From: backon@vms.huji.ac.il
Newsgroups: talk.politics.mideast
Subject: Re: <k>Defense Emergency Regulations
Date: 16 Dec 92 10:59:44 GMT
Distribution: world
Organization: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

In article <Bz95tq.CIE@world.std.com>, wmcguire@world.std.com (Wayne McGuire) writes:
> <knotes>
>
> <o>#clip
>
> <des>
>
>      The Defense Emergency Regulations employed by Israel in the
>      occupied territories grossly violate the human rights of
>      Palestinians. (Schoenman Hidden History of Zionism 1988)
>
> <doctype>book
> <author>Schoenman, Ralph
> <title>The Hidden History of Zionism
> <city>Santa Barbara, CA
> <publisher>Veritas Press
> <year>1988
>
> <excerpt>
>
>      Under the Emergency Regulations, a military commander
>      (currently the Military Governor) can, at his discretion and
>      without judicial review:
>
>       - imprison people indefinitely


Wayne, wrong as usual. I'm no lawyer but:

a) some of these regulations have been abolished (by Menachem Begin,
of all people !)

b) ANYONE who seems himself inconvenienced by these regulations can have his
lawyer appeal to the Israeli Supreme Court. On MANY occasions, the Court has
put up a restraining order on the army to prohibit them from taking any action.

c) There is NO imprisonment of people "indefinitely".





>
>       - prohibit travel within or outside pre-1967 Israel and the
>       territories occupied since 1967


Sure, when martial law is declared. I'd suggest you check on declaration of
martial law in good 'ole democratic Amerika where police and the National
Guard can shoot to kill. There won't be any legal restrictions (AS THERE ARE IN
ISRAEL) on this shoot-to-kill order.

The other instance of travel restrictions is applied to convicted felons.


>
>       - expel an individual permanently

Very few of these have been carried out. And a permanent (usually 3 years by the
way) expulsion order is carried out only after ALL appeals to the courts have
been exhausted.

>
>       - restrict any person to his or her home, locality, village
>       or town
>
>       - forbid anyone to make use of his or her property
>
>       - order the demolition of homes

This is under SEVERE judicial review. Demolition of homes of terrorists was
severely  curtailed under the LIKUD. Yitzchak "trigger-happy" Rabin is more
accomodating.



>
>       - impose police surveillance on any individual and order
>       him or her to report to a police station several times a
>       day
>

WOW ! Such terrible restrictions :-)



>       - declare any area closed as a security zone, whether it be
>       a farm owned by a family, an inhabited village, refugee
>       camp or tribal lands


Terrorist bombings, shootings and murders make it necessary for police and army
patrols to find the perpetrators.


>
>       - censor all media, requiring all articles, leaflets and
>       books to be approved, and banning their distribution

Wayne, you're not going to believe this but the District Managers (for lack of
better translation) of the Ministry of the Interior have this idiotic right
ALSO in Israel proper. It's on the books but almost never implemented. It's a
throwback to the British Mandate. Palestinian newspapers, plays, books
distributed in East Jerusalem are NOT censored but the identical material
delivered 5 niles away is. I agree that this is petty and somewhat stupid even
though some of these materials foment violent resistance on the part of the
populace.

If I got a dollar for every fax machine on the West Bank, I'd go into early
retirement.




>
>       - raid people's homes and confiscate entire libraries
>
>       - forbid the gathering of ten or more people for the purpose
>       of discussing politics...
>
>       - forbid membership in an organization.


Semantics, Wayne, semantics. WHICH organizations ??? Forget to mention that
these are organizations vowing to violently overthrow Israel ? Remember the
"Weathermen" in the late 1960's ? And the FBI didn't expend enormous efforts to
track them down ?



>
>      Military edicts appended to the Defense Emergency
>      Regulations have proliferated to the point where they
>      impinge upon the minutiae of Palestinian existence.
>      Military orders affecting the West Bank:
>
>       - forbid the planting of any fruit tree without written
>       permission


Could you please quote this edict by Chapter and Verse ? *I've* never heard of
this.

>
>       - forbid <it>any</it> repairs to a house or structure
>       without written permission


Sigh.

Do you know what it takes to get a building permit in Israel ????  What takes
one day in America takes 6  months here.              ^^^^^^



>
>       - forbid the sinking of wells for drinking water or
>       irrigation.
>

Ditto for Israel too. You need to get the OK of MEKOROT, the Israel Waterworks
Authority.


>      The Defense Emergency Regulations, first adopted by the
>      British to control the Palestinian population within the
>      Mandate, were revised in 1945 and used by the British to
>      control armed attacks on British soldiers by the Irgun and
>      Haganah and to restrict Zionist acquisition of land. The
>      Regulations were condemned in 1946 by the Hebrew Lawyers
>      Union in the following terms:
>
>      "The powers given to the ruling authority in the Emergency
>      Regulations deny the inhabitants of Palestine their basic
>      human rights. These regulations undermine the foundation of
>      law and justice; they constitute a serious danger to
>      individual freedom, and they institute a regime of
>      arbitrariness without any judicial supervision."
>
>      Yaacov Shimpshon Shapira, who was later to become a Minister
>      of Justice for the state of Israel and one of its leading
>      legal authorities, proclaimed:
>
>      "The regime built in Palestine on the Defense Emergency
>      Regulations has no parallel in any civilized nation. Even
>      in Nazi Germany there were no such laws and the Nazi deed of
>      Mayadink and other similar things were against the code of
>      laws. Only in an occupied country do you find a system
>      resembling ours...."
>
>      Notwithstanding these assessments by leading Zionist
>      authorities in jurisprudence, the Defense Emergency
>      Regulations were incorporated into the legal system of the
>      state of Israel. Since the founding of the state in 1948,
>      the basic regulations have remained unchanged.


"UNCHANGED" ?????   Baloney. This invalidates the credibility of Wayne McGuire
again and again.


Wayne McGuire's obsession with Israel leads me to ask one question:

HOW MANY TIMES have you made a fact-finding tour of Israel and WHICH PLACES did
you visit ?

Wayne, I assume that you, Mr. Objectivity personified, have visited here AT
LEAST a dozen times for extended periods.

Until I get an answer Wayne, I'll be your Cato ("Ceterum censeo Carthaginem
esse delendam"). I'll repeat my question until you're blue in the face. Until
then Wayne, put up or shut up.

My query extends to all those non-Arabs who are obsessed with Israel. Ask
yourself why Israel is on your agenda. If you haven't ever visited Israel, I
extend a personal invitation to you to come and visit. I'll take off time from
my clinical and research duties at the hospital and show you around. This
invitation is extended also to Palestinians who hold American citizenship
(John, Anisa, ??, etc.).

Josh
backon@VMS.HUJI.AC.IL




>
> <excerpt pages>74-75
>
> </o>
Newsgroups: talk.politics.mideast