| Moshe Benarroch ISRAEL moben@barak-online.net Mumia Abu Jamal Some say we are in a time of law some say our democratic countries Have the best juridic systems ever but by the torah's law you couldn't be death sentenced two witnesses should have seen a man and before he killed tell him that it is forbidden to kill and that such crimes get a death sentence, and the talmud tells the story of a man with a knife running after another man into a cave then the man comes back with the knife fool a blood and says that the killed took his knife and killed himself and that he took the knife back because it's his and it's expensive. Tell me, where is the judge that would send this man free Where the jury that would say 'Not Guilty' but for all we know nobody saw him killing and by jewish law he is a free man and God may judge him if he wants, or after all, if nobody's seen him killing how can we know he did it? FREE ARYEH DERI Each time we reach out our hand they cut off one of our fingers Today The Supreme Court sent Aryeh Deri to jail for Bribery. The first Moroccan-born politician capable of being prime minister will go to jail the day after 9 Av, date of the temple destruction A land of prophets a land of prophet killers He talked of love and got hate from a supreme court that knows the meaning of discrimination All the members being ashkenazim with one Arab and one Sephardi to cover their shame with laurels The president of Israel left just yesterday his post, he received bribes, he will have to go to his 2m$ villa in Ceasaria to rest from his difficult job he admitted to receiving half million $ but he will not go to jail A law for the rich and a law for the poor a law for sephardim and a law for ashkenazim And still I know that Aryeh Deri is free because his soul is free because he said what he thought and the judge is in jail because he caries his ghetto wherever he goes And still I know no justice has been done and Aryeh Deri committed no crime except being a Sephardi who will not play by the rules of creating a Sephardi party now 15% of the parliament of being the only party to speak for the poor the dispossessed, for people who have been amputated not only from their possessions, but from their memory from their pride from their freedom and from their will And I am Aryeh Deri twenty years old after publishing two poems in the most prestigious literary magazine sitting in front of the editor telling me that there is not a chance that I'll write a great poem like the one she published never again I am Aryeh Deri my manuscripts being rejected by all the publishers and wondering what was wrong with me I am Aryeh Deri doing a great translation of Edmond Jabes to Hebrew and being told that it was not good enough just after I was invited to the Hebrew university to give a lecture on the translation I was never good enough for them and just wondered what I had to improve but there was nothing to improve I could never be part of them I just didn't know it back them I am Aryeh Deri when people said I didn't look like a Moroccan as if it were some kind of compliment I am Aryeh Deri and I am going to jail free as he is the freedom of never lying to yourself the freedom the judges never dreamt about and I am Aryeh Deri writing in English because they will not publish my poems in Hebrew especially not this poem J'accuse J'accuse J'accuse this is the land where law is not equal this is a land where judges are full of prejudices this is land where being Moroccan and talented is a threat J'accuse J'accuse the supreme court of being a court of discrimination and of being a court that defends the interests of mediocre people and I am Aryeh Deri arriving to Israel at the age of twelve and refusing to forget and refusing to adapt to the common lies of coming from a culturally-deprived country I am Aryeh Deri and today I know how come 3/4 of our prisons are inhabited by sephardim I am half of these prisoners unjustly incarcerated and I am Aryeh Deri tonight with his family with his children and their tears and I am Aryeh Deri this is the saddest day of my life I am Aryeh Deri for I know he talked of love and each time he reached out his hand for peace they cut off one of his fingers and all I have left is my middle finger. Some explanations: Sephardim are jews from Arab countries, mostly from Morocco, Irak, Yemen, and the Maghreb. Ashkenazim are jews from Europe, mostly Poland, Russia and Germany. The trial of Aryeh Deri started ten years ago when the journalists asked how did Mr. Deri buy a flat of 5 rooms in a very cheap district of Jerusalem, Har Nof . No one has ever asked how many other politicians or supreme court judges lives in Big Villas. Mr. Deri was the youngest minister ever in Israel at the age of 29. He always spoke of the discriminition of the sephardim and was the head of the Shass party, a religious-sephardic party that now has 17 post in the parliament. This party is accused of all the illnesses in this country, in spite of the fact that their influence is more symbolic than real. The only real achievement is a chain of schools in the most deprived zones of the country where 40,000 children learn. © Copyright, 2000, Moshe
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