Convicted killer on furlough hurt in Arava crash; wife, son killed

<snip>

"Ami Popper, who is serving several life sentences for the 1990 murder of seven Palestinians, was moderately injured in a road accident Wednesday night while driving on the Arava Road. Popper's wife and son were killed in the accident and his other son was moderately injured.

Three other people were injured, two of them seriously.

Popper, who was on furlough from prison, veered from the lane in which he was driving, crossing a no-pass line, and crashed head-on into an oncoming car at the entrance to Kibbutz Grufit, about 45 km north of Eilat."

<snip>

"Popper was sentenced to seven life terms after being convicted of killing seven Palestinian workers from Gaza who were waiting to begin work in Rishon Letzion in 1990, but his sentence was subsequently commuted to 40 years."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/814785.html


Wife, son of Arab workers' murderer die in accident

<snip>

"Popper was on a 48 hour furlough from prison and was expected back in prison on Thursday. He was sentenced to seven life sentences, though that was cut back to 40 years imprisonment. After serving a quarter of that Popper was allowed furloughs and has already left and returned to the prison 124 times. During his incarceration Popper married and serves his time in the religious wing of the Masiyahu prison.

Ami Popper was convicted of murdering seven Arab workers and the attempted murder of ten additional workers on May 20th of 1990. Popper was 21 years old at the time. At approximately 7:00 am he arrived at the Rose Garden junction between Rishon Lezion and Nes Ziona, with a Glilon assault rifle and five ammunition clips, which he had stolen from his brother, who was a soldier.

Popper demanded of the Arab workers waiting at the junction to line up and asked to see their ID cards. When a car with West Bank license plates drove by Popper stopped it and forced the passengers to join the lineup at gunpoint. Afterwards Popper opened fire at the line, killing seven of the workers.

The murder created a storm in Israel and the territories, where riots broke out and rioters were killed by IDF fire. Popper was immediately arrested after the murder and first claimed his motive had been his girlfriend's departure. Later he changed his story, claiming to have been raped by an Arab when he was 13 years old and was now seeking revenge."

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3354022,00.html

Seems to be having a nice life. Now he has killed his wife and son. Next time it will be more Palestinians?

Yet over 10,000 Palestinians are in Israeli prisons. Many held without trials. Many subject to torture, including children.

Yet the Israeli murderer of 7 gets to have weekend passes. And god knows what else.

A weekend furlough for a murderer is unacceptable. I agree with your sentiments in that regard.

How about the release of a murderer as part of a prisoner exchange?

Would you support the call for Israel not to release any prisoners as part of a prisoner swap who have been convicted of killing Israeli civilians?

who are being held without being charged with a crime.
Palestinians usually don't get trials. Very few Palestinians are held in regard to killing anyone, civilian or occupation soldiers.

after this fine fellow has been out and about for all this time.

Your issue appears to be with Israeli authorities.

and they attack Jimmy Carter. But then there is karma.

:scared:

-C

An Intifadeh Of the Soul
Monday, Jul. 23, 1990 By LANCE MORROW

>snip

THE MADMAN'S VICTIM'S TALE

There is not a Palestinian anywhere who believes that the killings at Rishon Le-Zion, south of Tel Aviv, on May 20 were the work of a madman lost in some apolitical lunacy. Conversely, every Israeli probably believes that the man held responsible, Ami Popper, 21, an Israeli soldier dismissed from the army as being unsuitable for military service, was exactly that: an isolated crazy.

The seven laborers killed by Popper came from Gaza towns and refugee camps. One of the dead, 35-year-old Youssef Abu Dakka, traveled each day to work as a laborer building houses in Israel. Now, in the bright midday sun of the courtyard of his house, the family gathers to receive official sympathizers. The victim's mother, her sharp bird's eyes silently following everything, sits on a sheepskin in a shadowed corner. The father, Ibrahim Abu Dakka, has a ceremonial place among the encircling men. A leader of the Gaza Laborers' Union, a man of swelling gravitas, delivers a harangue about the son's unforgettable martyrdom.

Jamal Abu Dakka, 28, Youssef's brother-in-law, who was there at the shootings, tells what happened. At 6 in the morning, the laborers were driving in a Peugeot 504 toward work in Rishon Le-Zion. A man dressed in an Israeli army uniform waved their car down. He told the laborers to get out but to leave the car's engine running. He ordered the six men in the car to join other Palestinians sitting on the ground, and asked in Hebrew, "Do you know why you are here?" The men said no. The Israeli said, "Better for you not to know." Then he opened fire with a Galil assault rifle, killing seven of the laborers and wounding eleven. He jumped into the Peugeot and drove away.

The killings on "Black Sunday" blew fresh rage into the uprising. The territories rioted for three days; 14 more Palestinians died and an additional 800 were wounded.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,970692-3,00.html




Israeli killers' sentences reduced

Thursday, February 4, 1999 Published at 00:51 GMT

The Israeli Government has cut the prison sentences of four Israelis jailed for murdering Palestinians and one convicted murderer is to be released.

One of the prisioners, Ami Popper, killed seven Palestinians in an shooting spree in 1990. His sentence has been reduced from seven life sentences to 40 years in prison.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/271830.stm

that this was an isolated incident, but unfortunately some of our judges seem to think there's nothing wrong giving murderers vacations from prison.

And lest someone trot up the "he's being given cushy conditions because he only murdered Arabs", the most egregious case of this sort of thing involved the murderer of a Jew* (though Popper's crime was more serious, as it involved multiple victims, at least he has, AFAIK, been keeping his nose clean since)

*I'll summarize the case here, since it appears a bit difficult to find English sources online - in 1994, a cab driver by the name of Derek Roth was murdered by two 14-year-olds, apparently for the fun of it. They were sentenced to 16 years in prison. Later, in 1998, they were granted a furlough (!), in the course of which they tried to rob a grocery store (and, as a result, go 5 years added to their sentences). Afterward, one of them, Moshe Ben Ivgi, became involved in dealing drugs. As a result, the Prison Service refused to grant him any more furloughs. In 2004, Ben Ivgi took his case to the Supreme Court, where some boneheaded judge overruled the Prison Service's and the police's recommendation and granted him a furlough for Passover (!!), which he took advantage of to flee the country. He was eventually recaptured in Argentina, but for some reason that's beyond me the authorities there conditioned his extradition on significant reduction of his sentence (conditions the Israeli authorities acquiesced to in the end)

You really do have to wonder what some of them are thinking when they go and do ridiculous things like that...