http://972mag.com/knesset-extends-legislation-that-facilitates-torture/50332/ Independent commentary and news from Israel & Palestine Thu, 23 May 2013 05:26:55 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.1 http://972mag.com/knesset-extends-legislation-that-facilitates-torture/50332/comment-page-1/#comment-68062 Greg Pollock Mon, 09 Jul 2012 04:42:37 +0000 http://972mag.com/?p=50332#comment-68062 There can be no remedy without access to evidence, so there is no right to be protected--out of sight, out of reality. I suspect the suicide bombings post 2000 nullified the High Court decision you mention, as applied. The Court does not seem to want teeth. Until it does--and such a stand would ignite a constitutional war--nothing can be done because nothing is happening. All the Court has to do is order all interaction with detainees be taped. But it will not do this, for it does not what the consequent authority to act. . What I find most tragic in all of this is that the security apparatus has won the conflict, legally, but also on the ground. Instead of chancing the question that the ground (occupied West Bank) is now different, they argue that they must continue to do what brought victory--a position easily exploitable in internal State games of money and authority (vanguard settlers, by agitating Palestinians, provide more evidence that the apparatus must be allowed to act as it has always done). Residents of the Bank are now just pawns in internal authority games within the State. The only way to fight this would be to create an omnibusman with full supoena power over those holding or interacting with detainees, which will not happen because no one in the State really wants to submit to structural opposition, not even your High Court. . In antebellum America, only owners controlled treatment of their slaves; this set a limit to the rule of law. Without the video phone recording during Bank protests, etc., can anyone really doubt that things would not be worse therein? As David Hume said, if something can be abused, eventually it will be abused. There can be no remedy without access to evidence, so there is no right to be protected–out of sight, out of reality. I suspect the suicide bombings post 2000 nullified the High Court decision you mention, as applied. The Court does not seem to want teeth. Until it does–and such a stand would ignite a constitutional war–nothing can be done because nothing is happening. All the Court has to do is order all interaction with detainees be taped. But it will not do this, for it does not what the consequent authority to act.
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What I find most tragic in all of this is that the security apparatus has won the conflict, legally, but also on the ground. Instead of chancing the question that the ground (occupied West Bank) is now different, they argue that they must continue to do what brought victory–a position easily exploitable in internal State games of money and authority (vanguard settlers, by agitating Palestinians, provide more evidence that the apparatus must be allowed to act as it has always done). Residents of the Bank are now just pawns in internal authority games within the State. The only way to fight this would be to create an omnibusman with full supoena power over those holding or interacting with detainees, which will not happen because no one in the State really wants to submit to structural opposition, not even your High Court.
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In antebellum America, only owners controlled treatment of their slaves; this set a limit to the rule of law. Without the video phone recording during Bank protests, etc., can anyone really doubt that things would not be worse therein? As David Hume said, if something can be abused, eventually it will be abused.

]]> http://972mag.com/knesset-extends-legislation-that-facilitates-torture/50332/comment-page-1/#comment-68011 Louis Sun, 08 Jul 2012 15:37:16 +0000 http://972mag.com/?p=50332#comment-68011 It is of major importance and points to what PCATI has pointed out consistently over the years: Impunity facilitates torture... http://www.stoptorture.org.il/en/node/1825 It is of major importance and points to what PCATI has pointed out consistently over the years: Impunity facilitates torture… http://www.stoptorture.org.il/en/node/1825

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