The late Prime Minister Golda Meir once said about the Palestinians, “We can forgive them for killing our children. We cannot forgive them from forcing us to kill their children.” In a similarly self-righteous vein Amos Harel and Chaim Levinson write in Monday’s Ha’aretz that should the “Jewish Terror” suspects persist in their refusal to incriminate themselves in the Duma Village arson case, in which three members of an Arab family perished, they may end up earning the dubious precedent of forcing Israel’s secret police to defy the 1999 Supreme Court ruling against torture, and to apply “exceptional interrogation means” against Jewish suspects.
In an analysis that stops just short of advocating the torture of a group of Jewish suspects against whom the investigators have no eyewitness testimony and no direct physical evidence. The newspaper that declares, among its principles: “Ha’aretz will strive to turn Israel as progressive as possible in the area of human rights” stated callously on Monday:
“After the removal of a partial gag order on the arrest of the suspects last Thursday, their attorneys protested the continued blackout imposed on details of the investigation itself, arguing that the Shabak is taking advantage of it to conceal the detainees, prevent them from contact with lawyers and family members, and question them in a harsh manner. It seems The following days will be critical in this context — and should they not achieve results, investigators may impose even harsher treatment of the suspects.”
And so, in the same article, the country’s leading leftist publication gives its approval—not even tacit approval at that—to the secret police violating a sanctified high court ruling against torture and to employing torture as a legitimate investigative tool against stubborn Jewish suspects who just won’t confess.
“The investigation means and the treatment of Jewish terror suspects have always been softer,” Harel and Levinson complain. They gave the example that while Palestinian terror suspects were receiving harsh physical treatment, the Jewish suspects were tortured by being read to choice segments from the literary section of Ha’aretz ro keep them awake. “In conversations with Shin Bet officials they repeated the claim that the measures used in investigations of Jews were less aggressive, and therefore less effective than those that were allowed in the interrogation of Palestinian suspects.
The Shabak has been frustrated by the fact that Jewish right wing activists have been conducting workshops where they teach young Jews how to survive Shabak interrogations without breaking down. A guide published 15 years ago by Rabbi Kahane follower Noam Federman of Hebron teaches young Jews that if they remain silent during interrogations, there’s no way the Shabak could incriminate them.
“But this time, what’s on the table appears to be more significant than in previous episodes,” Harel and Levinson emphasize. “Now there is an intersection of several interests, leading to greater pressure on investigators to quickly solve the Duma murder and bring indictments.”
The set of multiple pressures, according to the authors, is comprised of the repeated pledges on the part of Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Netanyahu, that Israel, as a state of law, will solve the case and punish the perpetrators; the fact that it’s the end of Shin Bet chief Yoram Cohen’s term in six months and he would like his future career not to dwindle in Duma’s shadow; and finally, probably the most important consideration, the Palestinians are eager to celebrate the fact that the Jews are also terrorists, and won’t accept any other outcome. Think Los Angeles burning after the acquittal of police suspects in the Rodney King trial.
Two issues have been cited by Arab politicians as the causes of the “knives intifada” of the past four months: the false news manufactured by the PA that Israel was preparing to overtake the al-Aksa mosque, and the certainty that it was Jews who burned alive the baby in Duma. Now imagine that same crowd’s reaction upon learning that Israel is unable to convict its own “terrorists.” And so, the Shabak’s motivation to convict some Jew and soon for the arson is very high. At which point sleeves will be rolled up and fists will do the investigating.
With Ha’aretz in the cheering section.