Oren Ziv writes in +972:
A few minutes before an Israeli military court sentenced teenager Ahed Tamimi to eight months in prison, an Israeli activist, Yifat Doron, approached the military prosecutor, shouted “who are you to judge her?” and slapped the lieutenant colonel across the head.
Doron was released on her own recognizance just two days after being arrested for slapping the prosecutor in March of last year. Tamimi had been denied bail for four months while awaiting trial, also for slapping an Israeli soldier a few months earlier.
Ahed is Palestinian. Yifat is Israeli. Ahed was put into Israel’s military court system. Yifat —despite slapping a military officer in the occupied West Bank, just like Ahed — was charged in a civilian court inside Israel.
When Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967, it applied military law to the territory. Technically, military law and the military court system have jurisdiction over Palestinians and Israelis alike in the occupied territory. In practice, a Palestinian and an Israeli who commit the exact same crime in the exact same territory are subject to different laws, different legal procedures, are tried in different courts, and are given different rights and protections.
Unlike Ahed’s slap, which was the subject of headlines around the world, and seemingly embarrassed the Israeli military establishment and national pride, there was no video documentation of Doron’s act.
Her trial, for assaulting a public servant under aggravated circumstances, began at the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court last Tuesday. The prosecution is asking for prison time.