August 25, 2009

The Supreme Court has convicted Itamar Biton, a politically-connected yeshiva student, of willfully hitting Noga Zoraish with his car. The verdict followed a petition by NIF grantee Tebeka - Center for Legal Aid and Advocacy for Ethiopian Jews in Israel and overturned the decision of the Jerusalem District Court, which reduced the crime to the equivalent of a misdemeanor and sentenced him to community service.

The appeal suggested disturbing patterns of racism, prejudice and political interference in the judicial process. The Supreme Court accepted Tebeka’s charges that the lower court had bent the rules of justice to avoid staining the defendant - a gifted yeshiva student and the son of the Chief Rabbi of Hadera - with a criminal record thus barring him from holding office as a dayan, or religious court judge.

The crime took place in January 2006. Zoraish was working in downtown Jerusalem as a parking lot cashier when Biton parked his car in the lot. As Biton was leaving, he insisted he had no money to pay the $4 fee.  When it became clear that he intended to leave without paying, Zoraish stood in front of Biton’s vehicle. He willfully ran her over and Zoraish was hospitalized for serious bruising and a concussion. She was unable to work for three weeks.

With video evidence documenting what happened, Biton was arrested and charged with assault, grievous bodily harm and abandoning an injured person. But in his verdict, Judge Moshe Drori only sentenced Biton to community service and a fine, making it clear that he did not want to formally convict the accused and thus bar Zoraish from becoming a religious court judge.

Throughout the trial, the accused and his family treated Zoraish in a patronizing manner. The judge even wrote in his summary that the trial had been a positive experience for Zoraish, describing it as a “seminal event in her life during which she was finally accepted into Israeli society as an equal.”

Biton’s family put political pressure on the court. Shas Chairman Eli Yeshai gave a character reference saying, "A conviction is liable to interrupt his rabbinical and public future and I believe that this should be avoided. I recommend adopting the plan to end this judicial process without a conviction, and am convinced that he very much regrets his actions."

Tebeka Legal Director Yael Segal-Machlis was furious when she heard about the case, "The ruling created and perpetuated unacceptable norms of inequality and discrimination based on origin, social class, ancestry and affiliation with a religious denomination.”

So traumatized was Zoraish from her first court appearance that Tebeka officials took weeks to persuade her to appeal. After the Supreme Court justices found Biton guilty and gave him a suspended prison sentence, she allowed herself a smile of victory. Zoraish said, "Justice has been served, the main thing is that the man who ran me over will stop lying and won't be able to be a religious court judge."