HOME

MORE ON PALESTINE

1world communication

MIDDLEEAST

E-MAIL0

Ehud Barak kicked off his election campaign at Abu Hassan, a restaurant in the village of Tira. The prime minister ate some hummus, and told folks how upset he was at the breakdown in relations between Jews and Arabs in Israel. "The time has come to renew the relationship with the Arabs of Israel," he said.

Three days later, Barak did just that, when in his role as defense minister, he signed an administrative detention order against Ghassan Mohammed Hassan Athamneh, an Arab Israeli from the Galilee village of Reina, near Nazareth. The order was issued because of Athamneh's alleged involvement in the October violence, in which 13 Arab citizens were killed in clashes with Israeli security forces.

Athamneh is the only Israeli citizen to be held in administrative detention during Barak's tenure as prime minister and defense minister. The previous detainee, whose identity has been forbidden from publication, was released two years ago. By law, the detention order is signed by the defense minister; the warrant must then be approved by the presiding judge of a district court.

Last Sunday, Nazareth District Court Judge Yehuda Abramovitz approved the State Prosecution request to issue the detention order. The order will keep Athamneh, 37, in administrative detention for six months.

Typically, most of the evidence amassed against the suspect remains classified. In fact, Athamneh's own attorney, Jamil Dakour of Adala (the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel) - who said he would appeal the judge's ruling to the Supreme Court - was able to peruse only a small portion of the evidence. Neither Dakour nor Athamneh have been told exactly why Athamneh was arrested.

"Since most of the evidence is classified, I don't even know what to defend against. I'm shooting in the dark in every possible direction," says Dakour. "If there is evidence, they should bring an indictment against him. If not, they should let him go."

Justice Minister Yossi Beilin is also against administrative detention: "Depriving a person of his freedom when he doesn't know what he is suspected of doing is extremely serious, even if there is judicial review," he says. "It is problematic in the territories, and even more so in Israel."

Beilin says he has no specific information on Athamneh. "I don't deal with case files, I only deal with trends. At present, there is only one administrative detainee within the Green Line. This indicates that the system does not use this dangerous tool in an irresponsible fashion."

Tomorrow, Saturday, Athamneh's family intends to demonstrate outside Kishon Prison, where he is being held. Athamneh's father, Mohammed, has met with Arab university students and told them about his son, insinuating that there is a connection between the arrest and the upcoming elections.

In the 1999 elections, 99.1 percent of Reina residents voted for Barak. On February 6, says Mohammed Athamneh, the residents will either cast a blank ballot or not vote at all. "For us, Barak no longer exists. He hurt us yesterday; we should forgive him today? We don't ask for a great deal, only peaceful coexistence and good neighborly relations. For years we voted Labor, and what did we get in return? Thirteen killed [by the Israel Police during the October clashes] and an administrative detainee. I ask God not to give us another bout of Barak as prime minister. Another one like this and God knows what will happen.

"If my son did anything," adds Athamneh, "let him be brought to trial. They should go public on whatever it is that he did. If he's guilty, I'm ready for him to be hanged, but with the way things are, I'm left without any legal course of action. Barak signed his name to the order without me even knowing what my son did, and the warrant was implemented by the 'good guys' who live on our land."

Ghassan Athamneh is married and has four sons ranging from six months to 10 years old. He was born in Reina, the first boy after five older sisters. After Ghassan, came four more boys and two girls. Two of the children live in houses next door to the parents. Ghassan himself is building a house on the outskirts of the village. Until it is finished, his family continues to live in a small, crowded apartment in his parent's home. His father, a contractor, is active in the Labor party.

"We're the second biggest clan in the village," explains Mohammed Athamneh. "There are a thousand voters in our clan. This fact alone was enough to draw us into political activity."

His oldest son was also drawn toward political activity: Ghassan was a member of the Sons of the Village movement, and was first arrested at age 17 for throwing stones at a bus passing through the village. Over the years, he has been held several times on administrative detention warrants, and has spent about a year in jail. In 1996, he joined Dr. Azmi Bishara's Balad (National Democratic Alliance) party, serving as a member of its central committee ever since the party was established. He was Balad's coordinator for the Nazareth district for three years. During the June 1999 elections, he was responsible for managing MK Bishara's daily agenda.

Last year, when the party ran out of money, Athamneh began volunteering his services to Balad. In order to support his family, he began working with his father in the construction business. All of this abruptly ended when he was arrested. The authorities have placed a ban on publication of the exact date of arrest - but not on the circumstances.

"They came at 1:30 at night," relates Athamneh senior. "They surrounded the house, handcuffed Ghassan, searched everywhere - even took the baby out of his crib so they could search it - as if it were some criminal they were arresting."

Athamneh is still astounded that his son was arrested. "He's a father of four, he's building a new house, he goes with the flow of whatever life sends his way. He has no interest in doing anything illegal."

Balad officials are positive that Athamneh's arrest is politically motivated. "They're taking revenge for his political activity. That's why he was singled out," says MK Azmi Bishara. "We think they marked out a member of the central committee, tried to indict him and when they were unable to find evidence, decided to place him in administrative detention. He told me they interrogated him about his connections with me. As I see it, it was meant as a message to Balad, a statement that 'we can hurt you.'"

Bishara says that he has known Athamneh for four years: "He impressed us with his astute political awareness. We have no doubt whatsoever that he works in accordance with the party line, which is a legal line. We believe in upholding Arab national identity and full equality. We want Israel to be a state of all its citizens. He is completely convinced of this, although he is more pragmatic than others. He has been arrested now because he was under administrative detention in the past, so it was easier to mark him."

Yael Lerer got to know Athamneh during the 1999 elections, as spokesperson of Balad. "Over the last few weeks of the election campaign, we would spend long days together, traveling all over the country," she relates.

"Ghassan is the sort of person you can trust, a man of his word, a guy you can rely on to bring people from one place to another, organize a demonstration, work 24 hours a day and do it with an ever-present smile on his face. When he was arrested, I had the feeling it was intended to frighten people. The Shin Bet tried to attribute responsibility for the Intifada demonstrations to Balad activists. Detainees reported that they were subjected to political interrogations.

"Balad is a legitimate political party, and the obvious question here is whether Balad's thoughts and ideas were annoying someone. Some members of the establishment believe that Balad should be banned. Petitions against Balad were brought before the High Court of Justice and the registrar of political parties in both '96 and '99. Based on that sort of atmosphere, it is not at all inconceivable that someone is trying to use scare tactics on the party.

"Ghassan is a big, strong man," she adds. "I'm sure he won't break, but I personally find his arrest very frightening, because you start with Athamneh's arrest and you don't know where it's going to end."

David Ziso, spokesman to the defense minister, offers this response: "This is a case of a preventive warrant issued after material was presented to the defense minister that indicated there was a danger to national security, and at the same time, an inability - for various reasons - to move ahead with criminal court proceedings at this time. The arrest order was signed following consultation with, and the approval of, the State Prosecutor's office. From the outset, administrative detention is subject to continual judicial review."

Judge Abramovitz of the Nazareth District Court said this week that after considering alternatives to administrative detention, he determined that this was the only means for preventing or sabotoging what he characterized as Athamneh's "plots." The judge wrote in his ruling: "I was convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that if Athamneh is allowed to go free and do as he pleases, it would represent a serious, real and significant danger to the security of the state and to the public."

Prof. Mordechai Kremnitzer is now working on a position paper for the Israel Democracy Institute on administrative detention.

"The rationale for administrative detention seem pretty flimsy to me," he comments. "In principle, justifications for it refer to actions the person hasn't taken yet. As a rule, a legal system infringes on the rights of individuals as a result of acts they have already committed.

"Authorities resort to administrative detention when they have problems presenting evidence, especially when they are not willing to reveal their intelligence sources, and therefore prefer not to proceed with a criminal trial. But when they decline to let the suspect see the evidentiary material against him, he has almost no ability to defend himself, which gives rise to concerns that a person is liable to be detained without having done anything wrong."

"I also have a problem with a situation that essentially Kafkaesque," Kremnitzer continues. "A man is deprived of his freedom and is not told why. There are reservations about using this approach in a non-wartime situation. When do you see how problematic it is? When you try to arrest a Jew. Evidently, with Arabs it's easier on the authorities."

During the five weeks that Athamn has been held in administrative detention, his family has been allowed to visit him three times at the Kishon detention facility, for half an hour each time.

"We talk with him through the glass," his father reports. "There is no opportunity for physical contact. He kissed his baby son's finger through a tiny hole in the glass wall. What did he do to be treated like this?"

MK Bishara has written to Ehud Barak to express his unhappiness with Athamneh's conditions: "He is being held in a small, isolated cell. He is permitted to leave his cell for an hour a day. When he is brought out to the courtyard, the guards clear all the corridors and the outdoor area itself. Any contact or verbal exchange with other prisoners is absolutely forbidden. The width of Athamneh's cell is enough to fit his bed and another 70-centimeter space.

"Mr. Athamneh is supposed to spend 23 hours a day in a cell of this size. I find it a strange coincidence that an Arab citizen is under administrative detention at the same time that there is a political investigation focusing on the activities of a legal political party. The obvious conclusion arising from the juxtaposition of these two facts is that we are witnessing an act of pure political persecution."

This week, Judge Abramovitz said that he had carefully examined the evidence, and rejected claims that Athamneh's arrest was politically motivated as a response by Prime Minister Barak to Balad's positions on various political issues.

Meanwhile, Athamneh's legal counselors have also been treated to a taste of "administrative" pressure: During one session in court, the defense was mistakenly handed two confidential documents. The court issued a warrant permitting the police or the Shin Bet to retrieve the documents and return them to the prosecutor. In similar cases, says attorney Dakour, the prosecutor's office will call and ask that the documents be returned.

"In this case, for whatever reason, they tried to enter the office and carry out a search. If they would have asked politely, without a warrant, they would have received the documents every bit as fast."

The Adala center refused to allow entry to the individual who came to search the organization's offices. The following day, the confidential documents were handed over to an attorney from the prosecutor's office.

Dr. Oren Gross, who teaches at the Tel Aviv University law school, is not opposed to administrative detention.

"I'm not one of these people who reject administrative detention out of hand," he says. "True, it's not an orderly trial procedure, and it is used here when there are concerns about something that hasn't even happened yet. In this regard, there is something unacceptable about administrative detentions.

"But what about if it is used for preventive aims - the sorts of things that arrests are supposed to foil? If it is information that someone is about to carry out a dangerous act and there is insufficient ordinary evidence, then I can't do anything until after the crime has been committed. That seems unreasonable to me. Use of this tool depends on the circumstances."

Dr. Gross hosted an international conference at Tel Aviv University last month on the legal aspects of periods of time that are termed "state of emergency." All of the speakers expressed liberal points of view. The president of the Supreme Court, Justice Aharon Barak, described the inner struggles he experiences when judging security-related cases.

"First of all, I have to deal with my own internal problems, between me and myself," he said. "It is not at all easy, emotionally speaking, to say: 'This terrorist, whom you despise, whom you consider the enemy of your state and therefore your enemy, this individual has the same rights as any other person who violates the law.' It isn't easy to live with this belief.

"You have to look yourself in the mirror and ask: Are we being naive? Most Israelis are convinced that the judges are naive, and that they place too much importance on human rights. My answer is that we are not experts on security, but we are experts on discrimination and equality. We will always be criticized. My theory is that judges must not be derelict in their roles as defenders of human rights in a free and democratic society. Judges must reflect history, not hysteria."

In a response to Prof. Kremnitzer, who has assailed Justice Barak's position on demolition of houses, Barak admitted that it took him 20 years to learn the subject. "The justice who wrote the verdict in 1978, the year I joined the Supreme Court, and the justice who writes the verdicts in 2001, is not the same person. My way of thinking has changed. Earlier in my tenure, I did not pay sufficient regard to international law: I've learned, I've changed."

At the time that Aharon Barak was addressing the conference, Athamneh had been under arrest for two and a half weeks. In his lecture, Barak did not refer to administrative detention, nor did he mention the name of Ghassan Athamneh. Nor did Yossi Beilin, who spoke before Barak, mention Athamneh. Beilin talked about cancellation of the state of emergency in Israel.

"We saved the world twice," he said, in an especially amusing lecture. "Once when we gave it the Torah and a second time with the law on states of emergency."

The question may be asked, what will happen to administrative detentions when we cancel the state of emergency? Administrative detentions, Beilin commented, are a stain on our book of laws. The justice minister did not relate to the dense thicket of legal problems that link state of emergency to administrative detention. Instead, he immediately launched into what he called an even tougher problem: workers' unions.

In a state of emergency, authorities can issue emergency back-to-work orders to strikers. What will happen, wondered Beilin, if we cancel the state of emergency? How will we force essential workers, such as lifeguards, to work when a strike has been declared?

Athamneh was arrested in accordance with the State of Emergency Authorities Law (Arrests) of 1979. This law replaced Mandatory Defense Emergency Regulations 111 and 112, which were labeled as "extreme" in the preamble to the 1979 legislation. Nevertheless, the differences between the law and the regulations are negligible.

According to the mandatory regulations, the authority to order the arrest of an individual without trial is entrusted to the army chief of staff. The 1979 law empowers the defense minister to sign the arrest warrant. According to the regulations, the detainee is permitted to submit his complaints to an advisory committee, whereas the law states that an administrative detainee must be brought before the president of a district court within 48 hours of his arrest. The judge's decision can be appealed to the Supreme Court.

Under the defense regulations, the duration of administrative detention is unlimited. Conversely, the law limits detention to six months, albeit with a possibility of unlimited extension. The 1979 legislation - which was vociferously opposed by a number of left-wing and liberal MKs - was introduced by Justice Minister Shmuel Tamir 10 months after Menachem Begin's government entered office in 1977. At the time, 30 administrative detainees were held by Israel, only one of them an Israeli national.

Tamir was in a rush to revise the regulations partly because they determined that anyone in contact with the National Military Organization (also knows as the Irgun) and the Freedom Fighters of Israel (known by many as the Stern Gang) - the two right-wing underground movements active in Israel before the declaration of statehood - would face criminal charges.

MK Dov Shilansky was moved by the historic nature of the occasion: "As a soldier of the Irgun, this is a time of spiritual uplifting. The Jewish People is particularly sensitive to justice and judicial process, which is why we are repulsed by any emergency regulation. But, at the same time, we must be aware of and alert in regard to the existing situation. We are surrounded by enemies who thirst for our blood."

At present, 16 administrative detainees from the territories are being held in Megiddo Prison. Hamoked - the Center for the Defense of the Individual - believes that three more detainees will soon be served with administrative detention warrants. In January 1991, there were 1,500 administrative detainees; in January 1996, 231 Palestinians were held in administrative detention. In January 1999, the number was 73, and by last January, there were only 10 Palestinians being held in administrative detention.

Only a few dozen Israeli citizens have been subjected to administrative detention in the past 30 years. A B'Tselem report from 1997 recommends the "immediate release of all administrative detainees, or alternatively, putting them on trial for the criminal acts of which they are suspected."

The Justice Ministry is now drafting a legislative bill, which determines that even if the state of emergency is canceled, the State of Emergency Authorities Law (Arrests) will not automatically be canceled as well.

"Sometimes there is a need to arrest individuals in order to prevent acts of terrorism," says Yossi Beilin, "and I hope that after the state of emergency is canceled, there will in any case be reduced use of the tool of administrative detention."

Asked why he doesn't work to have the law and the administrative detentions canceled, Beilin responded: "It would be hard for me to propose the cancellation of this law. The security situation is such that it is, evidently, impossible to altogether abolish the law.

"Moreover, my opinion on the matter of administrative detentions is only my own individual opinion. I think that it is such a far-reaching means that it should be used only rarely, but that is something over which I have no control. Possibly, my opinion has had the effect of reducing the use of administrative detention."

But jurisprudential musings are of little interest to the Athamneh family. Mohammed Athamneh is distraught.

"How long do I have left to live?" he asks. "When you look back on your life, you only remember the good times, of good neighborly relations and coexistence. The last few weeks have been anything but."

In his worst nightmares he never thought he, a veteran party activist, would become the incendiary ally of those in the Arab sector who oppose Ehud Barak. "Barak didn't look after me," he says, "so why should I vote for him? Anyone who has children would identify with me.

END

top