Letter to Israeli AG Mazuz about closing the investigation of Asel's killing

To: Menachem Mazuz

Attorney General

Government of Israel

 

RE: Closure of investigations of the conduct of police officers involved in the killing of thirteen Arab citizens in October 2000

 

Sir:

 

We are a group of people from around the world who are stunned by your January 27, 2008 decision to close all investigations of the conduct of police officers involved in the killing of thirteen Arab citizens during the tragic events of October 2000. Our dear friend, Aseel Asleh of Arabeh, was one of the 13 victims. We met Aseel, of blessed memory, a wise and sensitive young man who believed with all his heart in reconciliation between Arabs and Jews, at the Seeds of Peace International Camp in the United States and the Seeds of Peace Jerusalem Center for Coexistence, where we all spent years as program participants and staff.

We have followed closely the investigations in the nearly eight years that have elapsed since Aseel was killed: the Or Commission, the Police Investigations Department (Makhash), and your own report, as well as the statements produced by the Adalah legal advocacy organization and the coverage in the English and Hebrew press. We are well aware of  fundamental facts of the case, as established by the eyewitness testimony of officers and residents before the Or Commission: Aseel was standing unarmed and alone, separated by a considerable distance from the crowd of demonstrators at Lotem Junction, when he was chased by a group of police into an adjacent olive grove, and fatally shot in the back of his neck, at close range, with live ammunition. 

You explain your decision to close all investigations as due to difficulties gathering evidence that could identify individual officers responsible for the deaths. In Aseel's case, we find such a claim untenable, as police testimony before the Or Commission identified all of the officers who charged at Aseel; their names are known to the public. The testimonies of the same officers identify one policeman, Yitzhak Shimoni, as the first to reach Aseel at the scene. Officer Shimoni refused five times to undergo polygraph tests about the incident, before appearing for a test--but agreeing to answer only one question. The two officers who charged alongside Shimoni did appear for polygraph tests, yet they were never asked who opened fire on Aseel--an obvious question that none of them has ever been compelled to answer. Such a glaring omission, accompanied by the bizarre behavior of both officers and investigators, belies the claim that a good-faith investigation was conducted, or that all means at your disposal have been exhausted. Rather than a lack of evidence, what is apparent here is a lack of will to gather evidence.

Moreover, the attribution of individual responsibility for the killings is only one aspect of the problem. Even if the individual offiers could not be identified--and we believe that in most, if not all cases, they can--the institutional responsibility of security forces for the deaths of thirteen demonstrators is unmistakable. You dismiss this aspect of the cases in your decision, by justifying the actions of the police in all cases as "operational decisions in emergency situations." We do not agree that the use of lethal force against our friend, in the circumstances described above, can be legitimately excused as such. We call to your attention the conclusions of the Or Commission Report, which explicitly states that in Aseel's and several other cases, "the police reaction was excessive given the circumstances, since there was no real danger that required a lethal response." 

We wish to note, in this context, that in the process of evacuating Jewish settlements in the Occupied Territories, police have been injured during violent confrontations with crowds of Jewish rioters, yet never opened fire or deployed potentially lethal force.  If only the police had displayed equal restraint in October 2000, tragedies would have been averted. The failure of the police to equally respect the lives of Arab citizens left the legal system as the last opportunity for the State to enforce a standard of democratic equality. Your decision to close that final door leaves us no choice but to conclude that the security forces and the legal system in Israel enforce a separate, and discriminatory, standard toward Arab citizens.

This week, dozens of Aseel's Israeli friends demonstrated outside the Ministry of Justice, and submitted a letter of protest to you. We write this letter to echo their question: How is it possible that thirteen people, citizens of a democratic country, were killed by the security forces of their own government, but no one--neither individuals nor institutions--has been held responsible? With your unfortunate decision, sir, you have made yourself responsible--for denying justice to the families of the thirteen victims, for denying equal protection of the laws to more than one million Arab citizens of your country, and for failing to enforce professional standards of conduct within your government. In so doing, you have done a great disservice to the international reputation of the very government and country you were appointed to serve.

We send this letter as an international statement of support for all those protesting your decision in Israel: Aseel's family and the other bereaved families of October 2000, the Palestinian Arab community in Israel, and all of Aseel's Arab and Jewish friends. We call upon you to implement fully the findings of the Or Commission, by establishing an effective and impartial body to conduct conclusive investigations and attribute individual and institutional responsibility for the wrongful deaths of thirteen citizens in October 2000. Until this is done, there can be no legitimacy to your declaration that this case is closed, for it has never truly been opened.

 

Sincerely,

 

Friends of Aseel