Laugh Or Cry, .... Or Fight
PALESTINIANS SUE GUSH KATIF FARMERS IN A FLURRY OF LAWSUITS
Israeljustice.com
Date added: 6/30/2010
www.israeljustice.com/news2.asp?key=186
JERUSALEM -- In the latest flurry of more than 200 lawsuits, Palestinian
workers in Gaza are claiming compensation from 400 Israeli farmers expelled
from the Gaza Strip in 2005.
Palestinians, aided by the Yesh Din Human Rights Organization, are
continuing to file a flurry of lawsuits against Israeli farmers who were
expelled from Gush Katif in August 2005. They are suing in Israeli labor
courts for dismissal compensation and for compensation under the minimum
wage law.
"There are 400 farmers and at least 200 claims against them," Aharon
Chazut, chairman of the Gush Katif Framers Committee, said. "Every day
recently another one or two claimants are filing suit
Chazut said that many of the Palestinian claimants never worked for the
Jewish farmers.
"The onus of proof falls on the farmers and not on the Palestinian
claimants," Chazut said. "Some of the claimants never worked for us but you
have to prove that
they didn't work for you."
Chazut said that he was prepared to ignore the suits but the other
farmers decided to hire an attorney to represent them in court.
"They are law abiding citizens," Chazut said.
The original suit was filed by Zaber Mahmoud Sharab from Khan Yunis
against Yosef Shwartz of the Gan Or settlement in Gush Katif. In 2007, the
Beer Sheba Labor Court ruled against Sharab but he appealed to the National
Labor Court in Jerusalem and a decision is still pending.
Sharab's claim was rejected in the Beer Sheba labor Court because his
attorney, Ahmed Almalak, argued that his client be compensated by Shwartz
under the Disengagement Law. In the appeal to the National Labor Court in
Nov. 2009, a second attorney, Abed Taha, no longer argued that Sharab was
entitled to compensation under the Disengagement Law but said that since
Shwartz had received compensation under the Disengagement Law, Shwartz must
pay up.
"The employer received his compensation for his trees and chickens but
didn't take care of his workers," Taha said. "The right to claim under the
Disengagement Law is only for the respondent and so he turned to [the
government-run office dealing with compensation for the expellees] Minhelet
Sela...I ask the court not deny the rights of the plaintiffs to dismissal
compensation for the period that they worked for the respondent."
Shwartz's attorney Neil Smollett said that the original Disengagement
Law contained a clause making the government liable for any debts incurred
by individuals
directly from the Disengagement but this was deliberately left out in the
last reading of the law before it was passed by the Knesset.
"Here is the place to mention that the paragraph in the Disengagement
Law that was approved by the Knesset Finance Committee, a paragraph that
placed the onus on the state in the event that of any third party suits for
debts incurred directly from the disengagement, was erased from the law in
the third reading," Smollett said in his summation to National Labor Court.
"This irregular act was the result of the government objection to this
clause and so the expellees were left alone in this field. It is unnecessary
to point out the wide ramifications if it will be decided that the cessation
of employment due to the Disengagement Plan is the responsibility of the
employers and not of the State.
The original suits were for dismissal compensation but the Israeli Arab
attorneys for the Palestinians have also started filing suits against the
Jewish farmers for compensation under the minimum wage law.
"There are two parts to the suits," Smollett said. The first is
compensation for dismissal and the second are claims for minimum wages
resulting from a Supreme Court decision in 2006 [Givat Zeev case no.
5666/03] that said that the conditions of employment between an Israeli
employer and a Palestinian employee over the Green Line [1967 border line
between Israel and the territories] are according to Israeli law ... but
this change in the law was later than the evacuation of Gush Katif."
National Labor Court President Steve Adler gave the parties until Jan. 5
to submit their summations but the court presided over by justices Adler,
Yigal Selitman and Ronit Rosenfeld have yet to decide the case.
On June 15, retired Supreme Court Justice Yehoshua Matza announced the
findings of the committee that investigated the outcome of the government's
expulsion of 10,000 Jews from Gush Katif and the destruction of 25
settlements in the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria.
"The state failed, and its failure was absolute and abysmal," Matza
said.
A second committee member, Prof. Yedidya Stern, also sharply criticized
the government for its handling of the expulsion.
"This is the worst violation of human rights in the history of the State
of Israel towards such a large population," Stern, said.
Are you kidding me?
Jews thrown from their homes and these farmers are removed by force from their farms, now are being sued by our enemy.
We do not deserve to have a State called Israel.
We allow these self hating Jews to side with the enemy in an effort to grind these Jews into the ground, and we allow it.
Is it not enough that these Jews were removed by force? No, it was not enough, so the Israeli government has violated it's own agreement with these people for compensation. But even this is not enough to destroy these people that were brave enough to live in Gaza sent there by the Israeli government. A government led by the left wing labor party.
Now the so called right wing Likuid is allowing our enemy to sue these brave Jews who had everything stolen from them by the Israeli government.
Will we remember a place called Israel when we like fools allow it to slip through our figures once again.
