Most evenings we listened to soldiers’ stories of their border duty and assignments within Gaza and the West Bank. We were stunned into silence when one soldier described his unit’s mission to arrest a suspect in Ramalla that very night. We worried all night until we heard that they succeeded and faced no resistance. Our job was to inventory and pack the regiments’ gear for a major move. The work was sporadic, so our Madricha arranged a visit to the court. A military lawyer briefed us before entering the courtroom.

The accused was one of four Arabs arrested for shooting into a group of soldiers at a checkpoint. Fortunately, they hit no one. The charges were the following: unlicensed weapon ownership, reckless endangerment of human life, ttempted murder, and membership in a terrorist organization. Although eyes peered through door slots as we passed the holding cells, the Arabs gathered outside paid no attention as we entered the courtroom, which looked like a traffic court in my hometown. There were three judges in military dress and three armed guards. The accused, a handsome, bearded elder, smiled at his two adult sons in the audience and joked with a guard. Because everyone in Israel has the right to a trial in his own language, the trial was conducted in Hebrew and Arabic. The translator bounced on his chair as he turned between the judges, the defendant, and the attorneys.

The proceeding was an attempt at plea bargaining. The defendant admitted to the first two charges, but not the latter two. The judges decided not to accept the plea bargain until more research was done regarding his relationship to terrorist organization members in his village who bore his same last name.
Amnesty International representatives took notes during the trial. They said this court would get high
marks for respectfully protecting the defendant’s human rights. We wondered where else in the Middle East this would possibly happen.