I do so wish that I didn't feel the need to write this particular piece.
Unfortunately, I must tell you that Israelis still live under the threat of Administrative Detention, a legal instrument left over from British Mandate days.
No doubt, Administrative Detention was and is a reasonable and legitimate legal instrument in times of riots and terrorism. There is no other way to detain, for any length of time, a large number of suspects involved in acts of extreme violence against the State. Following all normal court procedures in such circumstances would paralyze the legal system and help potential killers.
What is Administrative Detention? Individuals may be imprisoned by the State without due process, without being charged, or even without being informed what their crime might be. Such individuals don't have to be brought before a judge, and are often not allowed to have their day in court. They are not entitled to the usual free society rules, which render all suspects innocent until proven otherwise.
The agency in Israel that uses this tool of Administrative Detention is Israel's General Secret Service, the Shabak (also called the Shin Bet).
Since the rebirth of the Jewish State, the Shabak has used this tool in what many think is a rampant denial of civil rights. I want to mention three well known cases of such abuse of Administrative Detention in the State of Israel.
In 1995, a Kiryat Arba resident, Shmuel Cytryn, who had served in the Golani brigade in the Lebanon war and had no criminal record whatsoever, was arrested - a month after the Rabin assassination - and jailed under an Administrative Detention order.
According to the Jerusalem weekly Kol Ha'ir, Cytryn's crime might have been that he irritated the General Security Service by being the first to charge that Avishai Raviv was a Shabak agent and provocateur. This he did three months before Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's assassination, and well before Raviv was exposed as an agent for the Shabak, whose particular assignment was to discredit the national religious camp. Shmuel Cytryn's family believed that the reason that their son and husband was arrested and isolated in jail was to prevent him from publicizing details of Avishai Raviv's activities.
Because of public outcry by civil libertarians, both in Israel and the United States, Shmuel Cytryn was finally granted a court hearing. "We don't have the slightest idea what the man has been detained for, even in a general sense," Cytryn's lawyer told the court, asking the judge to examine the classified evidence against Cytryn and to enlighten his client.
After doing so, the head of the court, Justice Aharon Barak, said that Cytryn was being held because of "an extremist world view and extreme statements, which, in the estimation of the security services, could lead with relative ease to acts that would endanger the security of the region."
Cytryn's lawyer responded, "This is something for which it is forbidden to put someone in Administrative Detention. A man is permitted to have twisted opinions, as long as he does not incite."
After the Justices left the room to examine the classified evidence, Cytryn began screaming at his guards. "Why are you doing this? Because I said the General Security Service is responsible for Prime Minister Rabin's death?"
At the end of the hearing, Cytryn asked to make a statement to the court, in which he attacked the reliability of the classified evidence, noting that anyone could spread lies and have them entered into the GSS file on him.
"I don't intend to eat anymore," he said, his voice choking with tears. "I see no reason that I should be in this position. I have a family that has been destroyed? I am not willing to accept any compromise. I am not a terrorist."
Another glaring example of Administrative Detention abuse was the arrest and imprisonment of a prominent and highly respected rabbi, Yitzhak Ginsburgh, on charges of incitement to violence and endangerment of public safety. The Administrative Detention order was signed by then-Minister of Defense Shimon Peres. Rabbi Ginsburgh was the head of Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva in Shchem (Nablus), which was located next to the Jewish holy site of the Tomb of Yosef, the son of the patriarch Yaakov.
A Jerusalem Post editorial of March 19, 1996, expressed the belief that the Government was not concerned about incitement, but rather wanted to dismantle Rabbi Ginsburgh's Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva, because it felt that this was a politically awkward site and a security burden. (The sad result of this government attitude was that Joseph's Tomb and the adjacent Yeshiva were shamefully abandoned under a violent attack by the Arabs in the year 2000. Unfortunately, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has not reclaimed this holy site, which, even under the Oslo Accords, belongs to the Jews and the State of Israel.)
The latest victim of Administrative Detention abuse is Noam Federman, a 34-year-old man with a wife and seven children, the oldest twelve years old and the youngest, one year old. He has literally been whisked away from his family and imprisoned in solitary confinement since September 22 of this year, without being charged. He has been put in a cell block together with Arab terrorist murderers, who continually shout threats against his life.
To protest his incarceration, Noam Federman has started a hunger strike. He has already lost 20 kilos (44 pounds), because he is only consuming liquids. His wife, Elisheva, has asked that these liquids be either milk or juice in order that he have some nourishment, but her request has been denied. She has further requested that a doctor be allowed to examine him. This request has been denied as well by the Shabak. No one is allowed to visit him in prison, not even Elisheva. She has seen him only twice since his imprisonment, once during the Sukkot holiday, and one other time when the court ordered that he be allowed to attend his daughter's Bat Mitzvah celebration for two hours. On both these occasions Noam Federman was in handcuffs and leg-irons, and chained to a Shabak agent, so that he could not have a private conversation with anyone, including his wife.
Noam Federman is a law school graduate, but is forbidden to practice law. Some people believe that the reason for Federman's imprisonment is that he has published a booklet that advises people who are arrested by the Shabak, amongst other authorities, of their legal rights, such as being silent when interrogated.
The cases of Shmuel Cytryn, Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsburgh and Noam Federman are a sad commentary on the civil rights of Jewish Israeli citizens.
Convicted Arab terrorist murderers are being released in groups of hundreds, allowing them to immediately organize further attacks and to once again kill Jews. Jewish citizens, on the other hand, are put in Administrative Detention for political reasons by a government fearful of popular protest.
It is one thing to use emergency wartime regulations to fight the country's enemies and preserve its security interests, and quite another to employ them arbitrarily to intimidate political opponents.
A note to civil libertarians: To protest abuses of civil rights only when leftists and Palestinians are affected is to mock justice. To arbitrarily throw Noam Federman in jail is to mock democracy.
Join us in demanding: Charge Noam Federman or free him!
Or you may well ask yourself: Who is next?
What can you do to help obtain justice for Noam Federman? Telephone, fax or email Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at: Tel: 02-670-5555; Fax: 02-566-4838; Email: webmaster@pmo.gov.il.
Administrative Detention orders must be signed by the Defense Minister. Shaul Mofaz, who is the current Defense Minister, signed Noam Federman's detention order. Telephone, fax or email Shaul Mofaz at: Tel: 03-6976663; Fax: 03-6976218; Email: sar@mod.gov.il.
[Note: On the Shabak, I recommend that you read the book Lies - Israel's Secret Service and the Rabin Assassination, by David Morrison.]
Unfortunately, I must tell you that Israelis still live under the threat of Administrative Detention, a legal instrument left over from British Mandate days.
No doubt, Administrative Detention was and is a reasonable and legitimate legal instrument in times of riots and terrorism. There is no other way to detain, for any length of time, a large number of suspects involved in acts of extreme violence against the State. Following all normal court procedures in such circumstances would paralyze the legal system and help potential killers.
What is Administrative Detention? Individuals may be imprisoned by the State without due process, without being charged, or even without being informed what their crime might be. Such individuals don't have to be brought before a judge, and are often not allowed to have their day in court. They are not entitled to the usual free society rules, which render all suspects innocent until proven otherwise.
The agency in Israel that uses this tool of Administrative Detention is Israel's General Secret Service, the Shabak (also called the Shin Bet).
Since the rebirth of the Jewish State, the Shabak has used this tool in what many think is a rampant denial of civil rights. I want to mention three well known cases of such abuse of Administrative Detention in the State of Israel.
In 1995, a Kiryat Arba resident, Shmuel Cytryn, who had served in the Golani brigade in the Lebanon war and had no criminal record whatsoever, was arrested - a month after the Rabin assassination - and jailed under an Administrative Detention order.
According to the Jerusalem weekly Kol Ha'ir, Cytryn's crime might have been that he irritated the General Security Service by being the first to charge that Avishai Raviv was a Shabak agent and provocateur. This he did three months before Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's assassination, and well before Raviv was exposed as an agent for the Shabak, whose particular assignment was to discredit the national religious camp. Shmuel Cytryn's family believed that the reason that their son and husband was arrested and isolated in jail was to prevent him from publicizing details of Avishai Raviv's activities.
Because of public outcry by civil libertarians, both in Israel and the United States, Shmuel Cytryn was finally granted a court hearing. "We don't have the slightest idea what the man has been detained for, even in a general sense," Cytryn's lawyer told the court, asking the judge to examine the classified evidence against Cytryn and to enlighten his client.
After doing so, the head of the court, Justice Aharon Barak, said that Cytryn was being held because of "an extremist world view and extreme statements, which, in the estimation of the security services, could lead with relative ease to acts that would endanger the security of the region."
Cytryn's lawyer responded, "This is something for which it is forbidden to put someone in Administrative Detention. A man is permitted to have twisted opinions, as long as he does not incite."
After the Justices left the room to examine the classified evidence, Cytryn began screaming at his guards. "Why are you doing this? Because I said the General Security Service is responsible for Prime Minister Rabin's death?"
At the end of the hearing, Cytryn asked to make a statement to the court, in which he attacked the reliability of the classified evidence, noting that anyone could spread lies and have them entered into the GSS file on him.
"I don't intend to eat anymore," he said, his voice choking with tears. "I see no reason that I should be in this position. I have a family that has been destroyed? I am not willing to accept any compromise. I am not a terrorist."
Another glaring example of Administrative Detention abuse was the arrest and imprisonment of a prominent and highly respected rabbi, Yitzhak Ginsburgh, on charges of incitement to violence and endangerment of public safety. The Administrative Detention order was signed by then-Minister of Defense Shimon Peres. Rabbi Ginsburgh was the head of Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva in Shchem (Nablus), which was located next to the Jewish holy site of the Tomb of Yosef, the son of the patriarch Yaakov.
A Jerusalem Post editorial of March 19, 1996, expressed the belief that the Government was not concerned about incitement, but rather wanted to dismantle Rabbi Ginsburgh's Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva, because it felt that this was a politically awkward site and a security burden. (The sad result of this government attitude was that Joseph's Tomb and the adjacent Yeshiva were shamefully abandoned under a violent attack by the Arabs in the year 2000. Unfortunately, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has not reclaimed this holy site, which, even under the Oslo Accords, belongs to the Jews and the State of Israel.)
The latest victim of Administrative Detention abuse is Noam Federman, a 34-year-old man with a wife and seven children, the oldest twelve years old and the youngest, one year old. He has literally been whisked away from his family and imprisoned in solitary confinement since September 22 of this year, without being charged. He has been put in a cell block together with Arab terrorist murderers, who continually shout threats against his life.
To protest his incarceration, Noam Federman has started a hunger strike. He has already lost 20 kilos (44 pounds), because he is only consuming liquids. His wife, Elisheva, has asked that these liquids be either milk or juice in order that he have some nourishment, but her request has been denied. She has further requested that a doctor be allowed to examine him. This request has been denied as well by the Shabak. No one is allowed to visit him in prison, not even Elisheva. She has seen him only twice since his imprisonment, once during the Sukkot holiday, and one other time when the court ordered that he be allowed to attend his daughter's Bat Mitzvah celebration for two hours. On both these occasions Noam Federman was in handcuffs and leg-irons, and chained to a Shabak agent, so that he could not have a private conversation with anyone, including his wife.
Noam Federman is a law school graduate, but is forbidden to practice law. Some people believe that the reason for Federman's imprisonment is that he has published a booklet that advises people who are arrested by the Shabak, amongst other authorities, of their legal rights, such as being silent when interrogated.
The cases of Shmuel Cytryn, Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsburgh and Noam Federman are a sad commentary on the civil rights of Jewish Israeli citizens.
Convicted Arab terrorist murderers are being released in groups of hundreds, allowing them to immediately organize further attacks and to once again kill Jews. Jewish citizens, on the other hand, are put in Administrative Detention for political reasons by a government fearful of popular protest.
It is one thing to use emergency wartime regulations to fight the country's enemies and preserve its security interests, and quite another to employ them arbitrarily to intimidate political opponents.
A note to civil libertarians: To protest abuses of civil rights only when leftists and Palestinians are affected is to mock justice. To arbitrarily throw Noam Federman in jail is to mock democracy.
Join us in demanding: Charge Noam Federman or free him!
Or you may well ask yourself: Who is next?
What can you do to help obtain justice for Noam Federman? Telephone, fax or email Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at: Tel: 02-670-5555; Fax: 02-566-4838; Email: webmaster@pmo.gov.il.
Administrative Detention orders must be signed by the Defense Minister. Shaul Mofaz, who is the current Defense Minister, signed Noam Federman's detention order. Telephone, fax or email Shaul Mofaz at: Tel: 03-6976663; Fax: 03-6976218; Email: sar@mod.gov.il.
[Note: On the Shabak, I recommend that you read the book Lies - Israel's Secret Service and the Rabin Assassination, by David Morrison.]