The indictment against Shefi Paz, Doron Avrahami and another activist of the Front for the Liberation of South Tel Aviv was read out today (Monday) in the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court. The indictment included 13 different charges, including charges of conspiracy to commit a crime, vandalism of real estate, violation of a legal provision and more. The three activists were charged on December 29, 2020, with a series of cases of spray-painting graffiti, including in front of the homes of Supreme Court justices, as well as criminal trespassing.
At the beginning of the hearing, Paz told the judge about Lehi fighter Geula Cohen who was on trial in the British Mandate court: “This was her response to the indictment, which I am proud to quote verbatim: ‘I do not find it necessary at all to answer this indictment. A confession or non-confession comes only when faced with a court that recognizes its right to adjudicate and adjudicate. Accusation exists only where there is also a right for the accused to accuse ‘. Geula Cohen spoke about foreign rule. “I am talking about a government that gave my home to foreigners,” she was quoted as saying.
She added: “The one who should stand trial is not me but the state, which has relinquished its sovereignty in the neighborhoods of South Tel Aviv and abandoned me to live as an ethnic minority in the ex-territory of alienation, hostility and crime.”
Shefi Paz’s arrest last June. Photo: Struggle headquarters Residents of South Tel Aviv
Paz appealed to the court: “The court representing the state, which has deprived us of the right to a life of dignity and liberty, has no moral right to accuse me. It has only the power to persecute and suppress the just protest of citizens stripped of their citizenship. I deny the jurisdiction of this court “I am being tried. That is why I refuse to answer the indictment.”
Doron Avrahami told the judge that “64 years ago my parents immigrated from Persia because they were persecuted there and knew they would be safe here. We grew up and were educated in south Tel Aviv, when at one point the State of Israel, the Israeli police and the courts abandoned us to illegal infiltration,” he said. : “Our personal security is zero and there is no one to protect us. I stood up to protect the future of my children and the future of the residents of South Tel Aviv.”
Avrahami added: “Common sense says that whoever repeatedly forgave the infiltrators for their crimes, can not today judge me for the protection of my home,” and concluded with the sentence: “My children will not live like in the Diaspora, but as proud Jews and Israelis.”