Lawyers for the former head of an Iowa Kosher slaughterhouse asked a judge to reconsider his decision to deny bail because of Israel’s Law of Return, a ruling that could set a dangerous precedent which could be used to deny bail to Jewish defendants solely on the basis of their religion.
In court documents filed Friday, attorneys for the former CEO of Agriprocessors took issue with the court’s consideration of Israel’s Law of Return in deeming their client a flight risk.
“Under Israel’s Law of Return, any Jew and members of his family who have expressed their desire to settle in Israel will be granted citizenship,” Magistrate Jon Stuart Scoles wrote in his November 20 decision to deny bail.
In their filing, defense attorneys asked Scoles to reconsider his decision.
“Under that view, ‘every Jew’ is to be viewed for bail purposes as a greater risk of flight than a non-Jew,” the filing states. “That means that 5,300,000 Americans would be viewed as heightened bail risks simply because they are Jews.”
“It is ironic that a law designed to provide refuge to persecuted Jews has now become the basis for detaining a Jew who might otherwise have been released pending trial,” the attorneys noted.
The filing cited several recent cases involving Jewish or Israeli defendants released on bail “involving a much greater risk of flight and far more contacts with Israel than are present here.” It also noted that there is no precedent in which prosecutors invoked the Law of Return to argue against releasing a Jewish defendant.
Deborah Lauter, director of the civil rights office of the Anti-Defamation League, said the prosecution’s “referencing the Law of Return is highly unusual.”
Marc Stern, acting co-executive director of the American Jewish Congress, also expressed shock at the judge’s reasoning. “All Jews are suspect because of the Law of Return?” he asked. “It’s a very astounding and troubling argument. It’s different from saying he might run to Israel — whether or not there is a Law of Return.”
(Source: Jewish Week)
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10 Responses
Anti-Semite Judge. This reasoning is proof-positive.
Law of Return aside for the moment…does the US have a treay with Israel for the return of those that do flee there to avoid the US justice system?
Yes, it does.
By the way, anyone with a parent or grandparent born anywhere in the European Union is entitled to become a citizen and get an EU passport. That must cover a good percentage of the white population of the USA. And yet one never hears of anyone being denied bail because they might flee to Italy or to Germany. One only hears about it with Jews and Israel. That certainly smells of antisemitism.
The United States DOES have an extradition treaty with Israel (see: US Code TITLE 18, PART II, CHAPTER 209, § 3181)
The specific language of the original 1962 treaty can be found here: http://www.internationalextradition.com/israel_bi.htm
The original treaty contained a list of 31 offenses that were extraditable but in January of 2007, the treaty was amended and redefined to cover any offense punishable by more than one year’s incarceration as extraditable.
So why would the judge use this as an excuse to hold Reb Sholom without bail? Because, as I have maintained from the beginning, this entire prosecution is motivated by nothing more than the anti-semites (both goyim and, sadly, amongst our own) that will stop at nothing to end kosher shechita in this country.
lets pay attention…these guys smell blood. while for the time being this may not be a threat of death to all of us, this is clearly the beginning and a sign all of us should be watching closely.
how this country respects and treats us, is quickly changing. whether it’s something as stupid as sending more traffic cops to our areas on erev shabbos and yomtov because there is nowhere to park; or whether its a question of vouchers for school tuition where we are literally saving the government billions of dollars by not sending kids to public schools; or even something as serious as a question of prosecution and denial of bail based on a really bad and highly suspicious argument— we are all in danger…maybe not immediate, but we need to be on the alert.
as someone once said, a jew needs to always be ready with his sneakers (to get out) and his tehillim…..i continue to get more scared every day….its only getting worse…especially with the economy…lets learn from history and not c”v repeat it……
Pinky Green ran away to Switerland other jews run to Brazil which has no extadition treaty with the United States.
see what the tziyonim have accomplished, that a yid isnt safe in america
We should have no rachmonus on criminal behavior. We all suffer because of their selfish shtick!
Of course in this case, they haven’t been convicted but in general we must repudiate all such behavior and all perpetrators! The frumer the criminal the greater our outrage should be!
Since the Israeli definition of “Who is a Jew” is quite broad (basically Hitler’s definition, anyone with a Jewish grandparent), the numbers are closer to 10 million.
If the individual frequently visits Israel, and has property there, that would be a different matter.
If suspected criminals use this as an excuse to escape the law and justice,then in individual cases there might be a good reason for this. DO NOT DO CRIMINAL ACTS and do not create a chillul Hashem! Yir’as Shomayim does not prevent sin and crime as much as the long arm of the goyish law in the medina that Jews reside. Remember Persia under Haman before Purim.