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Opinion | Pegasus affair: the system will not investigate itself Israel today

2022-02-10T21:52:58.800Z


Not the members of the GSS and the Mossad, not the new ombudsman, nor a state commission of inquiry in Rishon Elyon Elyon.


Netanyahu's trial is a trial of the State Attorney's Office.

And especially the trial of Mandelblit.

The words of the late President Miriam Naor form the basis of an understanding of the recent events and revelations arising from the case of wiretapping and surveillance of spyware, which are intended to combat serious crime - and especially the war on murderous terrorism.

The serious illness that seems to have spread throughout law enforcement bodies leads to the dismal conclusion that a state commission of inquiry will not suffice in this case.

The suspicion is that such a committee is exactly what the system wants: a committee that will give a kosher stamp, that will remove the judicial system is eligible, that it will clean the judicial system from all blemishes and that it will help defend its power and undisputed status.

This is exactly the "alibi" that system executives need.

All three have brought the police and the advisory institution to a low point where only 30 percent of the public believe in them, according to a survey by the Israel Democracy Institute.

If the public suspicion is of trending, selective over-enforcement, of violating the law to the point of incriminating and recruiting all the tools against the elected political echelon and neutralizing it - then the establishment of a state commission of inquiry headed by a Supreme Court appointed by the current government is what will give these elements a protective wall.

Too many factors and systems are involved here, and they have interests in very specific outcomes - and not in the study of truth.

Israeli democracy is in danger;

Without public trust, enforcement and justice systems are invalid.

Netanyahu has no chance of a fair trial, the late Prof. Ruth Gavison stated,

And now it is clear that in a state commission of inquiry there will also be no chance of a justice inquiry.

The whole thing converges on what we have discovered in recent weeks: that these systems are not pure, are not free from over-motivation, from protecting friends, and what not.

The Supreme Court, the body in which the entire system considers the supreme and decisive moral authority over the bodies examined, will not be able to win a public mandate to clarify the truth.

The GSS and the Mossad are not the ones to make the public believe in their objectivity either: Will they, who are administratively subordinate to politicians - and especially to a prime minister who is a political rival - be clean when it comes to investigating events that are all political? Other citizens, but also, and most importantly, that perhaps under the auspices of these tools and the side effects of the trial, a governmental overthrow was actually made possible.

It should be remembered: the current Israeli government is already taking the opportunity to blame the previous government, and especially Netanyahu, for the failures that were discovered.

Some of its speakers are already briefing on the failure of governance that developed under Netanyahu's rule, and under his inspiration.

The Deputy Prime Minister has already announced that the first interrogee to be summoned to testify is the former Minister of Internal Security, MK Amir Ohana.

A committee that receives a mandate from this government will be tainted with politicization, and of course also with the framing of the affair as a systemic-organizational failure that developed inspired by the previous government.

It is already clear that the questions will be directed at those responsible for the organizational culture, and not at those who dictated the value and perhaps even political motivations of surfing for the use of improper tools.

And yes, I express distrust in this regard even in the Supreme Court justices appointed to the committee.

It was the Supreme Court justices who retroactively approved the use of materials obtained in an illegal hack into Netanyahu's advisers' cellular devices.

Neither they nor their colleagues or predecessors can now explore extensive use of similar tools.

Their preliminary position is known.

Therefore it is also clear that the arrows will be directed to the proxy: to the police only.

Again they will look for organizational failure as a smokescreen that will obscure the essential default.

Even the new ombudsman appointed this week will not enjoy public confidence when it comes to dealing with the issue: she will forever be marked as a candidate enthusiastically promoted by a cabinet justice minister who is suspected of being credited for exposing the omissions.

so no.

The system on all sides and its appendages cannot investigate itself and its vest.

Unfortunately, under the current conditions, a state commission of inquiry that will receive a mandate from the current Israeli government, headed by Supreme Court justices, will have a cutting committee, and will certainly not dispel the real cloud of suspicion that obscures the Israeli public.

Therefore, a joint public call, from right and left, of all those who are genuinely afraid of the fate of democracy, should be promoted, for the establishment of a committee of a new kind: it will be called a Civil Investigation Committee.

A new model of an investigative body, which will receive the powers and whose members will be elected by the sovereign, ie the representatives of the coalition and the opposition.

Only a common agreement on each of the names that will come from civil society - senior lawyers, academics, relevant professionals - will produce a human composition that will enjoy public trust and be truly free and autonomous.

Others will say this is unprecedented.

True, but even the current crisis of confidence has no precedent, and the political implications of this reality have no shadow of precedent.

Therefore, a new ad hoc formula must be formulated that will ensure a comprehensive, in-depth, transparent, independent and impartial examination.

It comes to the citizens of Israel, it comes to Israeli democracy, and it also goes to those of the working souls, whose privacy, personal lives and careers have been harmed as a result of this savage outrage of law enforcement under the auspices of the legal system.

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Source: israelhayom

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