Waail el Arga and Ali Ismail Sa’adah of Halhoul, the two men accused
of murdering Asher Palmer and his baby son Yonatan in September, were
all smiles at the beginning of the hearing in the Ofer military
courtroom Sunday, as they chatted with relatives in a show of brazen
chutzpah.
Sa´adah refused to testify against el Arga, whom investigators see as
the ringleader, but the smile on el Arga´s face evaporated when a
judge asked Sa´adah asked to explain why he is afraid to testify: "My
family is here and so is [el Arga´s] family," Sa´adah said. "The
families are friendly with each other. If I testify, this could lead
to revenge."
The two have confronted each other over Sa´adah´s testimony in Shin
Bet interrogation – testimony which implicated el Arga in the murder
and placed him behind the wheel of the car when the rock that punched
through the windshield and hit Asher was thrown. This apparently
means that Sa´adah threw the rock, but this fact was not mentioned in
Sunday´s hearing, which concerned el Arga´s role.
Representatives from the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem were also
present at the court session, as they had promised to be. They
assured Michael Craig Palmer – father of Asher and grandfather of
Yonatan – that if the terrorists are not properly brought to justice
in Israel, charges will be filed against them in the United States as
well. Asher was an American citizen.
Friends of the Palmer family were on hand at the trial, and as in
past sessions, several of them held A4-sized photographs of Asher and
Yonatan on their laps. The murderers were upset about but when their
lawyer asked the judge to order the photographs put away, the judge
refused: "We are here because of Asher and Yonatan," he said. "This
trial is about them and they are allowed to be here too."
