Shu'afat, at the Abu Khdeir Home
Justice is a privilege, or justice is meant only for the privileged
When I read about the intention now forming to shorten the sentence and grant amnesty to the murderers of the boy Mohammad Abu-Khdeir, I went to visit his parents and be with them as I did back then, several days after the murder – hold their hand and say nothing. I thought we might keep silent together for a while.
But as soon as I came in to the living room which a memorial to the child who is still burning, tongues were loosened and words gushed out in endless memory and pain.
The parents feel greatly disappointed with the judicial system and its lackeys who even conceive of freeing the most detested of murderers.
The parents said that on Sunday, December 3, the court would hold session regarding the amnesty and lessened sentence – a session in which they, parents of the victim and in fact the living victims themselves, are not allowed to attend. The person who will represent them is their lawyer, in whose hands they have placed the evidence file and their feelings of pain, fear and deep offense.
I read somewhere – don’t remember where – that “Justice is a privilege”, and knew that when human beings suffer inequality and some are more equal than others, and when equality is graded even where applying just laws is concerned, and when our neighbors are not equal to us and their life, death and relative freedom are very shaky – the values of morality too are fragile, to say the least. More to the point would be to say that justice is for the privileged between the river and the sea, that justice has been exiled, perhaps even robbed and is at the hands of the Ben Gvirs, the Smutriches, the Levins and their troupes. Even hundreds of reasons and excuses could not launder such a murder – the hands of the perpetrators, the coverers and justifiers are blood-stained and could never be cleansed.
In face of the atmosphere at the Abu Khdeir family home, I am most concerned about the reaction of Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem if and when the court, the Ministry of Justice and the State’s President would confirm and approve the requests for amnesty etc., for in that case a thousand firefighters could not put out the fire that would rage in the streets.