choson in jail | Imamother

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Wed, Sep 28 2005, 3:37 am

PRISON: A YOUNG GAZA PROTESTOR FACES MANY YEARS IN PRISON

copyright (c) 2005 by Arnold and Marilyn Cytryn

A young Gaza Protestor faces many years in prison. They resisted Sharon's capitulation to the terrorists. They mounted the barricades to protest the Expulsion. They fought to defend Gaza synagogues from destruction. And they alone stood up to obstruct the desecration of the holy Land. Now one of these young protestors needs your help.

On July 28, 2005, Arab terrorists attacked Jewish residents and protestors in Gush Katif with rocks. Several Jews were struck and badly wounded by the rock throwing. Their friends attempted to fight back and apprehend the Arab attackers. By the time time I.D.F. soldiers arrived on the scene to restore security, the Jews had managed to detain several of the Arab terrorists and were demanding that the soldiers place them under arrest.

Instead, the I.D.F. soldiers decided to simply separate the two groups and allow the Arab rock throwers to escape. One witness said that during the course of the incident, "about 30 Arabs came out and started pounding everything in sight with rocks. It was a terrible disgrace for the I.D.F...The soldiers were simply unable to protect themselves from this onslaught, even though the Arabs were pounding the jeeps and everything".

Israeli television stations showed footage of an Arab -- Halil Majeida -- lying on the ground and then two Jewish boys running towards him and throwing rocks at him. It is alleged that one of these boys is Shimshon Cytryn, an 18-year-old yeshiva student -- and the State has accused him of attempted murder.

However, according to an eye-witness, "That's not the story! I saw this same Arab (Majeida) get hit in the head with a rock -- and yet he continued to throw rocks, like a tiger, for the next 15 minutes! Then I saw some reporters go over to him and tell him to lie down and act as if he was unconscious. Later on, he (Majeida) was taken out walking on his own, holding on to a soldier; all this talk of his (Majeida's) being mortally wounded is total nonsense".

Majeida is the one who Shimshon Cytryn is being accused of attempting to murder! Yet not only was he among the most actively involved in attacking the Jews, and not only was he seen several hours afterwards "standing and laughing with his friends", according to at least one report -- but he even later admitted that his injuries were caused not by rocks but by a soldier's gun butt!

Television crews captured the Arab rock attack against the Jewish residents on film, as well as the efforts of the residents to fight back. Naturally, the "media" broadcasted only the portions of their tape that depicted the Jews defending themselves, making it seem as if their fighting was unprovoked by the Arab rock throwing.

Based on the footage, "reporters" and Leftist politicians were quick to label the retaliation against the Arabs, including Shimshon's actions, as an attempted "lynching". Over and over again they screened the footage, and over and over again they called it a "lynching". They thus heatedly incited and pumped up political tensions, while splashing photos of the incident across the front page of every "news"paper in the country.

By the time the police arrested Shimshon, the "media" had already labeled him as a violent criminal who acted out of hatred against Arabs. There was no mention of the Arab rock attacks that had preceded the Jewish acts of retaliation; there was barely a mention of the tense moments when the Jews were under heavy attack.

Shortly after Shimshon's arrest, the truth of the matter started to be brought to light. It was revealed that Majeida was no innocent bystander, but rather that he was an active participant in the rock-throwing attack on Jewish residents. Photos of Majeida hurling stones at innocent Jews were published on the Internet.

Even the left-of-center daily "news"paper Ha'aretz realized its initial mistake and grudgingly published a retraction:

Contrary to initial reports, Majeida was not seriously or critically wounded, but sustained only light injuries. He was sent home after receiving treatment, and even gave interviews to a number of media outlets a few days after the lynching attempt. In the interviews, Majeida said that most of the injuries he sustained were caused by Israel Defense Forces soldiers prior to the lynching attempt. Majeida also declared his desire to be a "shaheed" (suicide martyr).

Yet the Israeli State Attorney's Office is pushing on with its prosecution of Shimshon for attempted murder.

For months, the Israeli police and Leftist "media" had been predicting that Jewish pioneers would use violence against other Jews. As the hour of the I.D.F.'s evacuation operation drew near, Israeli radio and television carried hourly updates on the civil war that they fantasized would break out at any moment during the protests against the Gaza Evacuation.

In fact, however, the Jewish pioneers and protesters reacted with the utmost of discipline and restraint. Yes, they engaged in civil disobedience against the forced eviction of thousands of Jews from their homes and Land, but they initiated no violence. Thus, they proved that those inciting against the Jewish pioneering movement were once again spreading baseless blood libels against Israel's nationalist religious camp.

It is clear that the State's Attorney's Office and the Leftist Israeli "media" have now decided to make Shimshon into a scapegoat to perpetuate the myth of the violence of the Jewish pioneering movement. They are setting him up to take the fall for all the predicted bloodshed and civil strife during the Gaza evacuation that, to their frustration, never materialized.

As such, Shimshon has now been charged with attempted murder -- a crime carrying a punishment of many long years in prison.

We must not allow him to be convicted. We must confront this miscarriage of justice.

Shimshon cannot be punished for a crime against the Arab rock-throwers that he did not commit. He cannot be made into a public scapegoat for Sharon's failed political policies and the Left's frustrations.

The costs involved of defending Shimshon at trial and proving his innocence, however, are enormous. Top criminal lawyers, investigators and forensic experts do not come cheap. Moreover, the Israeli State Attorney's office, with its unlimited financial resources, will stop at nothing to win a conviction and send this teenager to prison for many long years.

A legal defense fund has been established to financially assist the Cytryn Family in proving Shimshon's innocence.