           No Justice for Rochelle Manning In Israel
                         April 16, 1993
                      by Gary M. Cooperberg

     Monday, August 16, 1993 at about 9:15, the Israeli high court of justice announced its
response to Rochelle Manning's appeal not to be extradited to America to face trial, for the
second time on the same offense.
     While, according to American law, a hung jury does not prevent an accused from being
tried again for the same crime, in that country, the official wording in the extradition treaty is
that if one is tried and released, he may not be extradited again for the same case.
     One need not be a genius nor have a degree in law to understand that, according to the
wording of the treaty, the state of Israel had no obligation to send Rochelle Manning back to
the states for a retrial. Unfortunately the court justices are "geniuses" and do have law
degrees.  Thus they twisted the truth so as to declare that, owing to the fact that Rochelle's
last trial resulted in a miss trial, in effect, it was only an interruption of the same trial that she is
still undergoing.  Therefore double jeopardy doesn't apply in her case.
     How quickly and easily the keepers of Israeli justice can pervert true justice.  If, in the
case of Bob Manning, they could cry that we have a treaty and must honor it that is one thing;
but here the very treaty which they so highly respect clearly gave them the right to deny the
request, yet they stood on their heads to pervert its meaning so as to enable them to please the
patron state.
     The entire hearing was a one sentence announcement.  It was over before it began,
and, as was the case with Bob, by the time anyone knew what had happened it was all over. 
Rochelle was whisked out of the courtroom, and by the time the spectators realized what had
happened and shouted words of protest, they were quickly evicted.
     I stayed for a while afterwards, stunned by the cold and callous treatment of a fine
Jewish woman who had already suffered so much for a crime she had nothing to do with. 
There were other cases on the docket and I was just too numb to move.  I looked slowly
around the courtroom.  It was a brand new building designed especially to house the high
court.  The clean white paint dazzled the eyes and the shiny new benches looked much like
pews in a church.  The architecture was distinctly Roman, complete with pillars.  That, in
itself, is a perverted mockery of what was supposed to have been a Jewish court.
     To make matters even more obnoxious, while the court was deliberating upon the fate
of Jewish prisoners, a carnival atmosphere was prevalent.  The new building is open for
groups of tourists to see how their justice system operates.  So there, right in the middle of
ongoing trials, Israeli tourists, many dressed in shorts with cameras hanging from their necks,
would wander into the courtroom, sit down for a few minutes, and then leave, only to be
replaced by the next group of gawkers.
     I couldn't decide if this was a circus, a zoo, or a goldfish bowl.  Whatever it was, it
certainly was not a court of Jewish justice.