_a.jpg "צילום: אלעד גרשגורן")
October riots
Photo: Elad Gershgoren
Victims' families protest
Photo: Zoom 77
No answers
How could all the evidence from the October riots have disappeared?
The events of October, 2000 could have served as a breakthrough for relations between Israel's Jewish and Arab citizens.
The problem with governmental inquiries is that the government can't control the findings – Justice Theodore Or and members of the commission did their work a lot more thoroughly than they were apparently meant to.
Rachel Dolev is a former IDF prosecutor and chief censorThe riots in support of the just-launched al-Aqsa Intifada, and deaths of 13 citizens that followed, caused many Israelis to understand that drastic measures, such as a governmental inquiry into the matter, would be required to repair the damage.
October Riots
Efrat Weiss
Families charge police covered up October riots evidence, after report recommends no action against officers involved in death of 13 Arabs; relatives vow to continue fight until responsible parties brought to justice, threaten to turn to international court
Harsh measures
For the first time, the State of Israel admitted, by way of an official government body, that it routinely uses harsh measures with regard to an entire community.
The Or Commission found that the State has neglected the country's Arab community for years – no infrastructure, discrimination in education, health care, and other areas, as well as other issues.
In addition, the commission found serious flaws in the behavior of both police and politicians at the time of the riots. Out of this grew the recommendation to launch criminal investigations against officers on suspicion of using illegal means to disperse the demonstrations.
Unwanted guest
The government related to the Or Commission report as an unwanted guest you would want to get rid of as quickly as possible.The policy findings were buried by creating the Lapid Committee, which took the sting out of the original general findings.
Findings that touched on police failure were transferred to the Police Investigation Unit. This week, we learned the investigation unit was more concerned with whitewashing the police than investigating the incident.
The proof for this can be found in the incredible words of Herzl Shviro, the head of the Police Investigations Unit, which place a cloud of suspicion over the entire investigation.
The police unit claims the families refused to cooperate with the investigation. This is absurd.
When I was a prosecutor in the IDF Central Command from 1988-1990, I conducted hundreds of investigations into deaths, with absolutely no cooperation on the part of Palestinians.
Autopsies – with or without permission
But this did not prevent us, for instance, from requesting, and receiving, permission to conduct autopsies, and even to disinter bodies, with or without the families' agreement.
So, too, within the Green Line: Anyone who comes to court will find himself faced with a police officer requesting an autopsy, sometimes against the will of the family, for religious or other reasons.
An autopsy is the first means of determining what kind of gun fired a fatal bullet, and is required to find this out. But even if the cause of death can't be determined with certainty, without an autopsy, there is no reason to avoid indictments for murder.
There is no argument about the fact that the 13 victims were hurt by bullets.
More than that, Shviro says there is no evidence, but the question must be
asked: Where has all the evidence gone? Where are all the guns that were fired? Where is the official incident report?
And if these don't exist, who took them, or neglected to prepare them?
Was anyone investigated for obstruction of justice? Or did the police investigations unit make do with the notion that there was just no more they could do?
Why were snipers used?
The most incredible part of this story is the decision to close the investigation against former police commander Alik Ron regarding the use of snipers that fateful October in Umm al-Fahm. One person was killed and seven injured by these gunmen.
The Or Commission found the snipers were deployed against police regulations. So the question remains: Was there justification to ignore the rules? This is an issue only the court can decide.
It is not the job of police to determine guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, but rather to investigate whether there seems to be enough evidence to lead to an eventual conviction.
The unwillingness on the part of police, and the need, because of this, to shoot live fire at protesters – even at illegal protesters – do not stand up to the standards of a democratic country.
To the contrary: These facts join the list of indictments against the police.
The investigation should have been removed from the police investigation unit and placed in the hands of an independent investigative body such as a judge who could have investigated the causes of death (in accordance with a1958 law permitting such investigations).
Such an investigation could have been done openly, could have included autopsies and post-mortem examinations, and could have saved the public's faith in the justice system.
If the government had wanted to conduct a real investigation, this would have been the way to go about it. For the good of the State of Israel and civilian faith in the system, it is crucial that this be done.
