Who is Daniel Pinner?

Who is Daniel Pinner and why is the Israeli government treating him like a rat? From Israel National News:

Daniel Pinner of Kfar Tapuach, has been imprisoned since June on charges that his self-defense shots wounded a Gush Katif Arab. He will remain in prison for at least another month, a High Court justice ruled.

Though the evidence against him is weak, his attorney Baruch Ben-Yosef says, no judge in Israel has beeen willing to release him even to a form of house arrest. The latest to hear an appeal on this issue was Supreme Court Justice Eliezer Rivlin, Thursday, Dec. 22. "It looked at first like he saw through the whole story [and would release him to house arrest]," Ben-Yosef said, "but in the end, the usual happened... [The judge] said that the case is almost over, and things like that."

"My client admits that he fired," Ben-Yosef sums up the case, "but not at the Arab in question - and there is no proof that it was his bullet that hit him."

Pinner, 38 and unmarried, was in Gush Katif to volunteer his services as a licensed electrician in refurbishing the Palm Beach Hotel in the last weeks of the the Jewish presence there. He was taking a walk on the beach when "about 50 Arabs throwing rocks attacked me," he recently told IsraelNationalRadio's Avi Hyman. "I was carrying an Uzi, so I shot in the air. After a few yards they began throwing rocks again, so I fired several more shots in the air. The Arabs then backed off, and I went back to the hotel. Four days later I was arrested at home, with the police claiming that I had shot one of the Arabs and wounded him. First they said in the chest, later it turned out that there was an Arab who claimed to have been shot in the leg. Because of that I am in jail almost six months."

Pinner insists that his life was "clearly in danger."

The case is being heard by Be'er Sheva District Court Justice Rachel Barkai. In this week's hearing, she told both sides to present written summations - unless they wanted to limit themselves to a 10-minute oral presentation. Both sides said that ten minutes would be far from sufficient to sum up a months-long case. The prosecution will therefore present its summation within ten days, followed ten days later by the defense. A verdict is expected on January 24.

Asked earlier this month why he thinks he is still in prison despite his innocence, Pinner said, "At every stage the judges continue to claim that I am a danger to society. I think the real reason I am still in jail is that at the very first hearing, all those months ago, I was denied any legal representation, held incommunicado for five days, and there was a total news blackout on the basis of a request from the Shabak [General Security Service]... My arrest was extended ten days originally, then fifteen and so on and so on, based on a secret Shabak report which I have not seen and probably will never see."

Daniel Pinner said he would appreciate messages from supporters via voicemail at 03-906-8079 (+972-3-906-8079 from outside Israel) or by regular mail at: Daniel Pinner- Maasiyahu Prison, POB 13 72100, Disengagement Wing.

He asks for prayers for Daniel Moshe Tzvi ben (son of) Channah Malka Fayge.