Appearing at a Likud-sponsored special Knesset discussion on Shin Bet interrogation methods, Barak announced that the Knesset should consider legislating a bill conferring advance sanction to Shin Bet officials to use special methods in some cases of interrogation. Barak's proposal of advance sanction for the use of force is to be distinguished from a different arrangement on the table, in which a Shin Bet official would have to seek the attorney general's approval after the fact for having used physical force during an interrogation. Barak said that Shin Bet officials must be given license to use force in cases where the interrogation might protect life from clear, palpable danger. He said that it would be intolerable for officials fighting terror to operate in an atmosphere of legal uncertainty concerning the procedures they employ.
Torture is torture.
Whoever assumes responsibility for legislating a bill that will allow the use of force in interrogations will turn Israel into the first country which has such a law on its books. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel called on Barak to oppose legislation sanctioning the use of torture in interrogations. A law backing torture would blemish Israel's moral standing, the group declared.