Israeli abuse of Palestinians continues

A complaint filed by a Palestinian citizen from Jerusalem has revealed that an Israeli policeman attacked him continuously with five electric shocks after he stopped the official from spraying a Palestinian boy with pepper spray. Talal Siad stepped in after he saw a police officer attack the boy while he was taking a stroll with is family at a Jerusalem water park during the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday. Siad, who is married with four children, was handcuffed and taken away in front of his family when he warned the policeman that his actions were tantamount to "murder". Forty eight assaults against Palestinians that were recorded on video were sent by Siad with his complaint. The police denied the reports and claimed that video was fake. Israel's Batasleem human rights watchdog said the taser used to attack Siad came into police use three years ago, with a power of 50,000 watts. The Hebrew Maariv newspaper meanwhile said that the reconciliation court in the occupied city of Jerusalem extended the arrest of an Israeli girl accused of instigating the brutal assault on a young man, Jamal Joulani, in West Jerusalem for three days for investigation. Police said during the hearing that the girl provoked her friends to hit Joulani. David Helvey, the girl's lawyer, claimed at the conclusion of the hearing that she "did not participate in the assault, according to estimations the investigation will end next Sunday, and she will be set free." The police had arrested eight young Israelis suspected of a racial attack on Joulani, including three from the settlement of Ma'ale Adumim. One of the detainees told the court that he committed the assault with dozens of others because the victim was Arab. Attacks by extremist settlers on Palestinian citizens have also continued. On Friday evening, a number of Jewish settlers beat the al-Maqdisi family and verbally abused them, said Fadl El Maghreby near the settlement of Ramat Shlomo, built on Palestinian land in Shuafat, Jerusalem. El Maghreby said: "My wife and children were beaten and insulted by a group of Jewish settlers while they were in a shop near the settlement (Ramat Shlomo) in front of passers-by." For its part, the Palestinian Authority revealed that it was studying the prosecution of Israeli leaders and settlers who practiced "terrorism" against the Palestinian people and taking them to international courts. The lawyer, Hassan al-Ouri, legal adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas,  said in a press statement that the Palestinian Authority was currently considering prosecuting Israeli leaders in international courts, and seeking to prosecute settlers in national courts that allow the prosecution of foreigners. The Palestinian Authority reportedly informed the international Middle East Quartet (formed of the US, UK, Russia and EU), the United Nations, and the international community of settlers' violations against unarmed Palestinian citizens, under the sight and protection of the Israel army which is supposed to have international obligations as an occupier to protect Palestinians. Al-Ouri stated: "There was a tendency to prosecute settlers in Israeli courts, but Israel protects them and uses false justifications for it, which makes the PA unable to respond." He explained that some major countries law allows the trial of foreigners for committing a crime or a misdemeanor, and the authority is studying the legal loopholes in the laws of some States to prosecute the settlers, especially as the international courts prosecute leaders and ordinary people. Al-Ouri said that the aim of the prosecuting the settlers was to internationally expose them for the crimes they commit. "There are some difficulties that make the PA the weaker party in power to prosecute the leaders and settlers; the most important of them is the Oslo agreement between the Palestinians and Israelis, that does not allow the PA to punish any Israeli. Palestine is not a member state at the United Nations, and we are not entitled to file lawsuits against leaders, and this one of the reasons that encouraged the PA to go to the General Assembly to obtain partial membership. This will help it enter many international institutions, including the ICC, through which the PA can prosecute Israeli leaders. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman will be one of them because of the terrorism he practiced against Palestinians," he said. He also pointed out that "countries only understand the language of interests, which Britain did when it changed their laws to prevent the punishment of Israeli leaders in the past".