"ALL CAPS IN DEFENSE OF LIBERTY IS NO VICE."

Thursday, April 15, 2021

France's supreme court compounds the damage already done in Sarah Halimi's murder

The French supreme court's ruled they won't overturn the previous ruling refusing to recognize the responsibility of the Muslim who murdered Sarah Halimi:
On 4 April 2017, Traoré, a jobless drug dealer and addict, had violently beaten his 64-year-old Jewish neighbour, shouting “Allah Akbar” and reciting verses from the Quran. The 27-year-old then threw her into the courtyard of their apartment building in Belleville, in eastern Paris. The psychiatric experts who worked on the case all agree that he was suffering from a “delusional state” at the time of the murder of the 60-year-old.

The Court last December considered that the discernment of the murderer had been abolished at the time of the facts.

Lawyers for Sarah Halimi’s relatives have announced their intention to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights.

“It is a great disappointment, a great sorrow,” Julie Buk Lament, lawyer for Sarah Halimi’s relatives told French radio. Traoré’s lawyer, Patrice Spinosi, described the decision as “a reasonable one, in line with its usual jurisprudence.’’
Already, this is turning out to be one of the most antisemitic-laced trials in modern history, and in addition, demonstrates how the legal system in France is collapsing. Now, to mend this damage and seek proper justice is going to be very difficult going forward, along with how to repair a seriously injured justice system in Europe that's equally demeaning to women.

Wednesday, April 14, 2021

2021's War Memorial Day

The Jerusalem Post has pictures from this year's War Memorial Day (I call it that to help make distinctions between that and Holocaust Memorial Day). And the Times of Israel has the following report:
Israel came to a standstill on Wednesday morning with a two-minute memorial siren at 11 a.m. commemorating 23,928 fallen soldiers and terror victims, including 43 soldiers and civilians killed since last Memorial Day.

During the siren, traffic around the country came to an abrupt halt, as Israelis stopped driving to stand beside their cars and people at home bowed their heads in somber silence. [...]

The Wednesday morning official ceremony was joined by families of the fallen, soldiers from across the army’s units and divisions, as well as the nation’s leaders, President Reuven Rivlin, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, chief rabbis Yitzhak Yosef and David Lau, IDF chief of staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kohavi, Supreme Court chief justice Esther Hayut, Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman and Mossad head Yossi Cohen.

The prime minister delivered his main Memorial Day address at the ceremony.

“Together we stand, united and hurting, alongside all of Israel’s citizens,” said Netanyahu. “We have raised excellent sons and daughters, who for 73 years have been risking their lives to protect Israel’s independence. Seventy-three years of grief, 73 years of revival.”

“Each one of us remembers the moment when they received the news about their fallen loved ones,” added the premier, who lost his brother Yoni in Operation Entebbe in 1976. “When my brother died, I didn’t know whether and how I would get back on my feet. I felt like someone who lost an organ — a hand, a leg, a heart.”

Appearing to hint at recent tensions with Iran and the series of attacks on Tehran’s nuclear facilities and ships that have been blamed on Israel, Netanyahu added: “We should never remain complacent in the face of threats of war and annihilation by those who seek our demise.”
And that too is vital to consider.