The confessions that were attained through torture of the youth in the Duma trial will not be considered valid – so the judges decided. But the confessions attained between one torture session and the next - will be considered valid. In all my years in politics, I have not met a statement as ugly and cynical as this - released by the judges in the case last week.
Obviously, teenagers who are held in prison for weeks on end without being allowed to consult with an attorney, who are prevented from sleeping, are tortured and degraded both physically and emotionally – will eventually sign anything and confess to anything. And then, in between one torture session and the next – or even if they are simply threatened with more torture - they will once again agree to sign.
When the Arabs in Gaza prepare incendiary balloons, our captious legal advisors prohibit the IDF from shooting at them, so that no legal rule or human right should be undermined, Heaven forfend. But when it comes to the hilltop youth, then “the roof will fall on our heads” (Bennett) if we do not throw all their basic human rights and every possible law to the wind. And “Who do you believe? Ayelet Shaked or (rightist lawyer) Itamar Ben Gvir?”
I believed Itamar Ben Gvir, because when you want to know if a politician is telling the truth, check what his possible interests could be. Bennett and Shaked stood to gain nothing politically by fighting against the tempestuous witch hunt against the hilltop youth that was led at the time by Bogi Ya’alon and the media.
This is in addition to the fact that before the arson that killed the Dawabshe family in Duma, a different house in Duma had already been torched, and another five homes were torched afterwards – all of them on the same street and all of them belonging to the extended Dawabshe family. The feuding Dawabshe clan also learned – what a surprise – to write “price tag” on the walls of the burned homes, to make it appear as though the house had been torched by hilltop youth.
But the media was eager for the blood of those vexatious hilltop youth with their large kippot and Bogi Ya’alon understood on which side his bread would be buttered. Instead of defending their constituents (the parents of those youths), Bennett and Shaked joined the witch hunt. And the Religious Zionist rabbis did not interfere (apparently, the food in prison is kosher).
That is how the State of Israel stooped to the level of torturing seven minors (who it called “ticking time-bombs”).
Just like Roman Zadorov, in jail for years after being falsely accused of murder, there are two boys still in prison – and the system will never admit that it was wrong.
Today it is me. Tomorrow, it is you.
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