Palestinian saves Israeli doctor
In an interview with Al-Monitor, a day laborer from the West Bank talks about saving the lives of an Israeli doctor and his son from an angry mob in his village.
Walid (an alias) had hoped that Justice Shammai Becker, a judge in the Tel Aviv Magistrate Court, would consider his circumstances and not impose a lengthy jail sentence on him. He had been caught staying in Israel illegally and carrying forged documents. He was on probation for committing the same offense, for which he had been tried in the past. Walid was shaking when he was brought into the courtroom to hear the verdict.
Even though he never denied the charges, he certainly never dared to dream that an Israeli judge in an Israeli court would not only forgo a prison sentence, but go so far as to describe him as a kind of "Righteous Among the Nations" (an honorific title describing non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews). But the judge did just that in recognition of Walid’s brave action in his village.
Walid’s greatest wish had been to receive a work permit in Israel, so that he could support his family. It now looks as if that wish is about to come true. Not only did the Tel Aviv Magistrate Court refuse to impose a prison sentence on him, Becker recommended to the authorities that Walid be granted an Israeli work permit, if only to compensate him in some small way for the risk he took while committing his brave act.
In an interview with Al-Monitor, Walid described the incident and his surprise at the verdict, but also his fear that he may be harmed by his own people, just because he physically saved an Israeli doctor who mistakenly entered his village. The only condition for this interview with Al-Monitor was that his name and the name of his village not be revealed.
