Magistrate’s Court, Migrash Ha’Rusim, JerusalemTuesday 5.7.05Observers: Phyllis, Hanna, Netta A., Hagit S. (reporting)Defendant – Adel Elkam, a driver from Abu Dis, charged with transporting an illegal infiltrator in his car.Presiding Judge – Judge Cohen, head of the Magistrate’s Court.The prosecution requests a sentence of conditional imprisonment + community service + a fine.After a short hearing it was decided, for various reasons, to hold another hearing, on October 30 at 10 am.I will not go into the details of the entire hearing, but I would like to bring two extremely important conclusions to your attention:1. We must convince all our Palestinian friends not to sign any documents that are written in Hebrew, even when they are told that the document contains only the facts that they themselves provided during their interrogation (or while filling out forms at the checkpoints). The case against Adel is based on the evidence he provided during his interrogation, and bears his signature. Included, of course, are only the details which seemed important to the investigating officer. Thus, the statements brought to the court, on which the accusations against him are based, do not reflect “the true story” – which would explain the incident in a different light, and perhaps bring about an acquittal.2. Our presence in the courtroom is very important, both to encourage Adel, who felt (rightly) that his lawyer had done a shabby job, and to “keep an eye on ” the lawyer. Perhaps it is also important to impress upon the prosecution and the judge that there is someone aware of what is going on.