Haaretz
Adar 7, 5766
An official statement submitted several days ago
to the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court accused human rights organizations
that represent Palestinians and residents of East Jerusalem in court of
working against Israel's interests.
The statement called HaMoked:
Center for the Defense of the Individual and B'Tselem - Israeli
Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories -
organizations "that undermine the existence" of the State of Israel,
"besmirch" the state and its security forces, and "cause it damage in the
world."
The Jerusalem court is hearing a suit brought by East
Jerusalem resident Alaa Ali, who is claiming tens of thousands of shekels
in damages from the state for alleged repeated arrests by the police and
Shin Bet security service, unnecessary delays at checkpoints and abusive
interrogations between 1996-1999. At one point in the proceedings, a Shin
Bet official was questioned in camera, and attorney Yossi Wolfson of
HaMoked, who is representing the plaintiff, filed a motion to release the
transcript.
Attorney Nira Mashriki of the Tel Aviv prosecutor's
office for civil matters wrote to the court in response: "The organization
[HaMoked] does not deal with 'defending human rights' as it claims, but
instead with defending the rights of Palestinians only. The organization's
activity is one-sided and it works in the interest of a group of people
whose elected leadership is currently in a harsh conflict with the State
of Israel and is undermining its existence."
Mashriki, the state's
representative in the proceedings, wrote that "the organization's
self-presentation as 'a human rights organization' has no basis in reality
and is designed to mislead. The organization is funded by outside entities
whose interests differ from those of the State of Israel and sometimes
contradict them."
Mashriki added that "the organization works in
cooperation with the B'Tselem organization, which periodically issues
pamphlets that besmirch the State of Israel and its security forces
throughout the world, and cause damage."
HaMoked director Dalia
Kerstein lodged a complaint with Attorney General Menachem Mazuz. "The
prosecution document contains unbridled attacks on our organization, on
B'Tselem and on the very notion of defending the human rights of
Palestinians," she wrote. "Attacks by the state on human rights
organizations active in it and on the sheer legitimacy of their existence
pose a serious threat to democratic rule."
Kerstein demanded that
the state submit a revised statement to the court.
The Justice
Ministry stated Monday night that the matter appears to demand inquiry,
but that an official position on the matter will have to await input from
the lawyer who dealt with the case. Off the record, senior officials said
the lawyer's statement was not approved by the attorney general and state
prosecutor, and naturally does not reflect the establishment position on
these organizations.
They said that Kerstein's letter had prompted
an inquiry into who had approved the statement.