At the end of a mediation process in the graffiti case in front of the judges' homes, all serious charges were dropped by agreement, including those that attributed to activists intent to disperse pins with the intent to harm children, and in their place only six minor charges related to graffiti spraying remained.
The serious indictment filed against Shefi Paz, Doron Avrahami and a third activist, in the so-called "scattering affair," opened with great fanfare. The police prosecution charged the activists with 14 serious counts, and the media did not stop echoing the story. But over the weekend, the indictment was dramatically reduced, when out of the series of offenses in which the three were charged, all serious offenses were dismissed by consent, including obstruction of justice, violation of a legal order, conspiracy to commit a misdemeanor (assault), vandalism of real estate and willful damage to property.
All charges related to planning to allegedly disperse pins in gardens were completely removed from the indictment. The section relating to invasion of privacy was also completely deleted from the indictment, at an earlier stage.
The case that marked Paz and Avrahami as the number one enemy of public safety retains several minor charges of conduct liable to disturb public peace, only one trespass (instead of two), conspiracy to vandalize land and vandalism of real estate, attributed to activists for spraying graffiti on buildings of associations for infiltrators and institutions of infiltrators, and a severe sense of persecution.
A crumpled balloon out of the air
In light of the sound of the charges, the defendants, represented by attorneys Itamar Barkai and Ari Shammai, will be able to request a report from the probation service that will examine the possibility of ending the saga without a conviction. Paz informed the court that she refused the report and that she had no problem with registering a conviction. The court also recommended returning Doron Avrahami to reserve duty and returning his personal weapon.
"I was convicted for the first time in court, and I carry this conviction as a badge of honor," Shefi Paz said. "It's hard to put into words how much contempt I have for the law enforcement system – for the police who target activists, for prosecutors who cooperate with criminalization, for the courts that lend a hand to selective enforcement.
"The same system that, on the one hand, tracks demonstrators who paralyze the state and harass public figures in the name of a political agenda, and on the other hand tramples with all its weight people who are fighting for the most basic right to be a free and safe people in their home and in their land.
"It began with a great drama of night arrests, handcuffing for long hours, repeated requests for extensions of detention, search, 76 days of house arrest due to dangerousness, an indictment of 14 counts and dozens of sub-counts, guarantees of tens of thousands of shekels, newspaper headlines and joy to id. And of all the persecution, criminalization and selective enforcement, all that remained in the end was a crumpled balloon that came out of the air. To the chagrin of all my haters, it seems that I will not be visiting Neve Tirza anytime soon."
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