting an Arab youth during a stone-throwing incident in Nablus six years ago.
The incident occurred when a crowd of youths began pelting a truck Ishigayou was driving through Nablus. He opened fire on them with his gun, killing one youth.
The Tel Aviv district court judge contended that the youths, their parents and teachers were as much to blame for the incident as the settler. He gave Ishigayou six months to be served by performing public service.
The Supreme Court decided, however, that the sentence “did not express the proper value of human life of whatever nationality, and it can be interpreted as acquiescence to a behavioral norm which cannot be tolerated.”
Meanwhile, 19 residents of the West Bank Arab village of Beita went on trial Thursday in the Nablus military court.
They are accused of participating in an attack on Jewish teen-agers and their two armed escorts, who took a Passover hike in the region on April 6.
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