6 sept 2012
State settles with family of Palestinian left to die by Israel Police, will pay damages
In out-of-court deal, Israel to pay NIS 875,000 to the family of Omar Abu Jariban, who was discarded by the side of a road in 2008, despite being gravely injured in accident.
The State of Israel will compensate the family of a Palestinian who was left to die by Israeli police officers four years ago, in a compromise agreement obtained by Haaretz on Thursday.
In 2008, Omar Abu Jariban, who had illegally entered Israel from Gaza, was seriously injured after a car he had stolen rolled over on Route 6. He was admitted to Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, with broken bones and neurological injuries and then released in a state of confusion and still attached to a catheter.
After space was not found for him in a prison, he was allegedly left by police at the side of Route 45 near the Ofer army camp in the West Bank. His body was found there two days later.
Baruch Peretz, the police officer on duty, and Asaf Yakutieli, who admits placing Abu Jariban on the side of the road - where he later died of dehydration were charged of causing his negligent death.
In July, a Jerusalem's magistrate's court sentenced both men to 30 months in prison, with judge Haim Lee-Ran calling their conduct "ugly and nauseating."
Following Peretz and Yakutieli's conviction in June, Abu Jariban's family filed a damages claim to the Petah Tikva District Court, with the family's legal representative Hussein Abu Hussein saying that the hospital, Israel Police, and the officers in question were all guilty of Abu Jariban's negligent death.
The state, however, wished to avoid a court hearing of the case, reaching an out-of-court compromise with the family, according to which the Abu Jariban's relatives would receive 875,000 shekels in damages.
In addition, the compromise agreement indicates that the sum represents the damages paid in the name of the hospital as well as in that of the police, with the state reserving the privilege to prosecute the officers themselves.
Petah Tikva District Court President Hila Gerstel approved the details of the deal.
The State of Israel will compensate the family of a Palestinian who was left to die by Israeli police officers four years ago, in a compromise agreement obtained by Haaretz on Thursday.
In 2008, Omar Abu Jariban, who had illegally entered Israel from Gaza, was seriously injured after a car he had stolen rolled over on Route 6. He was admitted to Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, with broken bones and neurological injuries and then released in a state of confusion and still attached to a catheter.
After space was not found for him in a prison, he was allegedly left by police at the side of Route 45 near the Ofer army camp in the West Bank. His body was found there two days later.
Baruch Peretz, the police officer on duty, and Asaf Yakutieli, who admits placing Abu Jariban on the side of the road - where he later died of dehydration were charged of causing his negligent death.
In July, a Jerusalem's magistrate's court sentenced both men to 30 months in prison, with judge Haim Lee-Ran calling their conduct "ugly and nauseating."
Following Peretz and Yakutieli's conviction in June, Abu Jariban's family filed a damages claim to the Petah Tikva District Court, with the family's legal representative Hussein Abu Hussein saying that the hospital, Israel Police, and the officers in question were all guilty of Abu Jariban's negligent death.
The state, however, wished to avoid a court hearing of the case, reaching an out-of-court compromise with the family, according to which the Abu Jariban's relatives would receive 875,000 shekels in damages.
In addition, the compromise agreement indicates that the sum represents the damages paid in the name of the hospital as well as in that of the police, with the state reserving the privilege to prosecute the officers themselves.
Petah Tikva District Court President Hila Gerstel approved the details of the deal.
9 july 2012
Israel court sends police officers to prison for leaving Palestinian to die by side of road
Highway 443 in the Atarot area.
As Haaretz first revealed, Baruch Peretz and Asaf Yakutieli left car thief Omar Abu Jariban, who had been critically injured in a car accident, by a deserted road at night in 2008.
A Jerusalem magistrate's court sentenced on Monday two former Israeli police officers for causing 2008 negligent death of a Palestinian car thief to 30 months in prison.
In 2008, Omar Abu Jariban, who had illegally entered Israel from Gaza, was seriously injured after a car he had stolen rolled over on Route 6. He was admitted to Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, with broken bones and neurological injuries and then released in a state of confusion and still attached to a catheter.
After space was not found for him in a prison, he was allegedly left by police at the side of Route 45 near the Ofer army camp in the West Bank. His body was found there two days later.
As Haaretz first revealed, Baruch Peretz and Asaf Yakutieli left car thief Omar Abu Jariban, who had been critically injured in a car accident, by a deserted road at night in 2008.
A Jerusalem magistrate's court sentenced on Monday two former Israeli police officers for causing 2008 negligent death of a Palestinian car thief to 30 months in prison.
In 2008, Omar Abu Jariban, who had illegally entered Israel from Gaza, was seriously injured after a car he had stolen rolled over on Route 6. He was admitted to Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, with broken bones and neurological injuries and then released in a state of confusion and still attached to a catheter.
After space was not found for him in a prison, he was allegedly left by police at the side of Route 45 near the Ofer army camp in the West Bank. His body was found there two days later.
|
Assaf Yakutieli, one of the two officers convicted of negligent homicide of a Palestinian man, in a Jerusalem court
Baruch Peretz, the police officer on duty, and Asaf Yakutieli, who admits placing Abu Jariban on the side of the road - where he later died of dehydration were charged of causing his negligent death. |
On
Monday, a Jerusalem's magistrate's court sentenced both men to 30
months in prison, with judge Haim Lee-Ran calling their conduct "ugly
and nauseating."
"I find it hard to understand how, despite being fully aware of the detainees physical and mental state, they were unable to see and understand the distress of a man born in god's image," Lee-Ran said.
The Jerusalem judge added that the Peretz and Yakutieli left the Palestinian "just like that, in the dead of night, on a dark road, without themselves knowing where they were, and without even supplying him with water. As if he was a thing."
Lee Ran added that his sentence was meant to deter others from committing similar acts, and to "sharpen the recognition emanating from the sanctity of life and a man's right to dignity."
The judge also criticized the police in general, saying that the above-mentioned principles has been "blurred recently among those entrusted with the security of others."
"The source of a policeman's power, and that of the power of the police in a democratic state, isn't the baton, or the taser, or any other weapons at his disposal," but in his moral level, he said.
Peretz and Yakutieli's legal representatives criticized the ruling, and said they would appeal it.
"I find it hard to understand how, despite being fully aware of the detainees physical and mental state, they were unable to see and understand the distress of a man born in god's image," Lee-Ran said.
The Jerusalem judge added that the Peretz and Yakutieli left the Palestinian "just like that, in the dead of night, on a dark road, without themselves knowing where they were, and without even supplying him with water. As if he was a thing."
Lee Ran added that his sentence was meant to deter others from committing similar acts, and to "sharpen the recognition emanating from the sanctity of life and a man's right to dignity."
The judge also criticized the police in general, saying that the above-mentioned principles has been "blurred recently among those entrusted with the security of others."
"The source of a policeman's power, and that of the power of the police in a democratic state, isn't the baton, or the taser, or any other weapons at his disposal," but in his moral level, he said.
Peretz and Yakutieli's legal representatives criticized the ruling, and said they would appeal it.
7 july 2012
Israel to house illegal African immigrants in desert tent city
An Israeli sign is seen on the border with Egypt near the Israeli village of Beer Milka on June 18, 2012.
Israel is reportedly building a tent-city detention center in the desert as it steps up efforts to round up and repatriate illegal African immigrants.
Israel is reportedly building a tent-city detention center in the desert as it steps up efforts to round up and repatriate illegal African immigrants.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Israel is building a fence along its border with Egypt with detention facilities nearby.
"Maybe I sound like a racist, or unenlightened, hateful of foreigners," the paper quoted Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai, who has been the most vocal advocate of deporting the Africans, as saying in a post on his Facebook page.
"This is not a campaign against the infiltrators, but rather a campaign to preserve the identity of the Jewish Zionist state."
Israel began deporting Africans in June, after raids ostensibly targeting South Sudanese illegal immigrants in Tel Aviv and Eilat.
Those detained were given the option of accepting about $1,250 each and repatriation via plane, or else face incarceration and forced deportation.
Israel deports first group of South Sudanese illegal immigrants
However, according to the WSJ the South Sudanese make up a fraction of an estimated 60,000 Africans who have crossed illegally into Israel in recent years, mainly owing to lax Egyptian border controls.
The Africans' growing presence has stoked tensions in major cities, notably Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, where a 68-year-old Eritrean man was severely beaten by drunken youths on Friday, according to the Times of Israel.
And last month in the capital, arsonists set fire to an apartment housing African migrants; four occupants were treated for smoke inhalation.
African migrants, meantime, have recently been accused in several incidents of theft and rape, according to the WSJ.
"It's not safe for a black person to walk around in some areas," the paper quoted Yohannes Bayu, director of the African Refugee Development Center in Tel Aviv, as saying.
And the Health Ministry this week decided to cancel recent directives to separate African migrant patients from Israeli patients earlier this week after sharp criticism, Haaretz reported.
The instructions were issued at Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital, citing the threat of infectious diseases.
However, the ministry may still introduce procedures for testing migrants and refugees for diseases at Israeli hospitals based on a patient's status in Israel.
Migrants without status may soon be required to undergo X-ray screening for tuberculosis and blood tests for measles and chicken pox before being treated.
Israel is reportedly building a tent-city detention center in the desert as it steps up efforts to round up and repatriate illegal African immigrants.
Israel is reportedly building a tent-city detention center in the desert as it steps up efforts to round up and repatriate illegal African immigrants.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Israel is building a fence along its border with Egypt with detention facilities nearby.
"Maybe I sound like a racist, or unenlightened, hateful of foreigners," the paper quoted Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai, who has been the most vocal advocate of deporting the Africans, as saying in a post on his Facebook page.
"This is not a campaign against the infiltrators, but rather a campaign to preserve the identity of the Jewish Zionist state."
Israel began deporting Africans in June, after raids ostensibly targeting South Sudanese illegal immigrants in Tel Aviv and Eilat.
Those detained were given the option of accepting about $1,250 each and repatriation via plane, or else face incarceration and forced deportation.
Israel deports first group of South Sudanese illegal immigrants
However, according to the WSJ the South Sudanese make up a fraction of an estimated 60,000 Africans who have crossed illegally into Israel in recent years, mainly owing to lax Egyptian border controls.
The Africans' growing presence has stoked tensions in major cities, notably Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, where a 68-year-old Eritrean man was severely beaten by drunken youths on Friday, according to the Times of Israel.
And last month in the capital, arsonists set fire to an apartment housing African migrants; four occupants were treated for smoke inhalation.
African migrants, meantime, have recently been accused in several incidents of theft and rape, according to the WSJ.
"It's not safe for a black person to walk around in some areas," the paper quoted Yohannes Bayu, director of the African Refugee Development Center in Tel Aviv, as saying.
And the Health Ministry this week decided to cancel recent directives to separate African migrant patients from Israeli patients earlier this week after sharp criticism, Haaretz reported.
The instructions were issued at Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital, citing the threat of infectious diseases.
However, the ministry may still introduce procedures for testing migrants and refugees for diseases at Israeli hospitals based on a patient's status in Israel.
Migrants without status may soon be required to undergo X-ray screening for tuberculosis and blood tests for measles and chicken pox before being treated.
5 july 2012
Health Ministry softens Tel Aviv hospital directives on separating African migrants
Tel Aviv's Ichilov Hospital last week issued instructions that African migrant patients should be isolated in case of infectious diseases.
The Health Ministry has decided to cancel recent directives issued at Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital over the examination of African migrants, and to formulate a country-wide procedure.
The move comes after the hospital's director, Prof. Gabi Barabash, issued instructions to separate African migrant patients from Israeli patients earlier this week, citing the threat of infectious diseases.
The Ichilov directives were the subject of sharp criticism from social organizations. Haaretz reported on Thursday that a Ghanaian man who has been living in Israel for 14 years was forced to wait for a doctor for his sick baby in a locked room for an hour at Ichilov’s children’s hospital. The man has had residency papers for the past five years.
Over the past two days, the ministry has been in talks with legal experts to formulate a procedure for testing migrants and refugees for diseases when they enter Israeli hospitals, in an attempt to avoid separating patients on the basis of skin color, which is illegal under Israeli law.
According to the new procedure that apparently will go into effect, only migrants without status in Israel will be required to undergo examination on arrival at hospitals. This will not be required of those who have Israeli residency papers or citizenship, and will not be required of tourists.
Migrants without status will be required to undergo X-ray screening for active tuberculosis, and blood tests for measles and chicken pox, cases of which have been reported among the migrant community in Israel recently. On the first day of admission to hospital, migrants will be placed in isolation until the results of the tests become available. If after 24 hours no infectious diseases are detected, they will move to regular wards.
In the first stage, the new procedure is expected to be implemented only in Ichilov Hospital and Wolfson Medical Center in Holon.
Health ministry officials differ over the need to test all migrant workers and refugees coming to hospitals. However, according to statistics presented by Ichilov Hospital management to senior ministry officials, out of 70 migrants and refugees who underwent chest x-rays at the hospital, 13 were found to require further medical examination for tuberculosis.
The new procedure will not allow Ichilov to continue hospitalizing African migrants in separate rooms in the maternity, neo-natal, babies’ and children’s wards for longer than these tests for TB, measles and chickenpox require.
A senior health official said: “A balance must be reached between the desire to allow free movement in the hospital and protecting [people] from the spread of diseases. We hope that the public will receive the new guidelines that are being formulated, with understanding.”
Despite the cancelation of some of the levels of separation that Ichilov had ordered in its original directives, organizations that assist migrants criticized the new procedures. One social activist said: "There are other communities in Israel where there have been outbreaks of measles now," mentioning as examples villages in the north of the country where they refuse to vaccinate children, and ultra-orthodox populations. "No one would dream of putting these people into isolation when they come to a hospital,” he said.
Tel Aviv hospital bars African migrants from visiting patients, citing health concerns
Ichilov director issues instructions to only grant access to migrants in case of emergencies; those who do enter will have to get a chest X-ray to rule out tuberculosis.
The director of Ichilov Medical Center in Tel Aviv announced Monday that entry to the hospital will be denied to African migrants, unless if they are in need of medical attention or hospitalization.
Ichilov director Gabi Barbash issued the new instructions on Monday, in which migrant workers and refugees will only be granted access if they are in need of hospitalization or to be examined in the emergency room.
Also, Husbands of women in labor or parents of children that are hospitalized will be granted entry as long as they are wearing identification tags. Moreover, the hospital decided that all migrant workers and refugees entering the hospital, including those who are admitted for medical care, must get a chest X-ray in order to rule out the possibility that they are carrying tuberculosis.
Ichilov's director also instructed to isolate migrants who are patients in the maternity ward in a separate space.
Children of migrants hospitalized in Dana Children's Hospital in the Ichilov Medical Center Tel Aviv will also be separated from Israeli children in a special ward, according to the instructions. The new guidelines state that the hospital will assess the situation and “take extra steps in order to minimize the health risks to our patients and staff."
The instructions were issued a week after a baby carrying tuberculosis was found in the hospital. The six-week girl is currently in isolation in the hospital's intensive care unit. The mother of the baby, a migrant from Eritrea who has active tuberculosis, is hospitalized at the Shmuel Harofeh Hospital in Be'er Yaakov.
Hundreds of children who have come in contact with the baby, whether in the neonatal intensive care unit or in the hospital's emergency room, were summoned to the hospital in order to get tested for tuberculosis, and are receiving antibiotics as a preemptive treatment, in accordance with the results of the tests.
An Ichilov official said that the reason for the new instructions is purely medical and the guidelines are a response to growing concerns of tuberculosis infections.
The hospital’s management has complained for years over the vast amount of medical treatments given to the migrant and refugee population without any financial compensation. Nevertheless, the Treasury claims that the extra cost of treatment for refugees, beyond the hospital’s ongoing activity, is negligent.
In a letter distributed to hospital workers, Barbash stated that “we are all aware of the new reality forced upon us, due to the massive presence of the illegal migrant worker community in south Tel Aviv. This community numbers close to 100,000 refugees from Africa and lives in poverty, which increases the difficult health problems with which they arrive from their home countries and from their journey."
The Health Ministry has decided to cancel recent directives issued at Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital over the examination of African migrants, and to formulate a country-wide procedure.
The move comes after the hospital's director, Prof. Gabi Barabash, issued instructions to separate African migrant patients from Israeli patients earlier this week, citing the threat of infectious diseases.
The Ichilov directives were the subject of sharp criticism from social organizations. Haaretz reported on Thursday that a Ghanaian man who has been living in Israel for 14 years was forced to wait for a doctor for his sick baby in a locked room for an hour at Ichilov’s children’s hospital. The man has had residency papers for the past five years.
Over the past two days, the ministry has been in talks with legal experts to formulate a procedure for testing migrants and refugees for diseases when they enter Israeli hospitals, in an attempt to avoid separating patients on the basis of skin color, which is illegal under Israeli law.
According to the new procedure that apparently will go into effect, only migrants without status in Israel will be required to undergo examination on arrival at hospitals. This will not be required of those who have Israeli residency papers or citizenship, and will not be required of tourists.
Migrants without status will be required to undergo X-ray screening for active tuberculosis, and blood tests for measles and chicken pox, cases of which have been reported among the migrant community in Israel recently. On the first day of admission to hospital, migrants will be placed in isolation until the results of the tests become available. If after 24 hours no infectious diseases are detected, they will move to regular wards.
In the first stage, the new procedure is expected to be implemented only in Ichilov Hospital and Wolfson Medical Center in Holon.
Health ministry officials differ over the need to test all migrant workers and refugees coming to hospitals. However, according to statistics presented by Ichilov Hospital management to senior ministry officials, out of 70 migrants and refugees who underwent chest x-rays at the hospital, 13 were found to require further medical examination for tuberculosis.
The new procedure will not allow Ichilov to continue hospitalizing African migrants in separate rooms in the maternity, neo-natal, babies’ and children’s wards for longer than these tests for TB, measles and chickenpox require.
A senior health official said: “A balance must be reached between the desire to allow free movement in the hospital and protecting [people] from the spread of diseases. We hope that the public will receive the new guidelines that are being formulated, with understanding.”
Despite the cancelation of some of the levels of separation that Ichilov had ordered in its original directives, organizations that assist migrants criticized the new procedures. One social activist said: "There are other communities in Israel where there have been outbreaks of measles now," mentioning as examples villages in the north of the country where they refuse to vaccinate children, and ultra-orthodox populations. "No one would dream of putting these people into isolation when they come to a hospital,” he said.
Tel Aviv hospital bars African migrants from visiting patients, citing health concerns
Ichilov director issues instructions to only grant access to migrants in case of emergencies; those who do enter will have to get a chest X-ray to rule out tuberculosis.
The director of Ichilov Medical Center in Tel Aviv announced Monday that entry to the hospital will be denied to African migrants, unless if they are in need of medical attention or hospitalization.
Ichilov director Gabi Barbash issued the new instructions on Monday, in which migrant workers and refugees will only be granted access if they are in need of hospitalization or to be examined in the emergency room.
Also, Husbands of women in labor or parents of children that are hospitalized will be granted entry as long as they are wearing identification tags. Moreover, the hospital decided that all migrant workers and refugees entering the hospital, including those who are admitted for medical care, must get a chest X-ray in order to rule out the possibility that they are carrying tuberculosis.
Ichilov's director also instructed to isolate migrants who are patients in the maternity ward in a separate space.
Children of migrants hospitalized in Dana Children's Hospital in the Ichilov Medical Center Tel Aviv will also be separated from Israeli children in a special ward, according to the instructions. The new guidelines state that the hospital will assess the situation and “take extra steps in order to minimize the health risks to our patients and staff."
The instructions were issued a week after a baby carrying tuberculosis was found in the hospital. The six-week girl is currently in isolation in the hospital's intensive care unit. The mother of the baby, a migrant from Eritrea who has active tuberculosis, is hospitalized at the Shmuel Harofeh Hospital in Be'er Yaakov.
Hundreds of children who have come in contact with the baby, whether in the neonatal intensive care unit or in the hospital's emergency room, were summoned to the hospital in order to get tested for tuberculosis, and are receiving antibiotics as a preemptive treatment, in accordance with the results of the tests.
An Ichilov official said that the reason for the new instructions is purely medical and the guidelines are a response to growing concerns of tuberculosis infections.
The hospital’s management has complained for years over the vast amount of medical treatments given to the migrant and refugee population without any financial compensation. Nevertheless, the Treasury claims that the extra cost of treatment for refugees, beyond the hospital’s ongoing activity, is negligent.
In a letter distributed to hospital workers, Barbash stated that “we are all aware of the new reality forced upon us, due to the massive presence of the illegal migrant worker community in south Tel Aviv. This community numbers close to 100,000 refugees from Africa and lives in poverty, which increases the difficult health problems with which they arrive from their home countries and from their journey."
4 july 2012
Doctors blast hospital's African refugee isolation policy
Health Ministry, doctors slam Sourasky Medical Center's decision to restrict admissions of African refugees, isolating them from general population in move they call 'patient care apartheid'.
Tel Aviv’s Sourasky Medical Center will restrict admissions and visits by African refugees out of concern for the spread of infectious diseases to other patients – a move that sparked condemnation from the Health Ministry and doctors across Israel.
After receiving a letter which outlined the new policies which are intended to protect patients and hospital staff, doctors called Director General Gabi Barbash's decision "patient care apartheid."
Barbash's decision came after dozens of cases where infectious diseases such as tuberculosis were discovered among the African migrant population.
In his letter to the hospital staff, Barbash said that the hospital will not allow Africans into the hospital as visitors. However, any patient of African origin who requires hospitalization will receive a mandatory chest x-ray in order to rule out tuberculosis.
Criticism over Barbash's decision was soon to follow, as doctors voiced their opposition to the controversial policies. The Health Ministry further criticized Barbash's choice, calling it "Barbash's racist policy." A ministry official said that "a hospital in Israel – a country that went through the Holocaust – cannot possibly use discriminatory policies against migrants on the basis of their skin color."
Since the implementation of Barbash's new policies, three cases of tuberculosis have been discovered out of the 30 migrants who were tested for the disease. Despite the alarming figures, Sourasky hospital staff continued to protest against the decision to separate pregnant women, women giving birth and newborn babies of African migrants from the general population.
One of the options suggested by Barbash included dividing one of the hospital wards into two sections: Israeli women are to be hospitalized on one side of the ward, while pregnant African women will be sent to another section.
"We can't isolate African women who were cleared of infectious diseases in a separate ward on the basis of their skin color," said one doctor adding that "the thought of sending white women to one side and black women to the other side is just sickening."
Another doctor said that "this decision is a terrible one. We are all angry and embarrassed about it. It contradicts the fundamental principles medicine is founded on."
"We treat every patient in the same way regardless of their religion or skin color. Isolating healthy women in a tiny ward which resembles a ghetto is inhumane," she said.
Tel Aviv’s Sourasky Medical Center will restrict admissions and visits by African refugees out of concern for the spread of infectious diseases to other patients – a move that sparked condemnation from the Health Ministry and doctors across Israel.
After receiving a letter which outlined the new policies which are intended to protect patients and hospital staff, doctors called Director General Gabi Barbash's decision "patient care apartheid."
Barbash's decision came after dozens of cases where infectious diseases such as tuberculosis were discovered among the African migrant population.
In his letter to the hospital staff, Barbash said that the hospital will not allow Africans into the hospital as visitors. However, any patient of African origin who requires hospitalization will receive a mandatory chest x-ray in order to rule out tuberculosis.
Criticism over Barbash's decision was soon to follow, as doctors voiced their opposition to the controversial policies. The Health Ministry further criticized Barbash's choice, calling it "Barbash's racist policy." A ministry official said that "a hospital in Israel – a country that went through the Holocaust – cannot possibly use discriminatory policies against migrants on the basis of their skin color."
Since the implementation of Barbash's new policies, three cases of tuberculosis have been discovered out of the 30 migrants who were tested for the disease. Despite the alarming figures, Sourasky hospital staff continued to protest against the decision to separate pregnant women, women giving birth and newborn babies of African migrants from the general population.
One of the options suggested by Barbash included dividing one of the hospital wards into two sections: Israeli women are to be hospitalized on one side of the ward, while pregnant African women will be sent to another section.
"We can't isolate African women who were cleared of infectious diseases in a separate ward on the basis of their skin color," said one doctor adding that "the thought of sending white women to one side and black women to the other side is just sickening."
Another doctor said that "this decision is a terrible one. We are all angry and embarrassed about it. It contradicts the fundamental principles medicine is founded on."
"We treat every patient in the same way regardless of their religion or skin color. Isolating healthy women in a tiny ward which resembles a ghetto is inhumane," she said.
10 may 2012
Oblivious to the man in pajamas
Israel is full of unimportant citizens, in pajamas, with or without catheters, who stand helplessly at the sides of all kinds of roads, and no one notices them and no one stops.
“Didn’t you realize that there was something completely screwed up here?” Thus, in patently unlegalistic language, the judge used the slang Hebrew phrase “dafuk” − which means screwed up or sick − as he addressed the policeman being tried on suspicion of abandoning a Palestinian prisoner on the side of a road. The prisoner eventually died. The incident took place in June 2008.
Judge Haim Liran’s question to the policeman, Assaf Yekutieli, was not a standard question. The judge’s use of such a term as “screwed up” in a legal context, seems to indicate that this was either a rhetorical question or an expression of despair and frustration. As if, at that particular moment − at the conclusion of the presentation of the testimony and after hearing the details of the chilling event − the humane judge gave vent to the feelings in his heart, that he still believes in mankind and is not able to grasp how it is possible to abandon someone on the side of a road, a “person in pajamas and with a catheter.” It is as if he now understands that in this kind of reality there was no choice but to use that term “screwed up,” even though the setting was a courtroom.
It is possible to learn quite a bit about one of the key features of that screwed-up reality from the brief, amazing and spontaneous response by Yekutieli to the judge’s question. “That is the million dollar question,” he answered, using a cliche from the world of television, and prizes and lotteries, which has become our dominant culture. Moral questions and questions relating to abandoning the life of a human being are presented in terms of some kind of wheel of fortune. That makes the self-awareness evident in Yekutieli’s response to “the million dollar question” all the more surprising and impressive − to the point that it arouses a certain compassion and empathy .
“My eyes are not the same as your eyes,” he replied. “I dealt with foreign workers. We would take Africans with their smell, all of them with bare feet. I didn’t cry out when he shouted and when he [the Palestinian prisoner] was wearing pajamas. I was oblivious.”
Yekutieli is certainly apologetic. He has an interest in diminishing the seriousness of his acts. At the same time, it is difficult not to be impressed by his ability to see himself and the reality in which he acted, from the outside − certainly when he admits that he was oblivious. Yekutieli identified both the disease and its causes. Indeed, a person who is required as part of his work to deal on a daily basis with difficult scenes, with poverty, and wretchedness and their implications for human beings, is forced to develop a thick skin. “I didn’t cry out,” the policeman said.
It is expressly out of the negation of the cries of both men that an authentic cry emerges, of a person protesting that he has been turned unintentionally into a trooper. The phrases, “I was oblivious,” and “something completely screwed up” are synonyms for the disease we have gotten used to living with, just as one gets accustomed to living with a chronic illness. The most exposed to it are those people who come into contact with human beings known by the term “population.” In the occupied territories, there is a population of this kind, and in the neighborhoods of foreign workers, and the housing projects in poor neighborhoods.
The case of Omar Abu Jariban, the Palestinian man left to die on the side of a West Bank road − as shocking and extreme as that was − is an expression of a familiar situation. Our country is full of unimportant citizens, in pajamas, with or without catheters, who stand helplessly at the sides of all kinds of roads, and no one notices them and no one stops.
The unimportant citizen who threw a firebomb at the home of his neighbors in south Tel Aviv is also a victim of this reality. The well-fed citizen who lives far from there, in a protected environment, with material comforts, has no right to judge him.
And if he does judge him, that is a sign that he too has become oblivious. Children who are born into this reality, are innately oblivious. This epidemic has many facets and it is merely continuing to spread. And no one is immune.
“Didn’t you realize that there was something completely screwed up here?” Thus, in patently unlegalistic language, the judge used the slang Hebrew phrase “dafuk” − which means screwed up or sick − as he addressed the policeman being tried on suspicion of abandoning a Palestinian prisoner on the side of a road. The prisoner eventually died. The incident took place in June 2008.
Judge Haim Liran’s question to the policeman, Assaf Yekutieli, was not a standard question. The judge’s use of such a term as “screwed up” in a legal context, seems to indicate that this was either a rhetorical question or an expression of despair and frustration. As if, at that particular moment − at the conclusion of the presentation of the testimony and after hearing the details of the chilling event − the humane judge gave vent to the feelings in his heart, that he still believes in mankind and is not able to grasp how it is possible to abandon someone on the side of a road, a “person in pajamas and with a catheter.” It is as if he now understands that in this kind of reality there was no choice but to use that term “screwed up,” even though the setting was a courtroom.
It is possible to learn quite a bit about one of the key features of that screwed-up reality from the brief, amazing and spontaneous response by Yekutieli to the judge’s question. “That is the million dollar question,” he answered, using a cliche from the world of television, and prizes and lotteries, which has become our dominant culture. Moral questions and questions relating to abandoning the life of a human being are presented in terms of some kind of wheel of fortune. That makes the self-awareness evident in Yekutieli’s response to “the million dollar question” all the more surprising and impressive − to the point that it arouses a certain compassion and empathy .
“My eyes are not the same as your eyes,” he replied. “I dealt with foreign workers. We would take Africans with their smell, all of them with bare feet. I didn’t cry out when he shouted and when he [the Palestinian prisoner] was wearing pajamas. I was oblivious.”
Yekutieli is certainly apologetic. He has an interest in diminishing the seriousness of his acts. At the same time, it is difficult not to be impressed by his ability to see himself and the reality in which he acted, from the outside − certainly when he admits that he was oblivious. Yekutieli identified both the disease and its causes. Indeed, a person who is required as part of his work to deal on a daily basis with difficult scenes, with poverty, and wretchedness and their implications for human beings, is forced to develop a thick skin. “I didn’t cry out,” the policeman said.
It is expressly out of the negation of the cries of both men that an authentic cry emerges, of a person protesting that he has been turned unintentionally into a trooper. The phrases, “I was oblivious,” and “something completely screwed up” are synonyms for the disease we have gotten used to living with, just as one gets accustomed to living with a chronic illness. The most exposed to it are those people who come into contact with human beings known by the term “population.” In the occupied territories, there is a population of this kind, and in the neighborhoods of foreign workers, and the housing projects in poor neighborhoods.
The case of Omar Abu Jariban, the Palestinian man left to die on the side of a West Bank road − as shocking and extreme as that was − is an expression of a familiar situation. Our country is full of unimportant citizens, in pajamas, with or without catheters, who stand helplessly at the sides of all kinds of roads, and no one notices them and no one stops.
The unimportant citizen who threw a firebomb at the home of his neighbors in south Tel Aviv is also a victim of this reality. The well-fed citizen who lives far from there, in a protected environment, with material comforts, has no right to judge him.
And if he does judge him, that is a sign that he too has become oblivious. Children who are born into this reality, are innately oblivious. This epidemic has many facets and it is merely continuing to spread. And no one is immune.
23 apr 2012
Israel Police officer: Station chief told me to dump Arab at roadside
Cop on trial for negligent homicide in Abu Jariban's death says he received orders from commanding officer.
An order to dump an injured Palestinian man on the side of the road near the security fence some four years ago was given by the commander of the Rehovot police station, one of the men accused in the case testified on Sunday.
According to the indictment, Chief Inspector Baruch Peretz was the officer on duty at the Rehovot police station on June 12, 2008, when he ordered a low-ranking policeman, Assaf Yakutieli, to throw Omar Abu Jariban out of a police vehicle, on the side of the road. Abu Jariban died of dehydration some time later.
However Peretz testified on Sunday that it was actually Commander Yossi Bachar who gave the order. Peretz and Yakutieli are on trial for negligent homicide in Jariban's death.
Jariban was seriously injured in a car accident on May 28, 2008, while driving a stolen car on Route 6, near the Soreq interchange. He had been in Israel illegally. He was hospitalized at the Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer where he remained for two weeks before he was released into the custody of Rehovot police officers. He still required medical care and rehabilitation, and was apparently in a state of confusion.
Police, who did not know the identity of the patient-suspect, ultimately decided to admit him to the Israel Prison Service's medical facility. But it turned out there was no room for him there. So officers from the Rehovot station, which had assumed responsibility for investigating the accident and the car theft, drove Jariban to the West Bank. They eventually left him, late at night, at the side of road 45 near the Ofer military base. His body was discovered two days later.
In his testimony Sunday, Peretz said he was unaware of the medical condition of the unidentified man, when he arrived at the police station from Sheba Medical Center. He said he did not know it had been recommended that the suspect be taken to the Israel Prison Service hospital.
Peretz testified that Jariban was standing and walking, which is why Peretz did not realize he required further medical attention. Peretz was the only witness who said Jariban was ambulatory. Peretz said that when they were unable to identify Jariban at the Rehovot police station, he sent a team of police officers with the prisoner to the Kfar Sava police station, so that he could be identified with the use of fingerprinting equipment. "I told Bachar and his order was to bring [the prisoner] to the roadblock to send him back to the West Bank. I said to Yossi that maybe we should bring him back to the [Rehovot] station, and identify him in the morning and Yossi said, 'that's impossible, he has to be released.'"
The patrol car carrying Jariban arrived at the Maccabim roadblock, where the soldiers on duty refused to let them pass. Peretz said Bachar then told him to drop the Palestinian at a lit intersection where passing Palestinian cars would see him. Peretz said he told Yakutieli that he did not know the road, and that Yakutieli responded that he knew the area. Peretz told the court that he thought the order was wrong, but he carried it out "to the letter."
After the body was discovered, Bachar called Peretz, who had gone on vacation, and told him to fill out a report on what had happened. Peretz said Bachar told him that nothing would happen to him and that he, Bachar, would take responsibility.
The Justice Ministry department investigating the police in the case decided to close the case against Bachar after he was questioned under warning. From questions raised on Sunday by prosecutor Batya Kolitz, it emerged that the department's investigators believed that the order to throw Jariban out of the car was a reasonable one. Thus, Bachar was not indicted. And because the accused did not follow the order to leave Jariban at a lit junction, and instead left him by the side of the road, they were indicted.
Comments by Judge Haim Li-Ran indicate that he apparently believes the order was patently illegal and that any reasonable person should have refused to obey it.
Sunday's testimony also revealed that that Jariban's release form was not signed by Peretz, but by another investigator who forged Peretz's signature, and that it was common practice at the Rehovot station to release illegal residents on the other side of roadblocks in the territories, although it is against police regulations to do so. Peretz himself said he had done this dozens of times. The trial will continue in May, when Yakutieli will testify.
An order to dump an injured Palestinian man on the side of the road near the security fence some four years ago was given by the commander of the Rehovot police station, one of the men accused in the case testified on Sunday.
According to the indictment, Chief Inspector Baruch Peretz was the officer on duty at the Rehovot police station on June 12, 2008, when he ordered a low-ranking policeman, Assaf Yakutieli, to throw Omar Abu Jariban out of a police vehicle, on the side of the road. Abu Jariban died of dehydration some time later.
However Peretz testified on Sunday that it was actually Commander Yossi Bachar who gave the order. Peretz and Yakutieli are on trial for negligent homicide in Jariban's death.
Jariban was seriously injured in a car accident on May 28, 2008, while driving a stolen car on Route 6, near the Soreq interchange. He had been in Israel illegally. He was hospitalized at the Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer where he remained for two weeks before he was released into the custody of Rehovot police officers. He still required medical care and rehabilitation, and was apparently in a state of confusion.
Police, who did not know the identity of the patient-suspect, ultimately decided to admit him to the Israel Prison Service's medical facility. But it turned out there was no room for him there. So officers from the Rehovot station, which had assumed responsibility for investigating the accident and the car theft, drove Jariban to the West Bank. They eventually left him, late at night, at the side of road 45 near the Ofer military base. His body was discovered two days later.
In his testimony Sunday, Peretz said he was unaware of the medical condition of the unidentified man, when he arrived at the police station from Sheba Medical Center. He said he did not know it had been recommended that the suspect be taken to the Israel Prison Service hospital.
Peretz testified that Jariban was standing and walking, which is why Peretz did not realize he required further medical attention. Peretz was the only witness who said Jariban was ambulatory. Peretz said that when they were unable to identify Jariban at the Rehovot police station, he sent a team of police officers with the prisoner to the Kfar Sava police station, so that he could be identified with the use of fingerprinting equipment. "I told Bachar and his order was to bring [the prisoner] to the roadblock to send him back to the West Bank. I said to Yossi that maybe we should bring him back to the [Rehovot] station, and identify him in the morning and Yossi said, 'that's impossible, he has to be released.'"
The patrol car carrying Jariban arrived at the Maccabim roadblock, where the soldiers on duty refused to let them pass. Peretz said Bachar then told him to drop the Palestinian at a lit intersection where passing Palestinian cars would see him. Peretz said he told Yakutieli that he did not know the road, and that Yakutieli responded that he knew the area. Peretz told the court that he thought the order was wrong, but he carried it out "to the letter."
After the body was discovered, Bachar called Peretz, who had gone on vacation, and told him to fill out a report on what had happened. Peretz said Bachar told him that nothing would happen to him and that he, Bachar, would take responsibility.
The Justice Ministry department investigating the police in the case decided to close the case against Bachar after he was questioned under warning. From questions raised on Sunday by prosecutor Batya Kolitz, it emerged that the department's investigators believed that the order to throw Jariban out of the car was a reasonable one. Thus, Bachar was not indicted. And because the accused did not follow the order to leave Jariban at a lit junction, and instead left him by the side of the road, they were indicted.
Comments by Judge Haim Li-Ran indicate that he apparently believes the order was patently illegal and that any reasonable person should have refused to obey it.
Sunday's testimony also revealed that that Jariban's release form was not signed by Peretz, but by another investigator who forged Peretz's signature, and that it was common practice at the Rehovot station to release illegal residents on the other side of roadblocks in the territories, although it is against police regulations to do so. Peretz himself said he had done this dozens of times. The trial will continue in May, when Yakutieli will testify.
19 mar 2012
Suspect in Palestinian's roadside death case accused of harassing witness
Assaf Yakutieli
Rehovot police officer on trial for allegedly leaving man on side of the road without food, water or medical assistance, also being investigated for obstruction of justice.
A Rehovot police officer on trial for allegedly causing the death of a badly injured Palestinian man, after leaving him on the side of the road without food, water or medical assistance, is also being investigated over accusations that he harassed a key witness in the case and obstructed justice.
The suspect, Assaf Yakutieli, held a 25-minute phone conversation last week with Oded Picho, a Civil Guard volunteer who apparently helped Yakutieli dump the Palestinian man on the side of the road one night in 2008, lawyers said at the trial in the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court on Sunday. The call, which was recorded, appears to indicate that the police officers beat the man before leaving him stranded.
According to the lawyers' description of the recording, Yakutieli warned Picho, who has received immunity from prosecution, to be wary of the lawyer of another defendant in the case. Yakutieli ostensibly told the witness "not to talk about the blows in the police car."
An earlier internal police investigation did not find sufficient evidence to corroborate suspicions that police officers had beaten Omar Abu Jariban before leaving him on the side of Route 45, between the Ofer army base and the Atarot checkpoint, wearing a Sheba Medical Center hospital gown, at 2:50 A.M. on June 13, 2008.
Abu Jariban, a 35-year-old Gaza man who had been living in Israel illegally and was hospitalized after crashing a car he is suspected of stealing, was released into police custody in a disoriented state. He was unable to walk without assistance and was attached to a catheter.
Baruch Peretz, the police officer on duty, and Yakutieli, who admits placing Abu Jariban on the side of the road - where he later died of dehydration - are being tried on charges of causing death by negligence.
Picho testified on Sunday that he had lifted Abu Jariban's legs into the patrol car because he was not strong enough to get in on his own. The Civil Guard volunteer said he did not know who gave the order to leave Abu Jariban next to the road.
When asked what he was thinking when he apparently moved Abu Jariban behind the safety railing on the side of the road, Picho said on the stand: "I wasn't thinking anything special. I got to the shift. I was very tired."
Yossi Bachar, commander of the Rehovot police station, testified on Sunday that he was not at the station at the time, and said the report he got from the officers present was partial at best.
Bachar said they told him Abu Jariban was "walking," and that he was aware the Gaza man was using a catheter, but thought that was his only medical restriction.
But Shimon Shomroni, the commander of the police district that includes Rehovot, said Bachar told him "the detainee won't be able to steal any more cars." Bachar countered that this was not meant as a comment on Abu Jabiran's medical state.
Bachar said he ordered the police officers to hand over Abu Jabiran to the Israel Defense Forces, which was supposed to bring him back to his hometown - as he said he has done with thousands of illegal residents. Bachar said he was informed after the fact that Abu Jabiran had been left at a well-lit location, and said this sounded reasonable.
Yakutieli has previously said he attempted to hand over Abu Jabiran to the Border Police at three crossing points, but at each one he was told the forces there would not take responsibility for him. The police officer has said he thought other Palestinians would help him. He apparently did not know the road where he left Abu Jabiran is closed to vehicles with Palestinian license plates.
Gal Fichman, the Sheba doctor who signed Abu Jariban's release form, told the court he let the patient go barefoot because "I don't have a stock of slippers on the ward."
Fichman suggested that if no place is found in a rehabilitation center for released patients, they should be returned to Sheba. The hospital said in a statement that it would wait until the trial was over to decide whether any steps should be taken from its standpoint.
Last week the High Court of Justice denied Peretz's petition to indict Sheba Medical Center and his superiors at the police force.
Rehovot police officer on trial for allegedly leaving man on side of the road without food, water or medical assistance, also being investigated for obstruction of justice.
A Rehovot police officer on trial for allegedly causing the death of a badly injured Palestinian man, after leaving him on the side of the road without food, water or medical assistance, is also being investigated over accusations that he harassed a key witness in the case and obstructed justice.
The suspect, Assaf Yakutieli, held a 25-minute phone conversation last week with Oded Picho, a Civil Guard volunteer who apparently helped Yakutieli dump the Palestinian man on the side of the road one night in 2008, lawyers said at the trial in the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court on Sunday. The call, which was recorded, appears to indicate that the police officers beat the man before leaving him stranded.
According to the lawyers' description of the recording, Yakutieli warned Picho, who has received immunity from prosecution, to be wary of the lawyer of another defendant in the case. Yakutieli ostensibly told the witness "not to talk about the blows in the police car."
An earlier internal police investigation did not find sufficient evidence to corroborate suspicions that police officers had beaten Omar Abu Jariban before leaving him on the side of Route 45, between the Ofer army base and the Atarot checkpoint, wearing a Sheba Medical Center hospital gown, at 2:50 A.M. on June 13, 2008.
Abu Jariban, a 35-year-old Gaza man who had been living in Israel illegally and was hospitalized after crashing a car he is suspected of stealing, was released into police custody in a disoriented state. He was unable to walk without assistance and was attached to a catheter.
Baruch Peretz, the police officer on duty, and Yakutieli, who admits placing Abu Jariban on the side of the road - where he later died of dehydration - are being tried on charges of causing death by negligence.
Picho testified on Sunday that he had lifted Abu Jariban's legs into the patrol car because he was not strong enough to get in on his own. The Civil Guard volunteer said he did not know who gave the order to leave Abu Jariban next to the road.
When asked what he was thinking when he apparently moved Abu Jariban behind the safety railing on the side of the road, Picho said on the stand: "I wasn't thinking anything special. I got to the shift. I was very tired."
Yossi Bachar, commander of the Rehovot police station, testified on Sunday that he was not at the station at the time, and said the report he got from the officers present was partial at best.
Bachar said they told him Abu Jariban was "walking," and that he was aware the Gaza man was using a catheter, but thought that was his only medical restriction.
But Shimon Shomroni, the commander of the police district that includes Rehovot, said Bachar told him "the detainee won't be able to steal any more cars." Bachar countered that this was not meant as a comment on Abu Jabiran's medical state.
Bachar said he ordered the police officers to hand over Abu Jabiran to the Israel Defense Forces, which was supposed to bring him back to his hometown - as he said he has done with thousands of illegal residents. Bachar said he was informed after the fact that Abu Jabiran had been left at a well-lit location, and said this sounded reasonable.
Yakutieli has previously said he attempted to hand over Abu Jabiran to the Border Police at three crossing points, but at each one he was told the forces there would not take responsibility for him. The police officer has said he thought other Palestinians would help him. He apparently did not know the road where he left Abu Jabiran is closed to vehicles with Palestinian license plates.
Gal Fichman, the Sheba doctor who signed Abu Jariban's release form, told the court he let the patient go barefoot because "I don't have a stock of slippers on the ward."
Fichman suggested that if no place is found in a rehabilitation center for released patients, they should be returned to Sheba. The hospital said in a statement that it would wait until the trial was over to decide whether any steps should be taken from its standpoint.
Last week the High Court of Justice denied Peretz's petition to indict Sheba Medical Center and his superiors at the police force.
14 mar 2012
Lawyer: Wounded teen 'mistreated' in Israel hospital
A Palestinian teenager shot in a clash with Israeli forces near Hebron last week is being poorly treated in an Israeli hospital, a lawyer for the PA detainees ministry said on Wednesday.
Muhammad Rashid, 16, was detained on Thursday when forces surrounded the home of a released prisoner in Yatta. An Israeli soldier was stabbed and a 22-year-old Palestinian killed in the ensuing clash.
Lawyer Rami Al-Alami said Rashid is suffering severe pain, and has not received sufficient medical care at an Israeli hospital in Beersheba.
Muhammad Rashid, 16, was detained on Thursday when forces surrounded the home of a released prisoner in Yatta. An Israeli soldier was stabbed and a 22-year-old Palestinian killed in the ensuing clash.
Lawyer Rami Al-Alami said Rashid is suffering severe pain, and has not received sufficient medical care at an Israeli hospital in Beersheba.
12 mar 2012
Israeli officer 'can't remember' why Palestinian was left to die by side of road
Palestinian car thief died of dehydration by side of a West Bank road after being discharged from an Israeli hospital, dumped in the middle of the night, shoeless and clad only in a thin hospital gown.
A policewoman in the trial of two colleagues charged with dumping a Palestinian car thief on the side of a road, where he died of dehydration, on Sunday repeatedly responded to questions in court by saying she did not remember.
The testimony phase in the trial over the death of Omar Abu Jariban in 2008 began in Jerusalem Magistrate's Court on Sunday. The policewoman, who was the main witness on Sunday, replied more than 100 times to questions by stating that she did not remember, and her testimony in court conflicted with prior statements given to investigators.
Illegal entry
In 2008, Abu Jariban, who had illegally entered Israel from Gaza, was seriously injured after a car he had stolen rolled over on Route 6. He was admitted to Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, with broken bones and neurological injuries and then released in a state of confusion and still attached to a catheter.
After space was not found for him in a prison, he was allegedly left by police at the side of Route 45 near the Ofer army camp in the West Bank. His body was found there two days later.
One of the two defendants, Baruch Peretz, was the duty officer at Rehovot police station on the night Abu Jariban was taken to Route 45.
A matter of dispute
Whether Peretz gave an order to take the Palestinian to the highway, transferred such an order from his superiors, or retroactively approved the move is a matter of dispute. The other defendant in the case, Assaf Yakutieli, is accused of actually taking Abu Jariban to the highway.
The main witness on Sunday was Libat Kawi, a Rehovot policewoman who drove the police cruiser used to transfer Abu Jariban to the West Bank road. She was given immunity from prosecution in the case by the Justice Ministry division that investigates police misconduct.
No new light
Her account on the witness stand failed to shed light on the incident. In response to questions, she repeatedly replied that she did not remember. Kawi said she did not remember whether she spoke to Abu Jariban, why they went where they did, who gave the order, or where she stopped to have the Palestinian get out of the cruiser.
She also said she didn't remember when she joined the Israel Police. Kawi said that Abu Jariban was brought in and out of the vehicle four times that night, but said she never noticed if it was done by force or of his own accord.
Her account also conflicted with statements she made previously to investigators. In 2008, for example, she said that Abu Jariban had been let out at a lit location on the road, but on Sunday she said the spot was dark. She did testify on Sunday that she thought the detainee would have been discovered after sunrise.
The lawyers for the two policemen on trial attempted to shift the court's attention to the alleged responsibility of hospital officials for releasing Abu Jariban, but the judge in the case said the focus of the trial was the criminal charges against the defendants.
Igor Bleiber, a nurse at the hospital did testify, however, that the orthopedic department examined Abu Jariban to determine whether he required surgery for a pelvic fracture. He said that when it was found that surgery was unnecessary, it was decided that he should be discharged, although no reexamination of his head injuries was carried out.
A policewoman in the trial of two colleagues charged with dumping a Palestinian car thief on the side of a road, where he died of dehydration, on Sunday repeatedly responded to questions in court by saying she did not remember.
The testimony phase in the trial over the death of Omar Abu Jariban in 2008 began in Jerusalem Magistrate's Court on Sunday. The policewoman, who was the main witness on Sunday, replied more than 100 times to questions by stating that she did not remember, and her testimony in court conflicted with prior statements given to investigators.
Illegal entry
In 2008, Abu Jariban, who had illegally entered Israel from Gaza, was seriously injured after a car he had stolen rolled over on Route 6. He was admitted to Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, with broken bones and neurological injuries and then released in a state of confusion and still attached to a catheter.
After space was not found for him in a prison, he was allegedly left by police at the side of Route 45 near the Ofer army camp in the West Bank. His body was found there two days later.
One of the two defendants, Baruch Peretz, was the duty officer at Rehovot police station on the night Abu Jariban was taken to Route 45.
A matter of dispute
Whether Peretz gave an order to take the Palestinian to the highway, transferred such an order from his superiors, or retroactively approved the move is a matter of dispute. The other defendant in the case, Assaf Yakutieli, is accused of actually taking Abu Jariban to the highway.
The main witness on Sunday was Libat Kawi, a Rehovot policewoman who drove the police cruiser used to transfer Abu Jariban to the West Bank road. She was given immunity from prosecution in the case by the Justice Ministry division that investigates police misconduct.
No new light
Her account on the witness stand failed to shed light on the incident. In response to questions, she repeatedly replied that she did not remember. Kawi said she did not remember whether she spoke to Abu Jariban, why they went where they did, who gave the order, or where she stopped to have the Palestinian get out of the cruiser.
She also said she didn't remember when she joined the Israel Police. Kawi said that Abu Jariban was brought in and out of the vehicle four times that night, but said she never noticed if it was done by force or of his own accord.
Her account also conflicted with statements she made previously to investigators. In 2008, for example, she said that Abu Jariban had been let out at a lit location on the road, but on Sunday she said the spot was dark. She did testify on Sunday that she thought the detainee would have been discovered after sunrise.
The lawyers for the two policemen on trial attempted to shift the court's attention to the alleged responsibility of hospital officials for releasing Abu Jariban, but the judge in the case said the focus of the trial was the criminal charges against the defendants.
Igor Bleiber, a nurse at the hospital did testify, however, that the orthopedic department examined Abu Jariban to determine whether he required surgery for a pelvic fracture. He said that when it was found that surgery was unnecessary, it was decided that he should be discharged, although no reexamination of his head injuries was carried out.
24 feb 2012
In Abu Jariban's death, even claims of identity concealment are false
Officers falsely claimed they did not know the identity of the Palestinian, who was left to die by the side of the road, when in fact they did, and should therefore have been able to release him into the care of his family.
New evidence surrounding an incident four years ago in which an injured Palestinian man was dumped at the side of the road by Israeli police officers and left to die disproves one of the arguments they used to support their actions. The officers falsely claimed they did not know the identity of the man when in fact they did, and should therefore have been able to release him into the care of his family.
In May 2008 Omar Abu Jariban, a Palestinian who was not authorized to enter Israel, was seriously injured in an accident while riding in a stolen car.
He was prematurely discharged from Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer into the custody of Rehovot police officers - with a urinary catheter still in place, still using adult diapers, in need of further medical care and rehabilitation and appearing confused. When the Israel Prison Service hospital said it had no room for him, officers from the Rehovot station drove him to the West Bank.
They eventually put him down, late at night, at the side of the road near the Ofer military base. His body was discovered two days later. Abu Jariban had died of dehydration.
The police officers insisted, in statements to investigators for separate police and Justice Ministry probes, that they were unable to contact Abu Jariban's family because he intentionally concealed his identity from them. It was only after multiple efforts to identify him and locate his family had failed, they claimed, did they decide to dump him in the middle of nowhere.
In fact, Abu Jariban's name appears on several internal police documents from the time of the incident. Four different documents in the case file on the car theft, a copy of which was obtained by Haaretz, identity the suspect as "Omar Abu Kariban." The pronunciation of Arabic characters representing "K" and "J" can differ according to dialect.
His name appears on his detention-release authorization as well as in an interview summary, which also gives Abu Jariban's birthplace in Jordan.
But the investigators never asked the detective who conducted the interrogation and entered Abu Jariban's name into the police computer how he knew the man's name or what efforts had been made to locate his family.
In a statement the Israel Police declined comment, saying the case has already been investigated several times and two police officers had been indicted, and adding that because it is the subject of a pending petition in the High Court of Justice the only appropriate venue for addressing the issue is in court.
New evidence surrounding an incident four years ago in which an injured Palestinian man was dumped at the side of the road by Israeli police officers and left to die disproves one of the arguments they used to support their actions. The officers falsely claimed they did not know the identity of the man when in fact they did, and should therefore have been able to release him into the care of his family.
In May 2008 Omar Abu Jariban, a Palestinian who was not authorized to enter Israel, was seriously injured in an accident while riding in a stolen car.
He was prematurely discharged from Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer into the custody of Rehovot police officers - with a urinary catheter still in place, still using adult diapers, in need of further medical care and rehabilitation and appearing confused. When the Israel Prison Service hospital said it had no room for him, officers from the Rehovot station drove him to the West Bank.
They eventually put him down, late at night, at the side of the road near the Ofer military base. His body was discovered two days later. Abu Jariban had died of dehydration.
The police officers insisted, in statements to investigators for separate police and Justice Ministry probes, that they were unable to contact Abu Jariban's family because he intentionally concealed his identity from them. It was only after multiple efforts to identify him and locate his family had failed, they claimed, did they decide to dump him in the middle of nowhere.
In fact, Abu Jariban's name appears on several internal police documents from the time of the incident. Four different documents in the case file on the car theft, a copy of which was obtained by Haaretz, identity the suspect as "Omar Abu Kariban." The pronunciation of Arabic characters representing "K" and "J" can differ according to dialect.
His name appears on his detention-release authorization as well as in an interview summary, which also gives Abu Jariban's birthplace in Jordan.
But the investigators never asked the detective who conducted the interrogation and entered Abu Jariban's name into the police computer how he knew the man's name or what efforts had been made to locate his family.
In a statement the Israel Police declined comment, saying the case has already been investigated several times and two police officers had been indicted, and adding that because it is the subject of a pending petition in the High Court of Justice the only appropriate venue for addressing the issue is in court.
22 feb 2012
Haaretz: Palestinian man died in Gaza after hospital dump by Israeli police
Sheba Medical Center, where Jariban was treated before being dumped in Gaza by police
by Allison Deger
A Palestinian man died after a hospital dumping by Israeli police five years ago, an investigation by Haaretz shows. Omar Abu Jariban was "left for dead in Gaza...in the middle of the night, shoeless and clad only in a thin hospital gown." Haaretz has now reconstructed the timeline of events; the investigation gives a breath of accountability to a case in which officers under investigation for reckless homicide have been promoted, not convicted. And both hospital staff and police blame each other for the death of the 35-year-old Palestinian.
Haaretz’s Chaim Levinson writes:
Three days before his corpse was found he had been released from the hospital and taken to the Rehovot police station. At the station he seemed confused, unable to fathom what was going on around him, non-communicative and barely ambulatory. Instead of readmitting him to hospital, senior police officers at the station decided to 'return him to the territories' – a code phrase meaning dumping him at a road junction in the middle of the night. Three policemen were sent to take the man and leave him by the side of the road.
Haaretz found conflicting medical documents on Jariban’s condition prior to his release. The doctor attending over the Palestinian man signed a medical form that indicated Jariban was stable, able to walk and needed follow-up in an outpatient clinic. A contradictory report was made by a nurse who treated Jariban only 38 minutes later:
'Orientation – off and on. Communication skills – off and on. Mobility – not stable when walking. Periodically confused. Probability of falling. Way of eating: Needs partial help. The patient was washed and attended to in bed. Urinates via catheter. The patient is confused. Needs help eating and drinking.'
Additionally, moments prior to his release, an officer on site described Jariban as "tied to the bed, bandaged" wearing "an adult diaper and a catheter." When transferred into police custody, he was unidentified, but still wearing the catheter and diaper.
The police then sought to identify the man and find a prison medical facility to admit him. When no prison or police doctor would attend to him--the prison citing a lack of beds-- a decision was made to dump him at a crossing to Gaza, though officers had yet to identify him and he was barely conscious.
by Allison Deger
A Palestinian man died after a hospital dumping by Israeli police five years ago, an investigation by Haaretz shows. Omar Abu Jariban was "left for dead in Gaza...in the middle of the night, shoeless and clad only in a thin hospital gown." Haaretz has now reconstructed the timeline of events; the investigation gives a breath of accountability to a case in which officers under investigation for reckless homicide have been promoted, not convicted. And both hospital staff and police blame each other for the death of the 35-year-old Palestinian.
Haaretz’s Chaim Levinson writes:
Three days before his corpse was found he had been released from the hospital and taken to the Rehovot police station. At the station he seemed confused, unable to fathom what was going on around him, non-communicative and barely ambulatory. Instead of readmitting him to hospital, senior police officers at the station decided to 'return him to the territories' – a code phrase meaning dumping him at a road junction in the middle of the night. Three policemen were sent to take the man and leave him by the side of the road.
Haaretz found conflicting medical documents on Jariban’s condition prior to his release. The doctor attending over the Palestinian man signed a medical form that indicated Jariban was stable, able to walk and needed follow-up in an outpatient clinic. A contradictory report was made by a nurse who treated Jariban only 38 minutes later:
'Orientation – off and on. Communication skills – off and on. Mobility – not stable when walking. Periodically confused. Probability of falling. Way of eating: Needs partial help. The patient was washed and attended to in bed. Urinates via catheter. The patient is confused. Needs help eating and drinking.'
Additionally, moments prior to his release, an officer on site described Jariban as "tied to the bed, bandaged" wearing "an adult diaper and a catheter." When transferred into police custody, he was unidentified, but still wearing the catheter and diaper.
The police then sought to identify the man and find a prison medical facility to admit him. When no prison or police doctor would attend to him--the prison citing a lack of beds-- a decision was made to dump him at a crossing to Gaza, though officers had yet to identify him and he was barely conscious.
|
Haaretz’s timeline of Abu Jariban's last night:
At 10 P.M., Abu Jariban's death march began. A low-ranking policeman, Assaf Yakutieli, together with a volunteer policeman, put the Palestinian in a police car. Without wondering whether what they were doing was legal, they grabbed Abu Jariban under the arms, and stuffed him into the squad car; the volunteer folded his legs into the vehicle |
The
police car went to Kfar Sava, only to be informed by officers there
that they were unable to identify the man. Yakutieli telephoned Peretz.
The duty officer told him to leave the suspect at the Maccabim
crossing point.
The commander of this checkpoint refused to take responsibility for Abu Jariban, however, and so the police car continued to Route 443, toward the Atarot border crossing (which has subsequently been removed ). There, too, Border Police refused to take responsibility for the man. After the third such refusal, Yakutieli phoned the duty officer and told him that he would leave Abu Jariban at a well-lit junction, so that he would be picked up by Palestinians.
At 2:50 A.M. Abu Jariban was taken out of the car on Route 45, between the Ofer army base and the Atarot crossing point. He was left by the side of the road. The policemen apparently did not know that Palestinian vehicles were not allowed to travel on this road. Abu Jariban was left to his own devices, wearing his hospital gown and with the discharge papers in his pocket. The catheter was still with him. He was barefoot. The policemen left neither food nor drink with him; they reported that they had completed the mission.
Yakutieli subsequently testified: 'Together with the volunteer, we took the detainee out of the car and placed him behind the safety railing so that he wouldn't be hurt. He wasn't removed very far from the road he was left in a place where he would be able to hitch-hike a lift. We made a report and then drove off.'
The police investigator asked him to clarify his reasoning about the suspect's ability to get a lift on a speedy highway. Yakutieli replied: 'I expected that cars would stop at the side of the road, that someone would take him in and give him a ride. All told, he is one of their people and the Arabs are known for their solidarity.'
On Sunday morning, June 15, a pedestrian discovered Abu Jariban's corpse. A bread roll and a soft drink can were beside the body. Subsequently, police argued that these objects prove that the young man was able to take care of himself. The autopsy established that he died of dehydration.
Jariban’s family is enraged by his death. His brother Mohammed told Haaretz "they simply threw him to the dogs," continuing "had they brought him to the Erez border crossing, we would have taken care of him."
In response to Haaretz’s report and Jariban’s family’s remarks, the police officers said the case was "sorrowful," and again stood by their decision to promote the criminally indicted commanding officer.
Allison Deger is the Assitant Editor of Mondoweiss.net. Follow her on twitter at @allissoncd.
View all posts by Allison Deger
How Israeli negligence led to the death of a Palestinian car thief
The commander of this checkpoint refused to take responsibility for Abu Jariban, however, and so the police car continued to Route 443, toward the Atarot border crossing (which has subsequently been removed ). There, too, Border Police refused to take responsibility for the man. After the third such refusal, Yakutieli phoned the duty officer and told him that he would leave Abu Jariban at a well-lit junction, so that he would be picked up by Palestinians.
At 2:50 A.M. Abu Jariban was taken out of the car on Route 45, between the Ofer army base and the Atarot crossing point. He was left by the side of the road. The policemen apparently did not know that Palestinian vehicles were not allowed to travel on this road. Abu Jariban was left to his own devices, wearing his hospital gown and with the discharge papers in his pocket. The catheter was still with him. He was barefoot. The policemen left neither food nor drink with him; they reported that they had completed the mission.
Yakutieli subsequently testified: 'Together with the volunteer, we took the detainee out of the car and placed him behind the safety railing so that he wouldn't be hurt. He wasn't removed very far from the road he was left in a place where he would be able to hitch-hike a lift. We made a report and then drove off.'
The police investigator asked him to clarify his reasoning about the suspect's ability to get a lift on a speedy highway. Yakutieli replied: 'I expected that cars would stop at the side of the road, that someone would take him in and give him a ride. All told, he is one of their people and the Arabs are known for their solidarity.'
On Sunday morning, June 15, a pedestrian discovered Abu Jariban's corpse. A bread roll and a soft drink can were beside the body. Subsequently, police argued that these objects prove that the young man was able to take care of himself. The autopsy established that he died of dehydration.
Jariban’s family is enraged by his death. His brother Mohammed told Haaretz "they simply threw him to the dogs," continuing "had they brought him to the Erez border crossing, we would have taken care of him."
In response to Haaretz’s report and Jariban’s family’s remarks, the police officers said the case was "sorrowful," and again stood by their decision to promote the criminally indicted commanding officer.
Allison Deger is the Assitant Editor of Mondoweiss.net. Follow her on twitter at @allissoncd.
View all posts by Allison Deger
How Israeli negligence led to the death of a Palestinian car thief
|
Omar Abu Jariban, 35
by Chaim Levinson After being seriously hurt in an accident, the thief was dumped in the middle of the night, shoeless and clad only in a thin hospital gown. Police and hospital staff blame everyone but themselves for his death that night. |
The figure at the side of the road was completely still. A pedestrian who saw him in the early morning light came close, and found the body of a young man. He was barefoot and clad in a thin hospital gown from the Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer.
It was only a few days later – after the man’s family was located in the Gaza Strip and brought to Israel for DNA testing – that his identity was clarified. The dead man was Omar Abu Jariban, 35, an illegal resident in Israel. Three days before his corpse was found he had been released from the hospital and taken to the Rehovot police station.
At the station he seemed confused, unable to fathom what was going on around him, non-communicative and barely ambulatory. Instead of readmitting him to hospital, senior police officers at the station decided to “return him to the territories” – a code phrase meaning dumping him at a road junction in the middle of the night. Three policemen were sent to take the man and leave him by the side of the road.
Since then, for four and a half years police officers have thrown the blame around, at each other and also against the Sheba Medical Center. Documents which have reached Haaretz attest to a sequence of mishaps and misdoings that night, starting with the hospital, continuing with medical procedures enacted by the police and the Israel Prison Service, and concluding with a low-ranking police officer at the Rehovot station.
Omar Abu Jariban’s final journey began on May 28, 2008. That day, together with a friend from Ramallah, he stole a car and set off on Route 6, the Trans-Israel Highway. The two drove wildly, and close to the Soreq interchange crashed into another car, injuring four people. Badly hurt, Abu Jariban was taken to Kaplan Hospital in Rehovot. Due to the severity of his condition, he was transferred to Sheba. The Rehovot police assumed responsibility for investigating the accident and the car theft.
When he reached the Sheba Medical Center, Abu Jariban was classified as an anonymous patient. Brought into an operating theater, his condition was diagnosed – haemorrhaging in the brain, a broken clavicle, fractured pelvis and a torn aorta. The police were told that the patient’s treatment would last at least three weeks. On June 5 he was transferred to the orthopedic ward; convalescing there, he developed pneumonia.
A week later, on Thursday June 12, the medical team decided that Abu Jariban had concluded the essential part of his treatment, and could be moved out of the hospital. At 11:18 Dr. Gal Fichman signed Abu Jariban’s release form. The medical opinion was not grim – the patient was fit for release, and needed to do some exercise at home: “He can press down fully on his left leg, and partially step on his right foot.
Recommendation: Walk with the use of a brace. Can take pain-killers if needed. He should report to an outpatient clinic for a follow-up check in six weeks. Home physiotherapy to strengthen muscles.” The doctor signed a sick-leave pass for 45 days.
Just 38 minutes went by, and a nurse prepared another discharge form. In this document, Abu Jariban’s condition was listed as being far more serious. “Orientation – off and on. Communication skills – off and on. Mobility – not stable when walking. Periodically confused. Probability of falling. Way of eating: Needs partial help. The patient was washed and attended to in bed. Urinates via catheter. The patient is confused. Needs help eating and drinking.”
Two policemen from the Rehovot police station came to take Abu Jariban. A nurse, Igor Bleiber, met them. One of the policeman, Ro’i Baram, subsequently testified to what he saw that day: “The detainee was lying with his arms tied to the bed, bandaged. We saw an adult diaper and a catheter.”
Speaking with Haaretz, Baram said: “It seemed a bit strange to bring a person in a diaper to the station. We spoke with Igor, who said there was no problem taking him away. He told another nurse to dress the suspect, and he saw that we handcuffed the man and took him from the hospital.”
When the policemen reached their car, they grasped that they really had a problem. In testimony given to the police officer assigned to investigate the episode, Baram related: “The nurse came with us, wheeling [Abu Jariban] in a wheelchair, and then he returned the wheelchair. He couldn’t move and so we lifted him into the police car.
His pants kept falling down. When we reached the police station, I went off to get a wheelchair in order to bring him inside. When we moved him into the chair, the catheter opened. Without help, he fastened it anew. Then we wheeled him into the station.”
Why was Abu Jariban released from the hospital even though it was clear that he required constant medical monitoring? After his death, the police and hospital traded accusations. Staff at the Sheba Medical Center claim that the man self-evidently required continued medical attention at an Israel Prison Service facility.
“I think it was relayed to the police that he should be referred to a medical rehabilitation center,” testified Dr. Fichman to police investigators. “We wouldn’t have released him had there not been somebody who could have taken him for continued rehabilitation treatment.”
The police, in contrast, say that nothing along these lines was said to them. Abu Jariban’s medical documents indicate that nothing was recorded about the need to transfer him to any other medical facility. On the contrary: The release orders refer to rehabilitation treatment to be undertaken at home. In such cases, the hospital is not eager to volunteer prolonged medical treatment funded out of its own budget.
Chief Superintendent Yossi Bachar, commander of the Rehovot police station, subsequently testified to the investigating officer that he operated on the assumption that “the hospital simply wanted to free the bed.”
When Abu Jariban reached the police station, officers on hand soon realized that something was amiss. “I received him at the station, and I had a bad feeling,” one policeman later testified. “I never received a detainee in such a condition, with a catheter still in his arm.”
‘Humanitarian reasons of conscience’
Bachar came onto the scene at this point. This is when a sequence of misdoings started, culminating in the Palestinian man’s tragic end. First of all, policemen at the station decided to turn to the physician responsible for police matters in the region. This physician decided not to make the trip to Rehovot and examine the patient; instead he asked that the release report’s contents be read to him over the telephone.
After this consultation, and in view of Abu Jariban’s condition, the police decided to admit him for convalescence at the Israel Prison Service’s medical facility, but the Prison Service claimed not to have any vacant beds.
Rehovot police made a number of efforts to identify the patient-suspect. Bachar brought in Shin Bet security service investigators, but they reported that they lacked any intelligence information that might help identify him. The police consulted with colleagues from Rishon Letzion, but they said that their suspect-identification station was not in operation. Bachar decided to release the suspect, despite the fact that he had not seen him, and hadn’t ascertained whether there was any place to where the man should be brought.
Testifying to police investigators, Bachar said that the catheter didn’t set off any red lights. “My grandfather went about with a catheter, and that didn’t seem unusual to me,” he said. “I noted that he needed monitoring, that there was no cell in which he could be held, and that in all likelihood, somebody who was in a road accident wouldn’t race off to steal another car.
I also noted that he had a catheter, and that the only thing which bothered me was that he had stolen a car and was being released, that perhaps he was a terrorist or somebody sought by the Shin Bet. Despite all this, it was nighttime and the person had been released from a hospital after an accident, and so for humanitarian reasons of conscience, I decided to let him go to his family.”
Bachar actually decided to take Abu Jariban to the police station at Kfar Sava for a last attempt to identify him. Should this not produce anything, the station commander decided, the suspect would be released at the Maccabim border crossing. Orders along these lines were relayed to Baruch Peretz, the officer on duty during the shift.
Peretz, 38, formerly served in the Border Police. He served as an officer in the Rehovot station’s community branch, and sometimes worked as the duty officer for shifts at the station. He was the man assigned to take care of Abu Jariban.
At 10 P.M., Abu Jariban’s death march began. A low-ranking policeman, Assaf Yakutieli, together with a volunteer policeman, put the Palestinian in a police car. Without wondering whether what they were doing was legal, they grabbed Abu Jariban under the arms, and stuffed him into the squad car; the volunteer folded his legs into the vehicle.
The police car went to Kfar Sava, only to be informed by officers there that they were unable to identify the man. Yakutieli telephoned Peretz. The duty officer told him to leave the suspect at the Maccabim crossing point.
The commander of this checkpoint refused to take responsibility for Abu Jariban, however, and so the police car continued to Route 443, toward the Atarot border crossing ?(which has subsequently been removed?). There, too, Border Police refused to take responsibility for the man. After the third such refusal, Yakutieli phoned the duty officer and told him that he would leave Abu Jariban at a well-lit junction, so that he would be picked up by Palestinians.
At 2:50 A.M. Abu Jariban was taken out of the car on Route 45, between the Ofer army base and the Atarot crossing point. He was left by the side of the road. The policemen apparently did not know that Palestinian vehicles were not allowed to travel on this road. Abu Jariban was left to his own devices, wearing his hospital gown and with the discharge papers in his pocket. The catheter was still with him. He was barefoot. The policemen left neither food nor drink with him; they reported that they had completed the mission.
Yakutieli subsequently testified: “Together with the volunteer, we took the detainee out of the car and placed him behind the safety railing so that he wouldn’t be hurt. He wasn’t removed very far from the road – he was left in a place where he would be able to hitch-hike a lift. We made a report and then drove off.”
The police investigator asked him to clarify his reasoning about the suspect’s ability to get a lift on a speedy highway. Yakutieli replied: “I expected that cars would stop at the side of the road, that someone would take him in and give him a ride. All told, he is one of their people and the Arabs are known for their solidarity.”
On Sunday morning, June 15, a pedestrian discovered Abu Jariban’s corpse. A bread roll and a soft drink can were beside the body. Subsequently, police argued that these objects prove that the young man was able to take care of himself. The autopsy established that he died of dehydration.
Binyamin Region police turned to the Sheba Medical Center for help identifying the body. From this point, the police appointed an investigating officer, and Abu Jariban’s family was contacted.
Speaking from the Gaza Strip, Abu Jariban’s brother Mohammed says that the family is outraged by the death. “They simply threw him to the dogs,” Mohammed says. “Had they brought him to the Erez border crossing, we would have taken care of him.”
Passing the buck
The investigating officer’s report, which has reached Haaretz, points to a long list of failings. “In the final analysis, an unhealthy person who was the responsibility of institutions of the State of Israel was left at a junction at 3 A.M., dressed in a hospital gown, barefoot, with a catheter, barely able to walk; he was left with no food or drink, and without the basic assistance he required,” the report noted.
Among other misdoings, the report notes: “The police physicians and the Prison Service doctor reached the decision that the illegal resident could be detained only with medical supervision, but they didn’t clarify to the police commanders anything about the man’s health condition on his release. The hospital was not informed by any police representative that the detainee was being taken into custody ...
“The regional commander and the commander of the Rehovot police station believed that the illegal resident was released from the hospital the way any patient is released.
A specific order came from Bachar to brief Peretz that the illegal resident should be taken to the Maccabim crossing point, and brought to a designated person; nobody confirmed that this order was carried out. Peretz trusted the head of the group of policemen who told him on the phone that he knew the area very well, since he lives in the territories, and that he would leave the man in a secure area close to the entrance of a village.
Later this policeman claimed that he once lived in Jerusalem and would travel on Route 443 to Tel Aviv, but had no knowledge regarding the entrances to villages. Apparently he lied about his knowledge of the region.”
As a result of the police investigation, negligent homicide charges were filed in March 2009 against Peretz and Yakutieli. Evidence has yet to be submitted in a trial of the pair; meantime, Yakutieli has been appointed an instructor in a police operations school, and Peretz has been named officer in charge of volunteers at the Lod police station.
Peretz blames his superior officers who gave him the order. He says that Bachar is responsible, and recently petitioned the High Court of Justice to indict his commanders, including Bachar, and the Sheba Medical Center in the case. The volunteer and policeman who accompanied Peretz on the fateful night journey have not been charged.
During the internal police investigation, Bachar was questioned under warning about a possible indictment on charges of reckless homicide. He faced police disciplinary charges, but his career has advanced steadily since this tragedy. Two years ago he was promoted to the rank of commander, and appointed operations officer for the central region. He is currently on a study leave.
The police response to this report: “This sorrowful case has been reviewed a number of times by the police internal investigations unit and the state prosecutor’s office, and a decision was reached to indict two policemen. The promotion of Commander Bachar was reviewed by the police and the Public Security Ministry, and he was found worthy of promotion. We do not intend to relate to details of these events, as judgment about them is pending in the High Court.”
The Sheba Medical Center’s response: “The hospital’s staff made considerable efforts to save the life of Abu Jariban, and to attend to his health. When he was released, police responsible for him were informed that he should be brought to a convalescence and care facility. From the moment he was relayed to the police, we had no control over the sequence of events leading to his being found, dead.”
Attorney Zadok Hugi, who represents Chief Inspector Baruch Peretz: “After higher-ranking police officers decided on [Abu Jariban’s] release, Peretz had no leeway or discretion, and could not disobey this order. More than anything, responsibility here rests with the hospital.”
Jack Khoury assisted in preparing this report.
It was only a few days later – after the man’s family was located in the Gaza Strip and brought to Israel for DNA testing – that his identity was clarified. The dead man was Omar Abu Jariban, 35, an illegal resident in Israel. Three days before his corpse was found he had been released from the hospital and taken to the Rehovot police station.
At the station he seemed confused, unable to fathom what was going on around him, non-communicative and barely ambulatory. Instead of readmitting him to hospital, senior police officers at the station decided to “return him to the territories” – a code phrase meaning dumping him at a road junction in the middle of the night. Three policemen were sent to take the man and leave him by the side of the road.
Since then, for four and a half years police officers have thrown the blame around, at each other and also against the Sheba Medical Center. Documents which have reached Haaretz attest to a sequence of mishaps and misdoings that night, starting with the hospital, continuing with medical procedures enacted by the police and the Israel Prison Service, and concluding with a low-ranking police officer at the Rehovot station.
Omar Abu Jariban’s final journey began on May 28, 2008. That day, together with a friend from Ramallah, he stole a car and set off on Route 6, the Trans-Israel Highway. The two drove wildly, and close to the Soreq interchange crashed into another car, injuring four people. Badly hurt, Abu Jariban was taken to Kaplan Hospital in Rehovot. Due to the severity of his condition, he was transferred to Sheba. The Rehovot police assumed responsibility for investigating the accident and the car theft.
When he reached the Sheba Medical Center, Abu Jariban was classified as an anonymous patient. Brought into an operating theater, his condition was diagnosed – haemorrhaging in the brain, a broken clavicle, fractured pelvis and a torn aorta. The police were told that the patient’s treatment would last at least three weeks. On June 5 he was transferred to the orthopedic ward; convalescing there, he developed pneumonia.
A week later, on Thursday June 12, the medical team decided that Abu Jariban had concluded the essential part of his treatment, and could be moved out of the hospital. At 11:18 Dr. Gal Fichman signed Abu Jariban’s release form. The medical opinion was not grim – the patient was fit for release, and needed to do some exercise at home: “He can press down fully on his left leg, and partially step on his right foot.
Recommendation: Walk with the use of a brace. Can take pain-killers if needed. He should report to an outpatient clinic for a follow-up check in six weeks. Home physiotherapy to strengthen muscles.” The doctor signed a sick-leave pass for 45 days.
Just 38 minutes went by, and a nurse prepared another discharge form. In this document, Abu Jariban’s condition was listed as being far more serious. “Orientation – off and on. Communication skills – off and on. Mobility – not stable when walking. Periodically confused. Probability of falling. Way of eating: Needs partial help. The patient was washed and attended to in bed. Urinates via catheter. The patient is confused. Needs help eating and drinking.”
Two policemen from the Rehovot police station came to take Abu Jariban. A nurse, Igor Bleiber, met them. One of the policeman, Ro’i Baram, subsequently testified to what he saw that day: “The detainee was lying with his arms tied to the bed, bandaged. We saw an adult diaper and a catheter.”
Speaking with Haaretz, Baram said: “It seemed a bit strange to bring a person in a diaper to the station. We spoke with Igor, who said there was no problem taking him away. He told another nurse to dress the suspect, and he saw that we handcuffed the man and took him from the hospital.”
When the policemen reached their car, they grasped that they really had a problem. In testimony given to the police officer assigned to investigate the episode, Baram related: “The nurse came with us, wheeling [Abu Jariban] in a wheelchair, and then he returned the wheelchair. He couldn’t move and so we lifted him into the police car.
His pants kept falling down. When we reached the police station, I went off to get a wheelchair in order to bring him inside. When we moved him into the chair, the catheter opened. Without help, he fastened it anew. Then we wheeled him into the station.”
Why was Abu Jariban released from the hospital even though it was clear that he required constant medical monitoring? After his death, the police and hospital traded accusations. Staff at the Sheba Medical Center claim that the man self-evidently required continued medical attention at an Israel Prison Service facility.
“I think it was relayed to the police that he should be referred to a medical rehabilitation center,” testified Dr. Fichman to police investigators. “We wouldn’t have released him had there not been somebody who could have taken him for continued rehabilitation treatment.”
The police, in contrast, say that nothing along these lines was said to them. Abu Jariban’s medical documents indicate that nothing was recorded about the need to transfer him to any other medical facility. On the contrary: The release orders refer to rehabilitation treatment to be undertaken at home. In such cases, the hospital is not eager to volunteer prolonged medical treatment funded out of its own budget.
Chief Superintendent Yossi Bachar, commander of the Rehovot police station, subsequently testified to the investigating officer that he operated on the assumption that “the hospital simply wanted to free the bed.”
When Abu Jariban reached the police station, officers on hand soon realized that something was amiss. “I received him at the station, and I had a bad feeling,” one policeman later testified. “I never received a detainee in such a condition, with a catheter still in his arm.”
‘Humanitarian reasons of conscience’
Bachar came onto the scene at this point. This is when a sequence of misdoings started, culminating in the Palestinian man’s tragic end. First of all, policemen at the station decided to turn to the physician responsible for police matters in the region. This physician decided not to make the trip to Rehovot and examine the patient; instead he asked that the release report’s contents be read to him over the telephone.
After this consultation, and in view of Abu Jariban’s condition, the police decided to admit him for convalescence at the Israel Prison Service’s medical facility, but the Prison Service claimed not to have any vacant beds.
Rehovot police made a number of efforts to identify the patient-suspect. Bachar brought in Shin Bet security service investigators, but they reported that they lacked any intelligence information that might help identify him. The police consulted with colleagues from Rishon Letzion, but they said that their suspect-identification station was not in operation. Bachar decided to release the suspect, despite the fact that he had not seen him, and hadn’t ascertained whether there was any place to where the man should be brought.
Testifying to police investigators, Bachar said that the catheter didn’t set off any red lights. “My grandfather went about with a catheter, and that didn’t seem unusual to me,” he said. “I noted that he needed monitoring, that there was no cell in which he could be held, and that in all likelihood, somebody who was in a road accident wouldn’t race off to steal another car.
I also noted that he had a catheter, and that the only thing which bothered me was that he had stolen a car and was being released, that perhaps he was a terrorist or somebody sought by the Shin Bet. Despite all this, it was nighttime and the person had been released from a hospital after an accident, and so for humanitarian reasons of conscience, I decided to let him go to his family.”
Bachar actually decided to take Abu Jariban to the police station at Kfar Sava for a last attempt to identify him. Should this not produce anything, the station commander decided, the suspect would be released at the Maccabim border crossing. Orders along these lines were relayed to Baruch Peretz, the officer on duty during the shift.
Peretz, 38, formerly served in the Border Police. He served as an officer in the Rehovot station’s community branch, and sometimes worked as the duty officer for shifts at the station. He was the man assigned to take care of Abu Jariban.
At 10 P.M., Abu Jariban’s death march began. A low-ranking policeman, Assaf Yakutieli, together with a volunteer policeman, put the Palestinian in a police car. Without wondering whether what they were doing was legal, they grabbed Abu Jariban under the arms, and stuffed him into the squad car; the volunteer folded his legs into the vehicle.
The police car went to Kfar Sava, only to be informed by officers there that they were unable to identify the man. Yakutieli telephoned Peretz. The duty officer told him to leave the suspect at the Maccabim crossing point.
The commander of this checkpoint refused to take responsibility for Abu Jariban, however, and so the police car continued to Route 443, toward the Atarot border crossing ?(which has subsequently been removed?). There, too, Border Police refused to take responsibility for the man. After the third such refusal, Yakutieli phoned the duty officer and told him that he would leave Abu Jariban at a well-lit junction, so that he would be picked up by Palestinians.
At 2:50 A.M. Abu Jariban was taken out of the car on Route 45, between the Ofer army base and the Atarot crossing point. He was left by the side of the road. The policemen apparently did not know that Palestinian vehicles were not allowed to travel on this road. Abu Jariban was left to his own devices, wearing his hospital gown and with the discharge papers in his pocket. The catheter was still with him. He was barefoot. The policemen left neither food nor drink with him; they reported that they had completed the mission.
Yakutieli subsequently testified: “Together with the volunteer, we took the detainee out of the car and placed him behind the safety railing so that he wouldn’t be hurt. He wasn’t removed very far from the road – he was left in a place where he would be able to hitch-hike a lift. We made a report and then drove off.”
The police investigator asked him to clarify his reasoning about the suspect’s ability to get a lift on a speedy highway. Yakutieli replied: “I expected that cars would stop at the side of the road, that someone would take him in and give him a ride. All told, he is one of their people and the Arabs are known for their solidarity.”
On Sunday morning, June 15, a pedestrian discovered Abu Jariban’s corpse. A bread roll and a soft drink can were beside the body. Subsequently, police argued that these objects prove that the young man was able to take care of himself. The autopsy established that he died of dehydration.
Binyamin Region police turned to the Sheba Medical Center for help identifying the body. From this point, the police appointed an investigating officer, and Abu Jariban’s family was contacted.
Speaking from the Gaza Strip, Abu Jariban’s brother Mohammed says that the family is outraged by the death. “They simply threw him to the dogs,” Mohammed says. “Had they brought him to the Erez border crossing, we would have taken care of him.”
Passing the buck
The investigating officer’s report, which has reached Haaretz, points to a long list of failings. “In the final analysis, an unhealthy person who was the responsibility of institutions of the State of Israel was left at a junction at 3 A.M., dressed in a hospital gown, barefoot, with a catheter, barely able to walk; he was left with no food or drink, and without the basic assistance he required,” the report noted.
Among other misdoings, the report notes: “The police physicians and the Prison Service doctor reached the decision that the illegal resident could be detained only with medical supervision, but they didn’t clarify to the police commanders anything about the man’s health condition on his release. The hospital was not informed by any police representative that the detainee was being taken into custody ...
“The regional commander and the commander of the Rehovot police station believed that the illegal resident was released from the hospital the way any patient is released.
A specific order came from Bachar to brief Peretz that the illegal resident should be taken to the Maccabim crossing point, and brought to a designated person; nobody confirmed that this order was carried out. Peretz trusted the head of the group of policemen who told him on the phone that he knew the area very well, since he lives in the territories, and that he would leave the man in a secure area close to the entrance of a village.
Later this policeman claimed that he once lived in Jerusalem and would travel on Route 443 to Tel Aviv, but had no knowledge regarding the entrances to villages. Apparently he lied about his knowledge of the region.”
As a result of the police investigation, negligent homicide charges were filed in March 2009 against Peretz and Yakutieli. Evidence has yet to be submitted in a trial of the pair; meantime, Yakutieli has been appointed an instructor in a police operations school, and Peretz has been named officer in charge of volunteers at the Lod police station.
Peretz blames his superior officers who gave him the order. He says that Bachar is responsible, and recently petitioned the High Court of Justice to indict his commanders, including Bachar, and the Sheba Medical Center in the case. The volunteer and policeman who accompanied Peretz on the fateful night journey have not been charged.
During the internal police investigation, Bachar was questioned under warning about a possible indictment on charges of reckless homicide. He faced police disciplinary charges, but his career has advanced steadily since this tragedy. Two years ago he was promoted to the rank of commander, and appointed operations officer for the central region. He is currently on a study leave.
The police response to this report: “This sorrowful case has been reviewed a number of times by the police internal investigations unit and the state prosecutor’s office, and a decision was reached to indict two policemen. The promotion of Commander Bachar was reviewed by the police and the Public Security Ministry, and he was found worthy of promotion. We do not intend to relate to details of these events, as judgment about them is pending in the High Court.”
The Sheba Medical Center’s response: “The hospital’s staff made considerable efforts to save the life of Abu Jariban, and to attend to his health. When he was released, police responsible for him were informed that he should be brought to a convalescence and care facility. From the moment he was relayed to the police, we had no control over the sequence of events leading to his being found, dead.”
Attorney Zadok Hugi, who represents Chief Inspector Baruch Peretz: “After higher-ranking police officers decided on [Abu Jariban’s] release, Peretz had no leeway or discretion, and could not disobey this order. More than anything, responsibility here rests with the hospital.”
Jack Khoury assisted in preparing this report.
19 feb 2012
Israeli officers who left Palestinian to die must pay
The chilling tale of a Palestinian car thief released from hospital prematurely and placed in police detention.
An unspeakable act took place in Israel. Late one night, an officer of the Israel Police tossed one Omar Abu Jariban - injured, confused and shoeless - to the side of the road and left him there to die.
This chilling story, which took place in the summer of 2008, was reported by Chaim Levinson in Friday's Hebrew edition of Haaretz. The incident should keep many Israelis awake at night. Serious measures must be taken against all those responsible.
Abu Jariban - who lives in the Gaza Strip city of Rafah, and who was not authorized to enter Israel - was seriously injured in an accident while riding with a friend in a stolen car. He was discharged from Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer - with a urinary catheter still in place, still using adult diapers, and in need of further medical care and rehabilitation - and he was placed in police detention. Hospital and police officials are now trading accusations over who was responsible for his premature and unconscionable discharge from Sheba.
Following failed efforts by the Rehovot and Kfar Sava police stations to identify Abu Jariban, police officials made the decision to get rid of the injured, sick and confused detainee and to take him to the Maccabim border crossing. Three police officers pushed him into a police vehicle. After it reached the checkpoint, whose commander refused to take the injured man, he was thrown from the vehicle in the dark of night onto the shoulder of Route 45, between the Ofer Base and the Atarot border crossing. He was wearing only hospital pajamas and was still attached to the catheter. His body was discovered two days later. "He was simply thrown to the dogs," Abu Jariban's brother, Mohammed, said by telephone from Gaza. The brother, horrifically, related the events in precise detail.
In March 2009, after an investigation by the Justice Ministry's department for the investigation of police officers, it was decided that only two of the officers involved in dumping and abandoning Abu Jariban by the side of the road would be prosecuted, both on charges of criminally negligent homicide. The evidentiary stage of the trial has not yet begun, but one of the defendants has since been promoted within the police. A third officer, who was given a disciplinary trial over the incident, has also been promoted since then.
There are individuals who are responsible for this horrific act, and they must pay for their deeds. It is not sufficient to settle for the very partial recommendations of the police investigations department. The attorney general must order an additional and more comprehensive investigation of the conduct of Sheba and of the police in this incident.
An unspeakable act took place in Israel. Late one night, an officer of the Israel Police tossed one Omar Abu Jariban - injured, confused and shoeless - to the side of the road and left him there to die.
This chilling story, which took place in the summer of 2008, was reported by Chaim Levinson in Friday's Hebrew edition of Haaretz. The incident should keep many Israelis awake at night. Serious measures must be taken against all those responsible.
Abu Jariban - who lives in the Gaza Strip city of Rafah, and who was not authorized to enter Israel - was seriously injured in an accident while riding with a friend in a stolen car. He was discharged from Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer - with a urinary catheter still in place, still using adult diapers, and in need of further medical care and rehabilitation - and he was placed in police detention. Hospital and police officials are now trading accusations over who was responsible for his premature and unconscionable discharge from Sheba.
Following failed efforts by the Rehovot and Kfar Sava police stations to identify Abu Jariban, police officials made the decision to get rid of the injured, sick and confused detainee and to take him to the Maccabim border crossing. Three police officers pushed him into a police vehicle. After it reached the checkpoint, whose commander refused to take the injured man, he was thrown from the vehicle in the dark of night onto the shoulder of Route 45, between the Ofer Base and the Atarot border crossing. He was wearing only hospital pajamas and was still attached to the catheter. His body was discovered two days later. "He was simply thrown to the dogs," Abu Jariban's brother, Mohammed, said by telephone from Gaza. The brother, horrifically, related the events in precise detail.
In March 2009, after an investigation by the Justice Ministry's department for the investigation of police officers, it was decided that only two of the officers involved in dumping and abandoning Abu Jariban by the side of the road would be prosecuted, both on charges of criminally negligent homicide. The evidentiary stage of the trial has not yet begun, but one of the defendants has since been promoted within the police. A third officer, who was given a disciplinary trial over the incident, has also been promoted since then.
There are individuals who are responsible for this horrific act, and they must pay for their deeds. It is not sufficient to settle for the very partial recommendations of the police investigations department. The attorney general must order an additional and more comprehensive investigation of the conduct of Sheba and of the police in this incident.