The High Court rejected Tuesday a petition by terror victims' group Almagor and bereaved parents to remove the censorship over details of the impending deal for the release of captive IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.
The petitioners claimed that the mechanism set by the High Court in previous prisoner deals, in which the names of prisoners to be released are published 48 hours before the release in order to enable objections to be heard, is unacceptable regarding the current deal. They explained that the number of terrorist prisoners to be released in the impending deal is especially large and therefore, 48 hours would be insufficient for studying the individual names, compiling objections to the deal and presenting them to the public and the court.
Attorney Naftali Wurzberger, who represented the petitioners, told the court that the decision making process must be transparent, as is proper in democratic proceedings. The military censorship, he said, prevents free discussion of the subject. The situation in which Israel's enemies and other states possess the information but Israel does not is unacceptable, he added.
The State said in response that while the law grants victims of crimes and their relatives the right to receive information about impending pardons of the criminals, the right does not pertain in this case because this is not an ordinary criminal pardon. The State's representative said that the reasons that make it impossible to give details of the negotiations are themselves secret and can only be given to the judges behind closed doors, without the presence of the petitioners.
The High Court judges rejected the petition. “Despite the pain and the sorrow,” they wrote, “the situation and fate of the State of Israel force its citizens and leaders to face the duty of dealing with the most difficult and painful decisions regarding human lives.”