The order was given last week in response to a petition brought by Shurat HaDin – Israel Law Center against the government and the Jewish Agency on behalf of the families of the missing Jews.
Chief Justice Aharon Barak directed government attorneys to have a representative of the Mossad (Israel’s foreign intelligence agency) provide testimony before the Court at a closed hearing scheduled for March 17, 2005.
The 12 missing Jews disappeared in the course of clandestine operations conducted by the Jewish Agency to smuggle them out of Iran during the years 1994-97. The escape route required the Jews to cross a desolate section of the Iranian border with Pakistan, and to rendezvous with Israeli agents on the other side. The twelve Jews in question never arrived at the designated meeting place in Pakistan, and since then their families have never been able to obtain reliable information concerning their whereabouts.
The families believe that the vanished Jews are alive and being held incommunicado by the Iranian government. Shurat HaDin reports that some of the families have received scattered reports of “sightings” of their loved ones in Iranian prisons by former prisoners. Several of those missing were teenagers at the time of their attempted escape. Others are married men with children, whose wives are now categorized as “agunot” and cannot remarry.
Among the missing Jews are two brothers of Benny Karamani of Israel, Avraham and Koresh, in their 40's. Benny has said that Israel's strategy was not to publicize the story, "because that would 'harm the efforts.' But what harm could be caused? Our relatives have disappeared, no one is taking an interest in their fate, there is no sign of life, and all our requests to the authorities to do something have accomplished nothing. I have no doubt that their fate is the same as Ron Arad - alive and held in prison in Iran, with no one in the world knowing of their existence."
The families' petition to the Supreme Court was based on their suspicion that Israel was in fact doing nothing or little. They therefore demand that the government be compelled to reveal what steps have been taken to date to locate the missing Jews. In response to the petition, Shurat HaDin reports, "government lawyers filed a laconic one-page brief, void of any details, which merely assured the High Court that the government is was working diligently on the matter. The judges of the High Court, who normally accept government declarations at face value, expressed shock at the government’s flippant and pro forma response, and ordered that an intelligence official appear in court on March 17, 2005, to explain exactly what search and rescue efforts are being carried out. "
Chief Justice Aharon Barak directed government attorneys to have a representative of the Mossad (Israel’s foreign intelligence agency) provide testimony before the Court at a closed hearing scheduled for March 17, 2005.
The 12 missing Jews disappeared in the course of clandestine operations conducted by the Jewish Agency to smuggle them out of Iran during the years 1994-97. The escape route required the Jews to cross a desolate section of the Iranian border with Pakistan, and to rendezvous with Israeli agents on the other side. The twelve Jews in question never arrived at the designated meeting place in Pakistan, and since then their families have never been able to obtain reliable information concerning their whereabouts.
The families believe that the vanished Jews are alive and being held incommunicado by the Iranian government. Shurat HaDin reports that some of the families have received scattered reports of “sightings” of their loved ones in Iranian prisons by former prisoners. Several of those missing were teenagers at the time of their attempted escape. Others are married men with children, whose wives are now categorized as “agunot” and cannot remarry.
Among the missing Jews are two brothers of Benny Karamani of Israel, Avraham and Koresh, in their 40's. Benny has said that Israel's strategy was not to publicize the story, "because that would 'harm the efforts.' But what harm could be caused? Our relatives have disappeared, no one is taking an interest in their fate, there is no sign of life, and all our requests to the authorities to do something have accomplished nothing. I have no doubt that their fate is the same as Ron Arad - alive and held in prison in Iran, with no one in the world knowing of their existence."
The families' petition to the Supreme Court was based on their suspicion that Israel was in fact doing nothing or little. They therefore demand that the government be compelled to reveal what steps have been taken to date to locate the missing Jews. In response to the petition, Shurat HaDin reports, "government lawyers filed a laconic one-page brief, void of any details, which merely assured the High Court that the government is was working diligently on the matter. The judges of the High Court, who normally accept government declarations at face value, expressed shock at the government’s flippant and pro forma response, and ordered that an intelligence official appear in court on March 17, 2005, to explain exactly what search and rescue efforts are being carried out. "