Halabi case shows failure of Israeli system - opinion

• Published date: 13 October 2021
• Author: DAOUD KUTTAB
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

At the Erez checkpoint, he was whisked away and imprisoned without knowing why. For 50 days he was interrogated, tortured and asked to confess to things he has never done. He refused. He was repeatedly told that he had passed money and goods to Palestinian military organizations. He had not. The Israeli media was full of stories about the arrest and that Mohammad El Halabi was the key person in passing $50 million of humanitarian aid to what the Israeli media called Palestinian terrorist organizations.

As director of the Gaza office of World Vision, Halabi was providing important humanitarian support to needy Palestinians. His personal spending limit was a mere $300 and the entire Gaza office's maximum spending was $15,000, and that had to be approved by the head office in Jerusalem. We tried our best to use as many of these resources as possible to help the needy. Mohammad El Halabi went out of his way to avoid any dealings with political or militant organizations knowing well that any relationship with Hamas or other organizations would bring an end to the needed humanitarian effort he was working on.

Two months after his arrest, an Israeli military prosecutor approached him and suggested that he should accept a deal in which he admits to a much smaller amount of money. He refused without even blinking an eye. They asked to implicate the head of the Jerusalem office of World Vision, Alex Snary, in return for freedom, which was also refused.

The plea offers kept coming for years and Halabi consistently refused. His first Israeli lawyer tried to convince him to accept one even though it was not true, and he refused. A judge called him in and she tried to convince him to accept a deal, and he rejected saying to them, "I will never admit to something I didn't do."

They purposely extended his detention to force him to admit to something he didn't do. His lawyers' repeated requests for bail were rejected even by the High Court because his charge was akin to treason, they said.

The Israeli plea-bargaining charade apparently has become a well-oiled machine. Israel targets a person for whatever reason, arrests him or her, and pins any charge on them knowing that they can keep that person in jail for as long as they want.

In most cases, Palestinians accept a plea just to get out. Israeli human rights organizations have documented a staggering percentage of over 98% of cases in which charges end up with a Palestinian accepting a plea bargain, admitting to a lesser...