Haifa U legal aid clinics aid terrorists
lan Yavelburg, a spokesman for the university, described the report as "manipulative and biased" and deemed Im Tirtzu an "extremist political organization."
Haifa University's legal clinics are apolitical, he said, adding: "Im Tirtzu are the ones who are crudely injecting politics into the academy for the sake of their own publicity."
The report focuses on three clinics in particular: the Clinic for Prisoners' Rights, the Clinic for Human Rights in Society and the Clinic for the Rights of the Arab-Palestinian Minority. It says the causes chosen by these clinics are part of the "Arab nationalist struggle against Zionism."
These causes, according to the report, include undermining the status of the national anthem, providing legal aid to Arab-Israeli security prisoners and opposing Jewish settlement in Acre and Meron. Furthermore, the clinics use public funds and enlist unsuspecting, well-meaning students towards an Arab nationalist agenda, the report says.
Out of more than 20 legal cases that the clinics have handled since 2009, only two were for Jews, the report stated. In all the other cases, the clinics represented Arabs against the State of Israel (in one case the recipient of legal aid was not even an Israeli citizen). And while out of more than 10,000 prisoners held in Israeli jails only 132 (just over 1 percent) are Arab-Israeli security prisoners, eight out of the 10 cases handled by the Clinic for Prisoners' Rights involved security prisoners, the bulk of whom are terrorists.
Yavelburg said that most of the specific cases described in the report ended several years ago and that in many cases the courts themselves approached the clinics to offer representation.
"The legal clinics receive thousands of queries each year on a wide spectrum of issues including education, women's rights, single mothers and more. It is no accident that Im Tirtzu chose to ignore this wide range of activity and to spotlight, in an intentional and biased way, just one narrow issue among many," Yavelburg said.
Reacting to Im Tirzu's report, Almagor, the terror victims' organization, sent a letter to the president of Haifa University on Monday.
"The feeling among the bereaved families and the wounded is sadness, anger and outrage," the letter said.
"In Haifa, there is a population of terror victims and bereaved families who in the past joined our legal battle to prosecute terrorists who hurt us, and we did not see the University of Haifa offer us its services, which it offers, ironically and unfortunately, to some of these terrorists.
"Therefore we ask you to stop providing legal assistance to the terrorists, or alternatively, to establish a clinic that will achieve justice for victims, according to the victims' rights law. Today we have no clinic that helps us to face the attorneys of the murderers, as well as government bodies working for plea bargains with ridiculous punishments, to shorten their punishments or to give them improved conditions in prison.
The fact that Im Tirtzu is even raising the issue is a major step forward for this country. But I am sure that the organized bar - which I am required to join in order to hold myself out as a lawyer - will be out with a statement defending the clinics just as soon as they're done planning their next weekend 'seminar' in Eilat at the expense of the vast majority of lawyers who have no interest in attending."We hope that in response to this letter you will shut down the track that allows terrorists to receive aid from the university. We would be happy if you would agree to meet with us," the letter said.
What could go wrong?
Labels: Israeli Arabs are a fifth column, lawyers, Palestinian terrorists, University of Haifa
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:59 PM
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