http://www3.haaretz.co.il/eng/scripts/article.asp?id=48523&mador=4
Ha'aretz, June 11, 1999
Not only in Iran
By Orit Shohat, Ha'aretz
These days, when we talk about the rule of law, as
if everyone, apart from those who voted Shas, was
irreproachable, it is worth drawing attention to the
injustices committed under the very aeges of that
law. Shocking things are going on, and not only in
Iran.
Here, too, we have people who have been kidnapped
from their homes and sent to jail for no reason, or
for something unconnected to them or anything they
did. One unsettling example is that of 21 Lebanese
citizens who are being held in Israel only because
one day they may be used as a bargaining chip in
exchange for missing Israeli navigator Ron Arad.
It would be hard to find a graver case of injustice
rubber-stamped by the Supreme Court. All the
hostages, with the exception of two, were taken at
random during the course of IDF operations in
Lebanon. Five of them were kidnapped because they
were at Sheikh Obeid's house when Israel troops
arrived. One of them had merely come to seek the
sheikh's blessing on his wedding day. Two were 15
years old when they were spirited away.
No one knew the names of the hostages before they
were brought to Israel. None of them were on any
kind of wanted list. Most of the hostages have been
sitting in jail for 13 years. Some were tried for
belonging to a resistance organization in South
Lebanon, but after serving their sentences, they
have remained in prison as bargaining chips.
They are locked up in a special wing at Ayalon
prison, as if there were reason to be afraid of
them. The only reason to be afraid is that someone
will find out about this shameful business, best
hidden from the eyes of the world. If Hezbollah ever
kidnapped Israelis to get them back, our protests
would rock heaven and earth.
From time to time, attorney Zvi Rish approaches
Judge Uri Goren, to discuss prison conditions: how
many minutes can they spend on the phone with their
families in Lebanon, are they permitted to watch
television in their own language, etc. There is no
point in talking about visits, of course.
The enforced separation from their families is
justified on security grounds - although no one is
saying the prisoners pose a security risk. The state
is trying to claim that they are POWs, although they
were not taken prisoner while engaging in military
activity. The High Court judges are uncomfortable
with this definition, but not enough to find in
their favor. District court judges have already
ordered their release twice, but the state appealed
and succeeded in blocking the order.
The bench has already been extended to nine
justices, but no end is yet in sight. At first,
there were only Aharon Barak, Yaakov Kedmi and Dalia
Dorner. Dorner said she was not convinced that
releasing the hostages would ruin the chances of
bringing home Israeli POWs. Barak and Kedmi ruled
otherwise.
While Barak agreed that holding a person as a
bargaining chip was a serious violation of human
rights, he felt that this "painful violation" was
unavoidable in the current reality. And so the years
go by, as 21 hostages grow old in their prison
cells. Ron Arad has not been found. One of the
hostages was institutionalized in a psychiatric
hospital, but even these circumstances did not
warrant his release.
This week, as Israel appealed to the Pope with
regard to the Jews arrested in Iran, and Natan
Sharansky cried about how their human rights were
being trampled upon, the district court convened
once again to discuss how many minutes the Lebanese
hostages may talk on the phone.
They have not even eaten meat in years because they
insist on meat slaughtered by Muslims, in keeping
with the Shi'ite custom. How can it be that nine
Supreme Court justices, whose reputation and honor
we protect every day from the attacks of Rabbi
Ovadia Yosef, sit on the bench and cannot see what
is obvious even to the smallest child? How can it be
that 21 people are being held as pawns in a game
that may never be played, and the courts cannot
reach a decision to set them free? Maybe the reason
is that after 13 years, some excuse must be found to
justify this fiasco.
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