Thursday, January 18, 2007

The farmer and the thief

I suppose it is an old new for you, but I going to talk about the case when an Israeli farmer, named Shay Dromi, shot two of four Bedouin thieves, killing one, wounding another.


There are several perspectives to this incident.
One is that these farmers at the south of of Israel, and not only them are being robed of their property constantly for the last decade and it is getting worse. The police fails to stop or even minimize the proportions of this plague and the farmers and residents of nearby and not so nearby town and cities pay the price. A week and a half ago in Rehovot, a police officer was stubbed in the neck with a screw driver by a Bedouin car thief. He is still in critical condition.
In this particular case the farm owner has slept in his barn in order to protect hos property. Only one month before, like in this case, his dogs were poisoned and his tractor was stolen. This time they were back for sheep.
It is up to the court of law to decide was there an act of self defense or not, but our laws and our courts are a part of that problem.
Unfortunately, while the police is inefficient in apprehending the thieves, they are too effective in prosecuting the defenders of their property.
And the thieves know thins, and they get bold. They go to steal fearlessly, since they know that they are protected by the law.
Now this farmer is going to face criminal charges for murder, in best case for man slaughter.

The second perspective is that from the Bedouin side. The government, busy in filling their pockets and dodging criminal investigations, are too busy to take a look at the abysmal situation the Bedouin population is in. 80% of the Bedouin population in unregistered settlements are unemployed. They are driven away from their traditional way of life and left unequipped to move on. Therefore many turn to crime.

The third perspective, is how the press covers the event.
While most media channels described the impossible situation the farmer was in, and to some extent the situation that the of Bedouin population, some decided to look at it from their subjective point of view. Haaretz, for example, "forgot" to mention that the Mr. Drori was attempting to provide medical assistance to the men he shot when the police and the medical teams arrived. They have decided to tell that he "wasn't cooperative with the investigators and demanded a lawyer", which is, as far as I remember, his legal right.
The public, on the other hand, judging from the comments sections in the MSM web sites, are very supportive of Shay Dromi with an approximate ratio of 300:1.

10 comments:

Edyta said...

Hey!
Oh, i am not surprised that the media told abt this event, mixing things up, uncovering one unnecessary thing, hiding another. It's always been this way.
Have a swell day :)

Unknown said...

I do not accept the Beduin "side" in this story. Whatever happens, there is no justification for crime. At least, if they were stealing oranges because they don't have food to eat, or money from a bank that has lots of it anyway it could be justifiable (if still bad). But stealing a tracktor from a farmer? What his children are supposed to eat if *he* goes bunkrupt?

Woland said...

I don't say that their situation justifies the crime.
However, it is a dire issue to be attended.

Irina Tsukerman said...

Yury: "The bank has lots of it anyway"... where do you think that money comes from? People like us. I'm not ready to be Robin Hood just yet.

See, that's what's troubling me about the legal system in Israel. The country has more lawyers per capita than any other country in the world, including the United States... and yet, apparently, they are just taking up space. If everyone "knows" that the laws are unjust, where's the pressure on the legislators to reform the system? How is anything supposed to get done if no one seems interested? There are so many things wrong that I have no idea where one would even start. The media, the police, the laws themselves, and of course, the course... I'm not sure what it would take to have a complete overhaul, but having a written Constitution and uncorrupt individuals willing to enforce the laws would be a good first step.

Irina Tsukerman said...

(Now, why am I still here?) : )

Unknown said...

I am not advocating bank robbery of course. But if sombody does robes a bank it is not your money he steals. There is no way you will come to the bank the next day only to hear "we are sorry but it happened to be *your* money that got stolen".

LittleTinSoldier said...

http://li77letinsoldier.blogspot.com/2007/01/domesticwild-wild-south.html

I used your page as a reference in my blog.

Irina Tsukerman said...

Yury: But let's suppose you need to withdraw your money for an emergency reason, and you run to the bank, and it's not there...

Unknown said...

what's not there? the bank? :)

Irina Tsukerman said...

The money! : )