Israeli professor: High Court judges should be hanged for Palestinian suffering

Dr. Anat Rimon Or, a lecturer who specializes in education, wrote a scathing post on Facebook denouncing decision to keep Mohammed al-Qiq in administrative detention.

By MAARIV ONLINE
Updated: FEBRUARY 22, 2016 11:18
A Palestinian man hangs a Palestinian flag atop the ruins of a mosque, during a snow storm in West Bank village of Mufagara (photo credit: REUTERS)
A Palestinian man hangs a Palestinian flag atop the ruins of a mosque, during a snow storm in West Bank village of Mufagara
(photo credit: REUTERS)
A left-wing academic who teaches at Beit Berl College near Kfar Saba stirred controversy on Monday after accusing the Supreme Court of being complicit in causing Palestinian suffering.
Dr. Anat Rimon Or, a lecturer who specializes in education, wrote a scathing post on Facebook denouncing the court for its decision to rule in favor of the state in keeping a hunger-striking Palestinian journalist in administrative detention.
Mohammad al-Qiq, whom Israeli authorities say is linked to Hamas, has not eating in 90 days. He is currently hospitalized in serious condition at Emek Medical Center in Afula.
Rimon Or, who is also an activist, wrote: “One day, the High Court justices will be put on trial for the worst kind of treason. My hope is that they will be hanged just like every single person convicted of crimes against humanity for all of the horrible things that they helped bring upon the Palestinians, the miscarriages of justice done to Israelis, and the whitewashing of crimes that helped those who are bilking the country’s natural resources.”
Last week, the High Court of Justice rejected a petition for Qiq to be freed from administrative detention.
Citing that it had reviewed classified evidence showing that he was “unmistakably an active Hamas agent involved in operational terrorism,” the High Court said it would not allow his release, even as Qiq was close to death’s door.
Rather, the court said that “at the end of the day, the petitioner holds the key to his health and well-being in his own hands, he and no other.”
The High Court decision follows numerous attempts to reach a compromise with Qiq to end his hunger strike against the administrative detention.
Rimon Or recently went on a hunger strike of her own in front of the President’s Residence in Jerusalem. She called on President Reuven Rivlin to intervene in Qiq’s case.
The human rights NGO B’Tselem also criticized the High Court’s refusal to allow the detainee to be transferred to a hospital in Ramallah. The court accepted the state’s position that such a move would endanger the lives of IDF soldiers in the event that they wish to arrest Qiq in the future.
B’Tselem’s director-general, Hagai Elad, wrote a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in which he lobbied for Qiq’s immediate release.