By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
Jun 02, 2005
Two teenage Israeli girls imprisoned last month for helping to block highways as part of an anti-retreat demonstration were told Thursday by Israel's High Court that they would not be allowed to take their final high school exams from jail.
Nearly 100 Israeli youths were arrested in May for taking part in road-blocking demonstrations throughout the country aimed at disrupting Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to forcibly uproot the Jews of Gaza and northern Samaria.
While nearly all were later released, the two girls in question remain in detention because of their refusal to sign an agreement to refrain protesting Sharon's policies.
Earlier in the week, Attorney-General Menachem Mazuz said blocking highways had crossed a ?red line,? and insisted future violators would be shown zero tolerance by the judicial system.
When Mazuz learned on Tuesday that several jailed students had already been administered the exams, he replied that had he ?heard about this earlier, this would not have happened.?
?There are no deluxe accommodations. Whoever wants to protest must know how to pay the price,? he stated.
Plotting to murder Israeli Jews, however, does not appear to carry the same consequences.
When Israel set free 400 jailed ?Palestinian? terrorists Thursday, two opted to remain in prison in order to complete the same math matriculation exam the road-blocking teenage girls were denied the right to take.
Would-be Palestinian Arab killers regularly take the opportunity to complete their schooling from inside Israeli prisons, with the open assistance of Israel's judicial system and Education Ministry.
Observers noted this new denial of rights seems to be reserved for right-wing Israelis opposed to Sharon's retreat plan, since leftist Labor Union members regularly blocked highways in the past without judicial intervention.