http://www3.haaretz.co.il/eng/scripts/article.asp?id=48292&mador=4
Wednesday, June 9, 1999
State-sanctioned sadism
By Amira Hass, Ha'aretz
Border policeman Eran Nakash is charged with
abusing Palestinians, some of them minors, on three
different occasions. The accusations include sexual
abuse. His arrest and indictment last week were
covered extensively by the media.The scope of the
coverage, which was unique in the number of items
published and the number of reporters involved,
could lead to three conclusions: One, that the
authorities meticulously enforce legal and moral
norms on the security forces in the occupied
territories; two, that the behavior the defendant is
charged with is extraordinarily severe; or three,
that the authorities view the suspicions against the
defendant very seriously.
But a closer examination of the Nakash file refutes
the first two conclusions. Nakash, 22, was arrested
on May 27 on suspicion of abusing three minor
detainees (aged 14, 15 and 16) on April 19. Two
other police officers allegedly watched him during
the incident.
The abuse was brought to the attention of the
minors' lawyer, Khaled Kuzmar, on April 27, only a
week after it occured, when the three youths were
brought before a military judge in Beit El for
arraignment.
They told the court that they were unable to move
for two days, while in detention and under
supervision, because of the beating they had
suffered.
The president of the Military Court, Lieutenant
Colonel Yoram Haniel, accepted the prosecution's
request and ordered the minors remanded, but he also
instructed the Binyamin district commander to
investigate the abuse claim and relay his findings
to the president of the appeals court and to the
Judea and Samaria military attorney general .
But either the military court did not bother to pass
this decision on, or none of the involved officials
took it seriously.
At any rate, Kuzmar learned that an investigation
was never launched. On May 24, Ha'aretz informed the
IDF spokesman of the details of the complaint. The
spokesman responded with admirable speed: Within two
days the border policemen on duty at the time were
identified; the matter was handed over to the
Justice Ministry department responsible for
investigating allegations against police officers;
and an order was issued for the suspect's arrest.
Only then was it revealed that Nakash was already
suspected of abusing another Palestinian one month
earlier at an IDF roadblock, and of abusing another
Palestinian detainee on the same day that the three
minors were allegedly beaten.
On May 22, at a roadblock south of Jerusalem, three
other border policemen allegedly beat two
Palestinians caught trying to enter Jerusalem
without a permit. At least one policeman watched
from the side and did not stop them. The Palestinian
complained, and the three policemen were suspended.
The suspension was reported in a few short lines in
the newspapers.
In mid-March an IDF soldier beat a Palestinian
detainee held at a detention facility at the Erez
crossing and broke his arm. The doctor at the
facility signed a document stating that the detainee
had injured himself in a fall. Another soldier,
appalled by what he saw, reported the incident to
the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. The
soldier suspected of the abuse was suspended from
his post. Apparently, this was not an isolated case.
Sources told Ha'aretz military correspondent Amos
Harel that they saw signs of "violence, improper
norms of detention and ignoring of military orders
and detainees' rights" at the facility.
Each of the cases of abuse detailed above was
witnessed by many people who did not bother to
report, let alone stop, the attackers.
How many other similar cases go by with no horrified
witness present, one who understands his duty as a
human being? How many cases are there in which the
victims prefer to remain silent?
Experience shows that in many cases, Palestinian
victims do not rush to complain. They cite past
incidents, telling of investigations that were
whitewashed or the guilty were given ridiculously
light sentences.
"Lighter" cases of abuse by members of the security
forces - such as slaps, kicks, verbal abuse or
detaining Palestinian residents at roadblocks for
hours under the hot sun - are an everyday occurence
in the territories.
It is easy to downplay the problem, attributing it
to this or that soldier or policeman's uniquely
violent personality. It is easy to forget that we
are dealing with an occupation mechanism seeped in
violence, which transmits to its soldiers and
policemen a sense of supposed superiority and a
disregard for the life and dignity of the
Palestinians.
Israel's security forces in the territories are
required to implement a policy and follow orders
which at their very core differentiate between Jews
and Palestinians: Members of this group are allowed
to live throughout the country and the state gives
them more and more of "its land" in the West Bank to
meet their "natural growth needs," while members of
this group are forbidden from planting olive trees
on their land in "area C" or adding another story to
their house for their children. These people are
allowed to drive across the country freely, while
these are forbidden to do so. Palestinians suspected
of throwing stones or caught working in Israel
without permits are held for months in detention
facilities.
The military courts impose much heavier sentences on
them than those imposed - if any - on soldiers and
policemen who have used the hierarchical order to
justify their outbursts of sadism
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