Suspects Also Have Human Rights

by Moshe Feiglin

When a woman jumps from a tall building to her death following a police interrogation, we all have to do some soul-searching.

I advocate as few laws as possible. But after yesterday’s suicide by a worker for Lev Leviev who is being investigated for diamond smuggling, I am thinking about a law that would obligate the police to freeze the entire investigation until a non-police probe into the circumstances of the suicide.

People’s honor, liberty and lives have become very cheap for the police and General Security Service (Shabak). The most basic human rights – honor and liberty – have been exchanged for considerations of rating, media and politics.

If there are suspicions against Leviev’s firm, the police have to investigate. But tax evasion – no matter how high – does not justify this result.

I have no doubt that the enthusiasm to round the corners of the rights of suspects stems from the name Leviev (a generous person who I have never met and from whom I have never received anything) and the police desire to fill the role of modern-day Robin Hood. Why don’t I have a doubt? Because I can give you a list of ten suspicions – much more serious – against Ehud Barak, for example, that are not being investigated at all.

The police, like the justice system, like the media, the army, the Shabak and the Mossad – are all important and vital. But do not think that they are “guardians” of Israeli societal norms. Above and beyond their duties, they are players on the political field. The only difference between a High Court justice or police commissioner and a government minister, for example, is that for the minister, the political game is open for all to see and he has to get the public’s approval every few years.

Zehut opposes administrative detention – for Jews and Arabs alike.

Zehut will end the Occupation (by applying Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria) and the gray area that it has created between criminal and war activities. A person can be either a criminal or a prisoner of war. Not both.

The Left is correct in saying that the Occupation has brought about the deterioration of human rights in Israel. Jewish teenagers have recently been tortured for no reason, people rot in prison for murders that they did not commit in order to save face for the system and the rights of suspects are trampled in order to achieve quick results to satisfy the public.

With Zehut, you will elect your local police chief and he will work for you.

Click here for Zehut’s platform on liberty and security.