The Or Judicial Commission of Inquiry released its long-
awaited report on the October 2000 riots in the Israeli Arab
sector Monday, passing blame all around, including the
police, top government officials, and Israeli Arab leaders,
for the bloodshed. Twelve Israeli Arabs and a Palestinian
were shot and killed by police. A Jewish motorist was killed
in a crash after his car was stoned. All this took place
during the first eight days of October 2000 at the beginning
of the outbreak of Palestinian violence that has now
continued for three years.
On November 15, 2000, almost six week after the events, Prime
Minister Barak bowed to political pressure and established a
judicial commission of inquiry. The members included Supreme
Court Justice Theodore Or, Tel Aviv University Prof. Shimon
Shamir, and Nazareth District Court Judge Hashem Khatib. The
final 860-page report was endorsed by all three.
The report said that prime minister Ehud Barak was not aware
of the mood in the Arab community, as he should have been,
and ignored advice to hold a discussion about its needs. It
said that his failings were serious but that it decided not
to consider whether they disqualified him from holding public
office. The commission thus did not recommend barring him
from public office in the future, and this is seen as a green
light to return to politics. Barak has recently indicated
that he wants to do so.
The report criticized former internal security minister
Shlomo Ben-Ami for failing to prepare the police and for an
inadequate response, and recommended that he not be allowed
to hold that portfolio in the future. Ben-Ami, a historian
who came to politics from Tel Aviv University, had already
quit politics. Ben-Ami said in response that he had acted
properly.
The commission singled out the then-police commissioner
Yehuda Wilk, and the commander of the police's northern
district Alec Ron, as being unsuitable for the posts they
held. The commission recommended that Wilk not be allowed to
hold positions involving internal security and that Ron be
barred from holding any operational or administrative
position involving internal security. Both have retired from
work in Israel police.
The commission recommended that one senior police officer and
one junior police officer be discharged from service. Only
one officer of those warned during the commission's inquiry
was totally cleared. The commission also recommended a
criminal investigation of all the fatal shootings.
It also held MKs Abdel Malik Dahamshe and Azmi Bishara and
the leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement,
Sheikh Raed Salah and then major of Umm el-Fahm, responsible
for inflaming the Arab sector.
Dahamshe and Bishara advocated the use of violence, while
Salah rejected the legitimacy of Israel, the commission
asserted. The commission left it to the public to decide
whether or not they should be punished. Salah is currently
under arrest, accused of supporting Hamas financially.
The commission devoted much space in its report to
recommendations about the police. It wrote that there were
serious flaws in the way the police conducted internal
investigations of incidents and the way policemen wrote out
reports of the incidents in which they were involved. "It
appears that the police have not internalized the culture of
making full reports and conducting investigations in real
time," wrote the commission.
The report has six parts. The first is a study of the
underlying causes of the events of October 1-8, 2000,
including the radicalization of the Arab community, the
discrimination it has suffered, the escalation and increasing
violence of its protests, and the lack of preparedness of the
police for the disturbances that erupted. The second and
third chapters are studies of the day-by-day events from
October 1 to October 10, and a close look at specific
incidents. The fourth chapter deals with special issues,
including the police use of rubber-coated bullets and
snipers.
The commission wrote that the type of rubber-coated bullets
used by the police during the riots, which included three
pellets in each cartridge, should be stopped altogether.
Regular rubber bullets should be used only in life-
threatening situations. It also wrote that the use of snipers
in all three cases (once in Umm el-Fahm, twice in Nazareth)
was unjustified.
The commission also gave special attention to the role of
Bishara, Dahamshe, and Salah in inflaming passions. The
commission rejected the claims of the Arab leadership to the
effect that the Arab community did nothing more than
demonstrate and speak out and, as such, merely exercised its
democratic rights.
"The force of the aggressiveness and violence that came to
the fore during these events was extremely high. [The
demonstrators] used various means of assault against
civilians and security personnel, including firebombs, steel
marbles, rocks, burning tires, and in some cases live
bullets. Jews were attacked on the roads just because they
were Jews. In several cases, they were a hair's breadth away
from death at the hands of a rioting mob," said the
report.
But the commission added that the violence would not stop
unless the government begins to treat the Arabs fairly.
Police and security officials have learned from past mistakes
and will continue to work towards coexistence between Israeli
Arabs and Jews, according to current Israel Police Insp.-Gen.
Shlomo Aharonishky in his initial response to the Or
Commission report. "There is no doubt that the events of
October 2000 were in scope and results unprecedented and
tragic for everyone involved," he said.
Israeli Arab leaders held a press conference in Jerusalem to
express the community's anger at the report's limited
direction and conclusions.
Speakers said they were disappointed that the report charged
a number of their leaders with incitement and failed to
charge the individuals who killed the 13 Arabs. They also
said they will continue to seek justice through the Israeli
legal system and even the international courts.
Officials of the Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights
in Israel said they intended to appeal to Attorney General
Elyakim Rubinstein to immediately start legal proceedings
against policemen involved in the killing of 12 Israeli Arabs
and a Palestinian from the Gaza Strip during the riots.
Shawki Khatib, head of the Monitoring Committee of Arab
Israeli Leadership, said the question of who killed the 13
people is crucial, while the question of incitement by
Israeli-Arab leaders is beside the point.
"In my opinion, what needed to be investigated was why
Israeli Arabs rioted in such numbers and collaborated with
the Palestinians and, as a result, Jews were killed or
wounded," said Dr. Reuven Jan, son of the Israeli killed in
the riots when his car was stoned.
Jan said that his father and uncle were returning home after
visiting a sick relative in the North when the rocks were
thrown at their car. Jan said, "My father was the only person
to be actually murdered. The others [the Arabs] were killed
because they were rioting."
