October 2000 Law & Politics before the Or Commission of Inquiry By Marwan Dalal July 2003 ADALAH עדאלה Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel ﻋﺪاﻟﺔ- اﳌﺮﻛﺰ اﻟﻘﺎﻧﻮﻧﻲ ﳊﻘﻮق اﻷﻗﻠﻴﺔ اﻟﻌﺮﺑﻴﺔ ﻓﻲ إﺳﺮاﺋﻴﻞ 2 ����������������������������������������������� 3 4 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Adalah wishes to express its sincere gratitude to all of the experts, who provided thought- provoking analysis in their opinions and testimonies before the official Commission of Inquiry including Dr. Stephen Males, a world-renowned policing specialist introduced to the organization by Amnesty International; Dr. Ahmad Sa’adi, Ben Gurion University; Dr. Elias Atallah, Mar-Elias College; Professor Oren Yiftachel, Ben Gurion University; Professor Danny Rabinowitz, Tel Aviv University; Professor Nadim Rouhana, Tel Aviv University and MADA - Arab Center for Applied Social Science Research; and Professor Yoav Peled, Tel Aviv University. Attorneys Riad Anes, Azmie Odeh and Mahmoud Shahin greatly assisted Adalah staff attorneys with their work in the gathering of the large amount of evidence submitted to the Commission, as well as attending the proceedings of the Commission. Attorney Hassan Tbaja of Al-Meezan Association for Human Rights was extremely helpful during the second stage of the Commission’s proceedings. Adalah Attorneys Orna Kohn and Gadeer Nicola prepared files of evidence and worked before the Commission; Adalah Attorney Suhad Hammoud facilitated the team’s media work; and Adalah General Director, Attorney Hassan Jabareen coordinated the legal team. International advocacy work concerning the Commission’s proceedings were facilitated by many individuals both Adalah staff and interns including Adalah Attorney Jamil Dakwar, Farida Deif, Anne Massagee, Katie Taylor, and Jake Wadland. Adalah Development Director Rina Rosenberg coordinated this effort and contributed significantly to the preparation of this report. Translation and production of this report were also made possible due to the hard work of Adalah Publications Editors Ala Hlehel and Gabrielle Rubin. Adalah also wishes to extend appreciation to the High Follow-up Committee for the Arab Citizens in Israel for its public support for the legal work before the Commission. Above all, Adalah expresses appreciation to the families of the victims, who were able to restrain their pain, and who, during the Commission’s proceedings, bravely coped with the hardest loss possible, the loss of their loved ones, our loved ones. 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 5 6 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface 9 Background 11 Concluding Arguments I. Reasons for the October 2000 Protest Demonstrations 16 II. The Illegality of the Warnings 35 A. General Challenges to the Warnings 35 B. Specific Challenges to the Warnings 44 1. Introduction - The Political Leadership of the 44 Palestinian Minority 2. Sheikh Ra’ed Salah 46 3. MK ‘Abd al-Malek Dahamshe 58 4. MK Dr. Azmi Bishara 66 Epilogue 75 Appendices 79 1. The Commissions of Inquiry Law - 1968 81 2. The Mandate of the Official Commission of Inquiry 91 3. Decision of the Official Commission of Inquiry Regarding the Warning Letters 93 4. Adalah’s Motion for Standing for the Victims’ Families 107 5. Decision of the Official Commission of Inquiry Regarding Standing for the Victims’ Families 111 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS 7 8 9 PREFACE This report presents the key issues raised in the concluding arguments submitted by Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel to the official Commission of Inquiry into the October 2000 protest demonstrations (hereinafter “the Commission”) on 5 December 2002. The 191-page submission was filed on behalf of Members of Knesset (MKs) Dr. Azmi Bishara (National Democratic Assembly) and ‘Abd al-Malek Dahamshe (United Arab List), and the head of the Islamic Movement in Israel, Sheikh Ra’ed Salah. These three Arab elected representatives each received a warning letter from the Commission on 27 February 2002. The warning letters advise the recipients that they are likely to be harmed by the inquiry or its results. The pages that follow discuss the main reasons for the October 2000 protest demonstrations in Israel, which resulted in the killing of 13 unarmed Palestinian citizens of the state and the injury of hundreds of others by the police. The establishment of the Commission, its mandate, its proceedings, and the warnings it issued are also examined. The concluding arguments relied on the exhibits before the Commission, the protocols of all of the proceedings, as well as the supporting documents presented to it. The concluding arguments were not intended to cover all of the events of October 2000, and several important issues are not presented here. These issues deserve further research and analysis. The concluding arguments detail many of the acts and omissions of executive branch officials, both government ministers and police commanders, leading up to and during the protest demonstrations of October 2000, and the attempts made by these state authorities to cover up their failures. It also describes numerous instances of police violence against Palestinian citizens of Israel, both before and during October 2000, and refers to the central and negative role of the General Security Services (GSS) in setting state policy toward the Arab community. The main argument advanced by Adalah is that the issuance of the warnings by the Commission against the three Arab public representatives is illegal. Adalah also comprehensively refuted the allegations set forth by the Commission against them, and therefore argued that the content of the warnings should not be included in the final conclusions and recommendations of the Commission. Adalah published the concluding arguments in full in March 2003, with introductory remarks and other primary source documents. That volume, published in Hebrew, is also available from Adalah. 8 PREFACE 9 Welcome to the war game ‘Rouah Seaarah.’ "We are hosted and hosting all of you today in the Center for Police Education, and before 52 years, this area, which we are [on] now, was conquered by Division 7 and the Golani Division. The exact date was 14 July 1948. And here, 52 years later, we are almost dealing with the same issues, although not conquering the country, but preserving" it. Police statement at the opening of the war game ‘Rouah Seaarah,’ Shafa’amr, 6 September 2000. 10 11 BACKGROUND The October 2000 Protest Demonstrations in Israel In early October 2000, Palestinian citizens of Israel staged mass demonstrations in towns and villages throughout the country to protest the government’s oppressive policies against Palestinians in the 1967 Occupied Territories. These protests erupted soon after al-Aqsa Intifada began in the Occupied Territories, during which the Israeli army and security forces killed and injured scores of Palestinians. The protests in Israel developed and were directed shortly thereafter in opposition to the use of lethal force by the police against Palestinian citizens in Israel. During these demonstrations in Israel, the police and special police sniper units killed 13 unarmed Palestinian citizens of Israel and injured hundreds more using live ammunition, rubber-coated steel bullets (“rubber bullets”), and tear gas. The firing of live ammunition and rubber bullets at protestors, including the use of snipers, are all prohibited by law and even violate internal police regulations. Israeli Jewish citizens also attacked Palestinian citizens of Israel, their property and their holy sites in early October 2000. Close to 700 Palestinian citizens of Israel were arrested in connection with these events, and hundreds, including scores of minors, were indicted and detained without bond until the end of trial.1 The Establishment of the Commission On 22 October 2000, then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak appointed a Committee of Examination to: “(a) examine the clashes with the security forces in the state that included the involvement of Israelis, Arabs and Jews, beginning from 29 September 2000; and (b) examine what happened in the above mentioned events and the factors that led to the occurrence of these events at that time.”2 The families of the 13 Arab victims worked together with the Arab political leadership, non-governmental organizations, and academics to compel the government to dissolve the Committee of Examination and to establish an official Commission of Inquiry. There was grave concern that a Committee of Examination, lacking any legal powers or independence, would be unable to fully investigate the events, which brought about the deaths of 13 Palestinian citizens of Israel and the injury of hundreds of others. On 8 November 2000, the Israeli government decided to establish an official Commission 1 See Rina Rosenberg, “On the Collective Criminalization of Political Protestors,” 3 Adalah’s Review 9 (2002). 2 Letter of Appointment for the Committee of Examination, issued by Prime Minister Ehud Barak, dated 22 October 2000 (On file with Adalah, Hebrew). 10 BACKGROUND 11 of Inquiry in accordance with the Commissions of Inquiry Law - 1968.3 This law grants the Commission a wide range of powers to conduct the investigation, including the power to call and subpoena witnesses to appear and testify before it. On 15 November 2000, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Aharon Barak, appointed three members to the official Commission of Inquiry: Supreme Court Justice Theodore Or (Chairperson); Professor Shimon Shamir of Tel Aviv University, a former Israeli ambassador to Egypt and Jordan; and Deputy President of