- MOSCOW -- A 69-year-old Russian
Israeli woman is beginning a six-year jail term in Israel because of helping
her granddaughter leave the occupied territories.
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- Isabella Belfer is the oldest person to be sent to prison
in Israel and could spend the rest of her life behind bars, <http://Alalalm.ir>Alalalm.ir
reported.
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- Isabella has been convicted of helping her daughter kidnap
her granddaughter and take her out of Israel .
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- "The punishment is harsher than I think it should
be. A woman of her age, of her health condition, who is a grandmother,
should never have been punished this harshly," Tzion Amir, a leading
Israeli lawyer, said.
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- The case was brought to the courts by Isabella's son-in-law
Yaron Rotem who was married to her daughter, Marina, for two years. The
couple had a daughter, Lilach, whom Isabella took to Russia to her mother.
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- Yaron claims that he doesn't want to "take Lilach
out of Marina 's hands", but says that if Marina doesn't come back
to Israel , her mother should go to jail.
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- Belfer had hoped until the last moment it wouldn't happen
but despite her age, health, and doing what she still believes was the
right thing to do, she is going to jail.
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- "I feel very weak, both morally and physically.
I understand that in the end I am going to jail. The question is how long
I will survive there or if I will die straight away," said the convicted
grandmother.
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- "I would never in my life have imagined that I could
go to prison. There is a Russian saying that you can never run away from
prison or poverty. I never thought it could be said about me," Belfer
said.
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- Israel has witnessed a significant drop in immigrations
after 1999 and has set laws to stop migration out of the occupation lands.
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- In 1999 nearly 77,000 from all over the world immigrated
to Israel , but the rate continued to decline and in 2006 only less than
20,000 entered there.
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- Israeli officials are also worried about the decline
in the patriotism of Jewish youth. A poll conducted by the Institute for
Policy and Strategy at the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center showed 44
percent of them would seriously think of leaving Israel if it would result
in an improved standard of living abroad.
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- The Israeli regime has an estimated population of 7.1
million, with over 3 million immigrants that entered the occupied territories
since 1948.
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- http://www.iran-daily.com/1386/3051/html
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