Finally, at 2:00pm today (Monday), the Ohr Commission Report was handed to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and President Moshe Katsav, after which the contents were formally released for publication.
The build-up to the release of the report was intense. Since yesterday, police had been reassuring the public that they will be ready for any possible violent reactions in the Arab community; the commission issued warnings to 14 public figures, including former Prime Minister Ehud Barak and former public security Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami, indicating that its findings may be hurtful to them; journalists who had arrived to cover the publication of the report had their cellular phones confiscated by security guards until such time as the report was officially released; and the High Court of Israel was called upon to decide if security arrangements had to be made for retired Supreme Court Justice Theodore Ohr, who headed the commission.
The Ohr Commission, it will be recalled, was charged with investigating the progression of events leading to the Israeli-Arab riots of October 2000, finding their causes, and determining who was to blame. The riots broke out at the start of the Oslo War, and involved several days of Arabs blocking off major highways, beating Jews in and out of their cars, firebombs, stonings, and arson against Jewish targets - and the killing of 13 Israeli Arabs by police in the heavily Arab-populated northern region of the country.
Then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak was censured in the Ohr Commission Report for failing to "consider the strategic importance" of the possible reactions of Arab Israelis at the time of the Oslo War. However, the commission did not have any operative recommendations regarding Barak, saying that, as a directly elected leader, he was subject to the court of public opinion. On the other hand, the commission censured then-Public Security Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami and recommended that he be barred from serving in a similar ministerial post in the future. The commission placed "indirect blame" for the deaths of the Israeli Arab citizens on Barak and Ben-Ami, pointing out their failures as senior government ministers.
Police Chief Yehudah Wilk and Northern District Chief Alik Ron are to be barred from senior public security positions in the future, according to the commissions recommendations. The commission explicitly accused the two senior officers of deceiving cabinet ministers and acting in an unacceptable fashion. Many other senior police officers responsible for the district and for the riot control measures taken at the time were also censured by the commission and barred from further security-related positions.
According to the report, a "culture... of deception" exists in the police department. The commission found that senior police officers had unjustifiedly permitted the use of police sharpshooters, without obtaining ministerial approval, and that the use of rubber-coated bullets against citizens was also done without justification. The Ohr Commission further took note that certain of the police officers who were called to testify before the commission were promoted while still under investigation. In addition to its own conclusions, the commission recommended an Internal Affairs investigation.
Knesset members Azmi Bishara and Abdulmalik Dehamshe, as well as former Umm el-Fahm Mayor Raed Salah (currently on trial for unrelated charges of financially aiding terrorist gangs) were criticized in the report for making public statements that led to an escalation of the situation, yet no operative recommendations were made regarding them. As public figures, but holding no executive positions, they will be judged by the public, the report stated.
The Ohr Commission also noted what it found to be a major contributing factor to the outbreak of violence in the Arab community: discrimination in land use and other areas. The commission found that the police department treats Arab Israelis not as equal citizens, but as "enemies of the state." Thus, police officers used far harsher measures against the Arab rioters than during other protests by Jews. To end this discriminatory behavior, the report recommended, the prime minister must take the matter into his personal purview.