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We need a judge
Katsav plea bargain should be annulled; we deserve to see a trial
The State of Israel needs a judge. It needs a man or a woman wearing a black robe to carefully read the details of the plea bargain drafted Thursday at the attorney general's office, and then, with due respect, throw it to the garbage bin.
Menachem Mazuz arrived at the press conference Thursday regarding President Katsav in two roles – an attorney and a public figure. When he left the press conference, only the public figure remained.
We also had to consider, he told television cameras, the public interest in minimizing the expected harm to the presidential institution…and the State of Israel's image as a result of a trial that would have gone on for a lengthy period of time with unflattering headlines regarding the presidential institution both in Israel and abroad.
Image is an important thing for politicians, but a court of law does not have any interest in images and must not have any interest in them. President Katsav was accused of rape and sexual harassment, not with undermining an image. If the image was so important to him, he should have kept his pants on.
If he wishes to do so, the outgoing president can present his career as part of his arguments ahead of sentencing. A wise judge will know how to take those things into consideration. A wise judge will also know that a plea bargain cannot include those things in advance.
Israeli judges have canceled plea bargains in the past; there is no reason why they should not annul this cowardly plea bargain as well.
The public interest does not only belong to public figures, but rather, to the public as well. A total of 51 percent of the population are women. Doesn't their interest come first?
One of the complainants against Katsav sent me a particularly tortured e-mail Thursday: "The plea bargain took us back to dark days we chose to believe were long gone," she wrote. "Who would dare to speak up now? What options are available to her? And you, what will you advise your wife? Your sister? Your daughter?"
I will advise them, despite Mazuz's decision, to count on the court's integrity. In a speech delivered last week by Supreme Court President Dorit Beinish, she said: "The court is the address for all those who wish to realize their individual rights vis-à-vis the government; judges will give anyone who comes before them their day in court."
The complainants, and us, deserve our day in court. We need a judge that would grant it to us.
Katsav plea bargain should be annulled; we deserve to see a trial
The State of Israel needs a judge. It needs a man or a woman wearing a black robe to carefully read the details of the plea bargain drafted Thursday at the attorney general's office, and then, with due respect, throw it to the garbage bin.
Menachem Mazuz arrived at the press conference Thursday regarding President Katsav in two roles – an attorney and a public figure. When he left the press conference, only the public figure remained.
We also had to consider, he told television cameras, the public interest in minimizing the expected harm to the presidential institution…and the State of Israel's image as a result of a trial that would have gone on for a lengthy period of time with unflattering headlines regarding the presidential institution both in Israel and abroad.
Image is an important thing for politicians, but a court of law does not have any interest in images and must not have any interest in them. President Katsav was accused of rape and sexual harassment, not with undermining an image. If the image was so important to him, he should have kept his pants on.
If he wishes to do so, the outgoing president can present his career as part of his arguments ahead of sentencing. A wise judge will know how to take those things into consideration. A wise judge will also know that a plea bargain cannot include those things in advance.
Israeli judges have canceled plea bargains in the past; there is no reason why they should not annul this cowardly plea bargain as well.
The public interest does not only belong to public figures, but rather, to the public as well. A total of 51 percent of the population are women. Doesn't their interest come first?
One of the complainants against Katsav sent me a particularly tortured e-mail Thursday: "The plea bargain took us back to dark days we chose to believe were long gone," she wrote. "Who would dare to speak up now? What options are available to her? And you, what will you advise your wife? Your sister? Your daughter?"
I will advise them, despite Mazuz's decision, to count on the court's integrity. In a speech delivered last week by Supreme Court President Dorit Beinish, she said: "The court is the address for all those who wish to realize their individual rights vis-à-vis the government; judges will give anyone who comes before them their day in court."
The complainants, and us, deserve our day in court. We need a judge that would grant it to us.
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