Posted on 12/07/2003 2:55:00 PM PST by Nachum
“Noam Federman is the only Israeli citizen in administrative detention today,” Attorney Naftali Wurtzberger told IsraelNationalNews.com today. “He is the test balloon gauging the effectiveness of administrative detention as a tool to quash opposition to the destruction of Yesha towns."
“Noam Federman is the only Israeli citizen in administrative detention today,” Attorney Naftali Wurtzberger told IsraelNationalNews.com in an interview today. “He is the test balloon,” Wurtzberger added, as way of gauging the effectiveness of using administrative detention as a tool to quash opposition to the destruction of Yesha towns.
Wurtzberger noted that the Yediot Acharonot newspaper recently carried an interview with four men who headed Israel’s powerful security organization, the Shabak (General Security Service). In the interview, one of the former security chiefs said that Israel was going to need to uproot Jewish neighborhoods in Yesha (Judea, Samaria and Gaza) and resistance from the residents is expected. The ex-Shabak head suggested, “Treat them like Arabs throw fifteen of them in administrative detention and the rest will go quietly.”
“Administrative detention,” explained Wurtzberger, “is specifically intended for use in an emergency situation, as part of the war against terrorist leaders and in cases where intelligence information points to a terrorist preparing to commit an attack.”
“Even the head of the Islamic Movement, Sheikh Ra’ad Salah - accused of raising funds for Hamas - did not receive administrative detention, but only a restraining order preventing him from leaving the country,” said Wurtzberger. “Even the restraining order came only after evidence linking him to Hamas was presented.”
Wurtzberger points out that administrative detention is not even used in murder cases, when guilt is sometimes widely known but procedural evidence is lacking. “When police and prosecutors know that someone like Israeli crime-boss Zev Rosenstein is responsible for commissioning several murders, directly and indirectly,” Wurtzberger said, “no exception is made from the normal legal process by which such a man is allowed to roam free until solid evidence is brought against him.” Rosenstein was in fact released from prison today, pending the continuation of the legal process against him.
“That is the price of a democratic judicial system, which Israel is willing to pay except in the case of Noam Federman, who was placed in harsh solitary conditions without a trial,” said Wurtzberger.
IsraelNationalNews.com asked Attorney Wurtzberger why judges have not acted against the use of administrative detention. He answered that the judges have traditionally responded to GSS requests with a “rubber stamp” of approval.
“The only way a judge can issue a real verdict is after hearing both sides present arguments and evidence,” Wurtzberger said. “If the GSS comes and presents one-sided secret evidence, the judge does not have the tools to pursue the truth and therefore relies automatically on the GSS, granting all its requests.”
There have been exceptions. “The freeing of Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburg from administrative detention was a very exceptional case,” said Wurtzberger, “in which the judge ruled that the reasons given for his detention were exaggerated.” The GSS had claimed that the rabbi’s students might read his works and commit acts of vengeance against Arabs. The judge ruled that the claim was exaggerated and ordered him released. “That case was a very rare one, though,” stressed Wurtzberger, “as usually the judges automatically approve all GSS requests.”
Moshe Feiglin, head of the Jewish Leadership faction within the Likud, sent a sharply worded letter to Defense Minister Sha’ul Mofaz today, criticizing the Defense Minister’s decision to jail Federman:
“It is perhaps ridiculous to make a request regarding Federman to a minister who, instead of administratively detaining Muhammad Dahlan [who was responsible for the attack on a school bus in Gush Katif, killing two teachers and costing three young siblings their legs], met with him on equal terms and gave him ‘responsibility for security’ - a gamble which ended only after 84 people had died and another 399 had been wounded.
“It is perhaps uncalled for to approach a defense minister who supported the release of hundreds of terrorists who will return to murder Israelis.
“It is perhaps meaningless to write to a minister who implements Peace Now policy by uprooting ‘illegal’ outposts, while at the same time refusing to give approval to the formal process of their authorization.
“In fact, it is perhaps useless to approach a minister who has made himself into a doormat for the person who can advance his political career, a minister who has abandoned every national value in the hope of improving his chances in the Likud leadership stakes.
“I shall therefore not approach you as Defense Minister, but as someone who only recently joined the Likud and aspires to lead it.
"Are you aware that the regulation that you invoked when you signed the administrative detention order for Noam Federman, is one enacted during the British Mandate against veterans of the underground movements, who later established the very Likud party that you wish to lead?
“Are you aware that one of the underground heroes who was arrested administratively and exiled to Eritrea by the British in accordance with this Draconian regulation, was none other than Noam Federman's father?
“Are you aware that the sole Israeli currently administratively detained is not one of the Israeli-Arabs who are collaborating with the enemy and urging on the suicide bombers, but a Jew loyal to his country, Noam Federman, a resident of Hebron?
“Do you understand the significance to Israeli democracy of the detention of a citizen, without an indictment, without a defense counsel, and without knowing what he is charged with?”
About 100 friends and supporters of Federman demonstrated outside the Ashmoret Prison on Saturday night demanding he be released.
Federman has maintained a hunger strike for 50 days and has lost over 40 pounds. Visitors report that he appears very weak and is no longer able to stand on his own. Prison officials refuse to give him vitamins or milk as was recommended by a doctor who examined him. He is surviving on tap water alone.
This reeks of (well, it isn't Democracy) and if the JBT trends continue, we won't be able read about on A7 anymore either.
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