General Security Service Research Articles

State security of Israel: international and national legal aspects

The object of the study is Israeli international and national legal relations to ensure the defense of the country and the security of the state, the subject is normative legal acts establishing the regime of protection of Israel from internal and external threats. The article discusses the international treaties of the State of Israel concerning weapons of mass destruction and the fight against terrorism, as well as Israeli documents on defense and security management. The authors pay attention to the genesis and evolution of the Israeli armed forces and special services, the peculiarities of their functioning. The institute of military duty and conscription for military service in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), current problems of the activities of the Mossad and AMAN intelligence services, as well as the general security service - Shin Bet (SHABAK) are considered in detail. The above practice of military administration in the State of Israel is relevant in the conditions of modern militarism. The researchers propose to use the Israeli experience of legislative regulation in the field of national defense and state security in the current Russian historical conditions. The scientific novelty of the work consists in presenting the reader with original information on the subject of the article, relevant conclusions and suggestions. The main ones are the conclusions about the presence of tactical nuclear weapons in Israel, its deliberate postponement of the application of international legal acts on weapons of mass destruction in order to develop them and deter opponents. It is proposed, by analogy with Israeli legislation, to deprive Russian citizenship for crimes against the foundations of the constitutional order and security of the Russian Federation, extremism and terrorism. The article substantiates the introduction of universal military duty for Russian citizens using, by analogy, the Israeli system of deferrals from military service. It is proposed to train ordinary and non-commissioned personnel of the domestic armed forces in working professions, as in Israel, and the official granting of unlimited powers to Russian intelligence abroad.

Blinding the Bear: Israeli Double Agents and Russian Intelligence

The Israeli General Security Services, commonly known as the Shabak, is responsible for counterintelligence inside Israel. In the 1960s, the Shabak was struggling to counter the operations of Russian intelligence in Israel. Committee for State Security (KGB) case officers, working under diplomatic cover from the Russian embassy in Tel Aviv, recruited and ran agents in Israel. The Shabak was able to turn some of those recruited by the KGB into double agents. These double agents were used to learn about KGB tradecraft, identify Russian intelligence operatives, and feed the Soviets harmless or false information, known as “chickenfeed.” This article examines the recruitment and running of two Shabak double agents, their value for the KGB, and unique aspects of Israeli double agent tradecraft. It concludes that Israeli double agents were good for tactical purposes, learning about enemy intelligence personnel and practices, but were not of high value when used as part of strategic deceptions.

פרטיות במשבר: הנדסה חוקתית והנדסת פרטיות <br>Privacy in Crisis: Constitutional Engineering and Privacy Engineering

תקציר בעברית: המשפט החוקתי מציע מסגרת חשיבה שמאפשרת למעצבי מדיניות, לבתי המשפט ולציבור בכלל לקבל החלטות מורכבות. ניהול משבר הקורונה חִייב קבלת החלטות מהירה בישראל ובכל מקום בעולם, בתנאי אי-ודאות ניכרים, ותוך נקיטת אמצעים יוצאי דופן שפגעו קשות בזכויות יסוד, וביניהן, הזכות לפרטיות, שבה דן המאמר. אחד האמצעים שננקטו בישראל הוא איסוף נתוני מיקום של אזרחים ועיבודם, בעיקר בדרך של איכון שבוצע על ידי שירות הביטחון הכללי (השב"כ), כדי לאתר את מי שבאו במגע עם חולים. הממשלה הציגה את ההחלטה להיעזר בשב"כ כ"אין ברירה"; בכנסת ובבג"ץ הומשגה ההחלטה כאיזון בין הזכות לפרטיות לבין הצורך להתמודד עם המחלה, צורך שתורגם על ידי חלק מהשופטים לזכות לקדושת החיים. ההמשגה הזו נטועה בשיח של "שפת האיזונים" שמקובלת בישראל.מאמר זה מבקר את ההנגדה בין פרטיות לבין קדושת החיים, ומצביע במיוחד על קושי אחד וכשל אחד שיש בה. ראשית, בתוך המסגרת החוקתית הקיימת, ההמשגה החוקתית מניחה כדבר מובן מאליו שבמעקב השב"כ יש פגיעה בפרטיות ובהתאם, הדיון עובר במהירות לדרישת המידתיות שבחוק היסוד. פגיעה כזו אכן קיימת, אולם, אטען, חשוב לברר ולדייק את מהותה של הפגיעה בזכות, כדי לבחון את האמצעים השונים ביתר דיוק. שנית, ההנגדה בין פרטיות לקדושת החיים היא מקרה מובהק של הנדסה חוקתית, כלומר של תרגום רעיוני של הצרכים השונים לשיח כאילו-מובנה של אינטרסים וזכויות, שמכתיב את הנוסחה המשפטית בה נשתמש. תיאור האינטרס הציבורי כזכות הביא לאיזון אופקי אצל חלק מהשופטים. המשגה כזו מובילה, ללא הצדקה, לתוצאה שהכשירה את הפגיעה בפרטיות. במקום זה, הבנה של מגבלות ההנדסה החוקתית פותחת פתח לגישה זהירה יותר, שבה יש מקום להנדסה אחרת: הנדסת פרטיות, שלפיה, ראוי לתכנן את הטכנולוגיה בה מדובר באופן שמצמצם את הפגיעה בפרטיות מראש, ומאיין את הפגיעה.English Abstract: Constitutional law offers a convenient legal framework that enables policymakers, courts and the public at large to reach decisions in complex situations. Managing the Cvid-19 pandemic required fast decision-making in Israel and around the globe, under conditions of extreme uncertainty, resulting in emergency measures that violated human rights, including privacy. One of the measures undertaken in Israel was the collection and processing of citizens’ location data, by the General Security Services (known as Shin Bet), for the purpose of contact tracing, i.e., identifying people who were in close proximity to people who tested positive. The government described the decision to use the GSS as inevitable. In Knesset hearings and in High Court of Justice litigation that followed, the decision to use the GSS was presented as the result of balancing privacy with the acute need to respond to the pandemic, a need translated by some of the Justices as the sacred right to life. This kind of framing is deeply rooted in the Israeli balancing discourse.This Article criticizes the juxtaposition between privacy and life, and points to two of its main flaws. Firstly, within the current Israeli constitutional setting, the judicial juxtaposition presupposed that privacy was indeed violated, and hence the discussion moved quickly to examine the means undertaken, and to the requirement of proportionality. However, the framing did not pause to inquire the nature of the harm. I argue that it is important to conduct such a legal inquiry regarding the violation of the right, so to better examine alternatives. Secondly, this juxtaposition is a quintessential illustration of constitutional engineering, namely, an intellectual translating of various interests into the supposedly neat and structured discourse about interests and rights, which dictates which balancing formula applies. Articulating the public interest in health as a human right resulted, with some of the Justices’ analysis, in a horizontal balancing formula. This articulation and framing lead, unjustifiably, to a result that legitimized the privacy violation. Instead, the Article argues that understanding the limits of constitutional engineering opens the door to a more cautious approach, which makes room for a different kind of engineering: privacy engineering, aka privacy by design. Accordingly, the contact tracing technology should be designed in a manner that minimizes the harm to privacy ex ante.

From Young Turks to modern Turkey: the story of Hüseyin Aziz Akyürek (Aziz Bey), the last director of the Ottoman General Security Service

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of modern Turkey, was one of the early leaders of the Young Turk movement. Nevertheless, when he founded modern Turkey as a nation-state he pushed the veterans of the Young Turks aside, as their pan-Turanian ideology no longer suited the basics of the new state. The leaders of the Young Turks represented the past and their perceptions no longer corresponded with the change of circumstances and the new objects of the nascent state. While Armenian activists assassinated some of the top leaders of the Young Turks as a revenge for the Armenian genocide, second-rank leaders had now to find their way in modern Turkey. Aziz Bey was one of the seniors of the Ottoman security system during the Young Turks period and eventually reached the most senior position of director of the Ottoman General Security Service. When modern Turkey emerged, because of his remarkable talents, he managed to fit in middle-level positions in the new state (province governor, mayor and MP), but never regained elite status.

종합병원 경비업무의 발전방안에 관한 연구

본 연구는 종합병원 경비업무현장에서 병원 시설의 경비업무와 의료진, 환자 및 보호자 등의 내방객의 안전에까지 종합적인 경비업무를 수행 하고 있는 종합병원 경비업무 경비원들이 현재 인지하고 있는 문제점들을 바탕으로 종합병원 경비업무의 발전방안을 모색하는데 목적이 있다. 이러한 연구의 목적을 달성하기 위해 종합병원 경비업무에 6년 이상 종사하고 있는 현장전문가 9명에게 면담조사를 실시하여 자료를 분석하였다. 종합병원 경비업무를 수행하고 있는 종합병원 경비업무경비원들은 종합병원 경비업무의 발전방안을 다음과 같이 제시하였다. 첫째, 종합병원 경비업무 경비원들은 업무현장의 성격에 알맞은 신임교육 프로그램을 이수하여야 한다. 둘째, 종합병원 경비업무 경비원 직무교육도 실질적인 상황에 맞는 교육내용으로 프로그램의 개선이 필요하다. 셋째, 종합병원 경비업무 경비원들에게는 추가적으로 CS교육과 CPR 및 제세동기 사용법등의 응급상황 대처요령과 전염성 질병대처교육 등이 진행되어져야 한다. 넷째, 종합병원에서의 난동 및 폭력 행사자에 대한 대응범위가 구체적으로 명시되어져야 할 것이다. 다섯째, 경비협회에서는 종합병원경비업무의 발전을 위하여 경비원들을 위한 적극적인 프로그램 개발 및 다양한 노력이 필요하다. 여섯째, 종합병원 경비업무에 대한 인식 전환이 필요하며, 하도급에 의한 계약방식보다는 직접고용의 형태가 필요시 되어 진다.

종합병원 경비업무의 발전방안에 관한 연구

본 연구는 종합병원 경비업무현장에서 병원 시설의 경비업무와 의료진, 환자 및 보호자 등의 내방객의 안전에까지 종합적인 경비업무를 수행 하고 있는 종합병원 경비업무 경비원들이 현재 인지하고 있는 문제점들을 바탕으로 종합병원 경비업무의 발전방안을 모색하는데 목적이 있다. 이러한 연구의 목적을 달성하기 위해 종합병원 경비업무에 6년 이상 종사하고 있는 현장전문가 9명에게 면담조사를 실시하여 자료를 분석하였다. 종합병원 경비업무를 수행하고 있는 종합병원 경비업무경비원들은 종합병원 경비업무의 발전방안을 다음과 같이 제시하였다. 첫째, 종합병원 경비업무 경비원들은 업무현장의 성격에 알맞은 신임교육 프로그램을 이수하여야 한다. 둘째, 종합병원 경비업무 경비원 직무교육도 실질적인 상황에 맞는 교육내용으로 프로그램의 개선이 필요하다. 셋째, 종합병원 경비업무 경비원들에게는 추가적으로 CS교육과 CPR 및 제세동기 사용법등의 응급상황 대처요령과 전염성 질병대처교육 등이 진행되어져야 한다. 넷째, 종합병원에서의 난동 및 폭력 행사자에 대한 대응범위가 구체적으로 명시되어져야 할 것이다. 다섯째, 경비협회에서는 종합병원경비업무의 발전을 위하여 경비원들을 위한 적극적인 프로그램 개발 및 다양한 노력이 필요하다. 여섯째, 종합병원 경비업무에 대한 인식 전환이 필요하며, 하도급에 의한 계약방식보다는 직접고용의 형태가 필요시 되어 진다.

Securing Vehicular IPv6 Communications

A common practice is applying security after a network has been designed or developed. We have the opportunity of not committing this error in vehicular networks. Apart from particular works in the literature, ETSI TC ITS has defined general security services for (vehicular) cooperative systems. However, existent efforts do not pay the needed attention to the integration of IPv6 yet. The potential of IPv6 in the field is being described within ISO TC 204, above all, but further work is needed for a proper integration of security. This work follows this direction, and a reference vehicular communication architecture considering ETSI/ISO regulations, uses Internet Protocol security (IPsec) and Internet Key Exchange version 2 (IKEv2) to secure IPv6 Network Mobility (NEMO). A key advance is also the implementation and experimental evaluation of the proposal in a challenging vertical handover scenario between 3G and 802.11p. The performance of the secured NEMO channel is widely analyzed in terms of the movement speed, bandwidth, traffic type or signal quality, and it is concluded that the addition of IPv6 security only implies a slight reduction in the overall performance, with the great advantage of providing confidentiality, integrity and authenticity to the communication path.

The role of bureaucrats in designing policy outcomes: the case of the 2002 General Security Service (GSS) Law

AbstractSince the 1980s, and mainly since the 1990s, studies in politics and law have adopted an economic attitude to explaining judicial behaviour. In contrast, this paper follows the individualistic approach by focusing on the role of individuals in bureaucracies in designing policy outcomes, using political entrepreneurship and new institutionalism as its theoretical framework. In describing a specific institutional change in Israel – the passage of the General Security Service Law in 2002 – I maintain that this institutional change is an equilibrium that resulted from the actions of empowered military bureaucrats acting as political entrepreneurs who sought to maximise their own political assets in the light of certain structural and cultural conditions, both local and international. The institutional arena was characterised by the inability of the government to function effectively (non-governability), enhanced judicialisation, the dominance of security issues in Israel, and the development of a unique shared mental model of alternative political culture. However, it was still open to changes based on new liberal attitudes about human rights. Thus, politicians influence and are influenced by a wide range of institutional norms and practices in a complex process of changes in institutional design.

Building Terrorism from Social Ties: The Dark Side of Social Capital

In April 1984, 25 members of the Jewish Underground were arrested by the Israeli General Security Service moments after they had planted explosives in five Palestinian-owned buses. Their arrest and sentencing brought to an end one of the more sophisticated expressions of Jewish terrorism since the birth of Israel. Overall, the group planned four operations, one of which was the conspiracy to bomb the Muslim holy sites on the Temple Mount. As we outline below, social links between the members of the Jewish Underground significantly facilitated the creation of this organization. We demonstrate that social capital, here expressed in terms of networks, trust, and norms – which are widely considered important components of a healthy democracy – can take a negative turn toward participation in terrorism.

أثر الفقر و البطالة على السلوك الجرمي في المجتمع الأردني من وجهة نظر العاملين في جهاز الأمن العام = The Impact of Poverty and Unemployment on Criminal Behavior in the Jordanian Society from the Perspective of Workers in the GSS

This study aims to identify the impact of poverty and unemployment on the criminal behavior in the Jordanian society from the perspective of the workers in the General Security Service of Jordan. To achieve the objectives of this study, we had developed and designed a questionnaire to collect data. A simple random sample method has been used to determine the study sample. The reached samples were 350. After analyzing the questionnaire, the study found the following results; there is an effect for the poverty variable on changing criminal behaviors in the Jordanian society, there is also an effect for the variable of unemployment on criminal behaviors in the Jordanian society. The study recommends that there is a need for the government to raise income of individuals in the community through the development of financial policies to ensure the provision of a decent living in the Jordanian society, and the imposition of new legislation on venture capitalists and investors to raise the salaries of employees and to provide financial assistance to them to reduce the motivations that lead to committing criminal behavior, and the provision of decent jobs is working to reduce the commission of criminal behavior in the society.

The one-state condition: occupation and democracy in Israel/Palestine

Since the start of the occupation of Palestinian territories in 1967, Israel's domination of the Palestinians has deprived an entire population of any political status or protection. But even decades on, most people speak of this rule-both in everyday political discussion and in legal and academic debates-as temporary, as a state of affairs incidental and external to the Israeli regime. In The One-State Condition, Ariella Azoulay and Adi Ophir directly challenge this belief.Looking closely at the history and contemporary formation of the ruling apparatus-the technologies and operations of the Israeli army, the General Security Services, and the legal system imposed in the Occupied Territories-Azoulay and Ophir outline the one-state condition of Israel/Palestine: the grounding principle of Israeli governance is the perpetuation of differential rule over populations of differing status. Israeli citizenship is shaped through the active denial of Palestinian citizenship and civil rights.Though many Israelis, on both political right and left, agree that the occupation constitutes a problem for Israeli democracy, few ultimately admit that Israel is no democracy or question the very structure of the Israeli regime itself. Too frequently ignored are the lasting effects of the deceptive denial of the events of 1948 and 1967, and the ways in which the resulting occupation has reinforced the sweeping militarization and recent racialization of Israeli society. Azoulay and Ophir show that acknowledgment of the one-state condition is not only a prerequisite for considering a one- or two-state solution; it is a prerequisite for advancing new ideas to move beyond the trap of this false dilemma.

The Israeli Secret Services and the Struggle Against Terrorism (review)

Reviewed by: The Israeli Secret Services and the Struggle Against Terrorism Aaron M. Hoffman The Israeli Secret Services and the Struggle Against Terrorism, by Ami Pedahzur. New York: Columbia University Press, 2009. 215 pp. $22.50. On Thursday, April 12, 1984 four Fatah operatives commandeered the number 300 Egged bus en route from Tel Aviv, making hostages out of the thirty-four passengers on board. Although Israel had a unit within its police force (the "Yamam") that was specifically trained to deal with hostage events, Chief of Staff Moshe Levy "arbitrarily" called on Sayeret Matkal, a reconnaissance unit within the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), to conduct the rescue operation. Sayeret's mission ended after approximately nine minutes. During that time, two of the kidnappers and one of the hostages were killed and seven more passengers wounded. The remaining hostage takers were captured and summarily executed by operatives from the General Security Services acting on orders issued by GSS Chief Avraham Shalom. The 1984 hostage drama was neither the first nor the last time members of the Israeli government used the IDF's Sayeret Matkal instead of the more specialized Yamam to deal with Palestinian terrorism. Although Sayeret's forces often underperformed Yamam's and were occasionally responsible for political crises, Prime Minister after Prime Minister turned to the IDF for military solutions to Israel's terrorism problem. According to Ami Pedahzur, [End Page 163] in his fine book The Israeli Secret Services and the Struggle Against Terrorism, the Israeli government's preference for the "war model" can be traced to public pressure on democratic leaders to respond to terrorism decisively. The result is that the Israeli government consistently chooses counterproductive counterterrorism policies that help the Israeli public vent their collective spleen, but also provoke more terrorism and other political ills. Although Pedahzur's thesis about the problems associated with war-like responses to terrorism is not new, he approaches his analysis of Israel's counterterrorism dilemma in a novel way: through a series of original case studies of the Mossad's involvement in efforts to thwart Palestinian terror organizations. The case studies show the political tensions that shape Israeli counterterrorism policy and underscore Pedahzur's argument that the Israeli government remains committed to the war model even though the approach fails repeatedly. The case studies are the book's strongest suit, providing behind-the-scenes accounts of some of the Israeli secret services' finest moments (e.g., the rescue of a hijacked airliner in Entebbe) and humiliating defeats (e.g., the botched attempt to assassinate Khaled Mashal in Jordan). Pedahzur's narrative clearly benefits from interviews he did with members of the intelligence community that enable him to go beyond journalistic accounts of these events and provide an analysis of what went right and wrong during Israeli counterterrorism efforts. The Israeli Secret Service is less successful, however, at explaining Israel's attraction to the war model. Pedahzur argues the war model is ineffective as evidenced by the persistence of Palestinian terrorism even in the face of Israel's most aggressive efforts to prevent further attack. On the other hand, Israel's experiments with Pedahzur's favored "defensive" approach to counterterrorism produced a number of important successes. The most notable of these was the sharp reduction in suicide attacks after Israel constructed a separation barrier between it and the West Bank. Pedahzur reasons, therefore, that the war model's capacity to prevent terrorism cannot be its main selling point. The problem is that the evidence he marshals in support of this argument is not entirely persuasive. Demonstrating the weakness of the war model requires showing both that it failed to control Palestinian terrorism and that more effective alternatives were available. Pedhazur's evidence only addresses the first part of this formula. His argument that the separation barrier is proof of the superiority of the defensive model is convincing only if one ignores the daily rocket attacks that Hamas launched from Gaza in lieu of the suicide missions it previously conducted from the West Bank. Finally, Pedahzur's claim that democracies, like Israel, have a built-in inclination to rely on the war model overlooks the European experience with terrorism, which relied...

The Unmaking of the World

When looking at images, our experience is often profoundly marked by memories of previous visual encounters that affect us in unexpected ways. Sometimes events from intervening years have transformative effect--shifting our perspective so that upon returning to an image, we feel something new. Confronted with one panel from comic journalist Joe Sacco's fourth issue of Palestine, drawn and published in 1993, many readers will be reminded of specific group of images that hold such capacity to transform our ways of seeing. (1) In spite of fact that captive is not wearing poncho, panel is nevertheless reminiscent of notorious photographs from Abu Ghraib. To claim that hooded prisoner has become emblematic figure of war on terror--to degree that it haunts images from both near and distant past--does not seem unreasonable. (2) Moderate Pressure: Part Two (1993) describes how Ghassan, Palestinian man, was captured, interrogated, and tortured by Israel's General Security Service (GSS) in winter of 1991-92. (3) Alongside Sacco's 2006 reportage comic, Trauma on Loan, it represents an acute exploration of political and perceptual implications of what Elaine Scarry, in The Body in Pain (1985), calls the inexpressibility of physical pain. (4) In Trauma on Loan, two Iraqis tortured by American forces struggle to deliver testimony to American news media. Sacco's illustration of set of challenges they meet in doing so lends this account perspective absent from those of other journalists. (5) Although these stories are set in two very specific political and historical contexts, both revolve around crisis of witnessing embedded in very structure of torture itself--in severe hardship involved in what Scarry calls the passage of pain into speech. (6) To paraphrase title of Susan Sontag's book, distinctly verbal-visual style of Sacco's approach enables way of picturing pain of others--an ethical act of imagination that involves triangular constellation of victim, artist, and reader. (7) One of most immediate and important effects of Moderate Pressure: Part Two is way in which Sacco exposes rationalizing gestures of euphemism by showing us how is anything but. The ironic reference is to 1987 Israeli government report that suggested a moderate amount of physical pressure cannot be avoided during interrogations conducted by GSS (8); secret second part of report provided operational guidelines for permissible physical pressure. (9) Describing his work on human rights report about methods of GSS, Stanley Cohen writes: We wanted to undermine function of political language. (10) In same article, he also makes reference to this quotation by George Orwe: Such is needed if one wants to name things without calling up mental pictures of (11) Sacco's method deliberately insists on rendering precisely those mental pictures--opening gap between visual realities and phraseology used to describe them. Before Sacco met Ghassan, there was no record of his captivity, photographic or otherwise. This lack of testimonial proof represents only part of problem, for elimination of traceable evidence is built into very act of torture itself. When victim undergoes torture, hoods are not merely instruments of torture--reeking of urine and threatening asphyxiation--they also instill an immense sense of isolation, blinding and disorienting victim so as to protect identities of torturers. Providing accurate testimony thus becomes difficult, if not impossible. Imagining Ghassan's ordeal and giving it pictorial form offers way to render invisible visible. By entering and inviting reader into secluded torture room, Sacco addresses pain's fundamental inexpressibility under severest conditions while enabling it to enter realm of shared discourse. …

The Contradictions of State‐Minority Relations in Israel: The Search for Clarifications

One of the best prisms to examine and evaluate the nature of the Israeli regime upon Israel’s sixty years of independence is the relationship between the state and its indigenous Palestinian minority. This relationship is important because of its implications on the identity of the state and its stability in the future. State-minority relations have undergone major developments in the last decade. The October 2000 events, in which 13 Arab citizens were killed by the police forces, mark an important indicator as to the fragility of this relationship. Despite the publication of the Or Commission Report that investigated the events and reiterated that the Israeli police forces treated Israeli Arab citizens as enemies, the Attorney General decided not to put any of the policemen to trial because of “lack of evidence.” Since October 2000, the Knesset passed several laws that have a deeply negative impact on the civil status and the political rights of the Arab minority. New official and unofficial initiatives sought to draft a constitution for the state of Israel, seeking to enshrine its character as an ethnic Jewish republic. These initiatives granted back winds to new policies of the Israeli General Security Service that declared that any challenge to the Jewish character of the state including by democratic means will be considered as a strategic threat that are deemed illegitimate. Simultaneously the Israeli Supreme Court has delivered several landmark rulings that protect basic individual liberal rights with clear collective implications for the Arab minority. The Arab minority, on its part, has been mobilizing new political and civic resources and developing new strategies of contention to improve its status in the Israeli state. Political and recently also civil institutions began reiterating the inherent contradiction between the exclusive hegemony of the Jewish majority over state institutions and resources and the probability of establishing justice and promoting democracy. In this context, political and civic leaders of the new Arab elite published new visionary documents that challenge the Jewish hegemony and demand individual as well as collective rights for the minority. Whereas these documents were introduced in order to exert pressure on the state and invite its leadership into a dialogue over state-minority relations, the Jewish majority conceived them as yet another indicator of the radicalization of the Arab minority. Understanding these developments in state-minority relations without falling into mere depiction of events could benefit from newly published theoretical and practical literature on policies of diversity regulation and conflict management. This literature draws attention to the various models of dealing with minority rights, pinpointing the advantages and limitations of each. On the other hand, examining state-minority relations in Israel may contribute to the debate regarding the advantages and limitations of various models of diversity regulation and shed light on some of their aspects that are overlooked. Minority rights and status have become a central topic in the professional literature in major fields such as constitutional law and political philosophy. Recent literature has depicted two main grand strategies for regulating diversity. One is integration and the other is accommodation.1 Whereas the first is usually applied in the case of national minorities, seeking to integrate its members into the majority society, the second is more appropriate for dealing with the basic rights of indigenous peoples. Commenting on the dominant models

Judicial Administrative Review in Times of Discontent: The Israeli Supreme Court and the Second Palestinian UprisingGuy I. Seidman is a Senior Lecturer, the Interdisciplinary Centre, Herzliya, Israel.

Most democracies offer some form of judicial review of administrative action,1 yet they differ greatly in the remedies available, and in judges' willingness to pass judgement on executive action an...

The Interrogation Policy of the Israeli General Security Service: Between Law and Politics

The last decade was characterized to a large extent by terrorist activities, especially in democratic countries. This phenomenon placed various state security organizations, such as Israel's Genera...

Public Committee Against Torture in Israel and Others v. State of Israel, General Security Service and Others

283 Human rights — Torture — Prohibition of torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment — Absolute character of prohibition — Interrogation techniques — Counter-terrorism — Use of physical force in interrogation prohibited in the absence of clear statutory authorization — The law of Israel

Security and Human Rights Policy: Israel and the Interrogation Case of 1999

When are interrogators exempt from criminal responsibility by the imperative to acquire information that might save lives endangered by terrorist attack? This article uses the Israeli example to show that aspects of security policy previously assumed to be based on independent foundations actually results from political bargaining. Interrogation of terrorist suspects is governed instead by bargaining between political leaders, civil servants and interest groups, all of whom function in an environment conditioned by non-governability, judicialization, and an alternative political culture. This article examines tensions between human rights and domestic security through a detailed analysis of the dispute over interrogation methods by the Israeli General Security Service (Shin Beth), which resulted in the Israeli High Court of Justice's Interrogation Decision of 1999. While most studies deal with security culture as a belief that determines polices, this article elaborates on the input of various political actors who operate within a complex of variables. The article examines the alternative culture in Israel that has a powerful effect on the creation of public security policy. The gridlock created by competing governmental institutions has prompted judicial intervention in many areas. Faced with a paralysed government, interest groups have created an alternative political culture, stressing action through the courts. Accelerated judicial activism has the effect of diminishing respect for the law in the eyes of the public.

No Place to Hide: Intelligence and Civil Liberties in Israel

In its quest for security and under constant threats, the Israeli state has assigned wide-ranging powers to its intelligence services. These powers include deep incursions into individual liberties and privacy, powers of detention and interrogation, as well as involvement in assassinations. To ensure that those powers are only used legally and against real threats, a system of legal controls and parliamentary oversight over the intelligence community has developed incrementally. The article examines the development of intelligence oversight in Israel and analyses its performance and limits. The article begins by examining historical milestones in the development of intelligence oversight, including the Tubianski affair, official assassinations and ‘Committee-X’, and the ‘Bus 300’ affair. It then analyses the 2002 General Security Service Law and the work of the Intelligence Community Disciplinary Court and the Knesset Intelligence Sub-committee. The roles of Commissions of Inquiry and of the State Comptroller are discussed against the background of various intelligence failures and scandals. The article concludes with a discussion of the strengths and limitations of intelligence oversight in Israel.

C2. FORMER HEADS OF SHIN BET REFLECT ON ISRAEL'S PRESENT AND FUTURE, JERUSALEM, 14 NOVEMBER 2003.

This long, free-flowing, and wideranging conversation among four former heads of Israel's internal security service (variously referred to as Shin Bet, General Security Services [GSS], and Shabak) was organized, moderated, recorded, and written up by Yedi'ot Aharonot reporters Alex Fishman and Sima Kadman. The ex-GSS directors are (in order of their service) Avraham Shalom (December 1980––September 1986), Yaakov Peri (April 1988––March 1995), Carmi Gillon (March 1995––February 1996), and Ami Ayalon (February 1996––May 2000). The men, whose meeting had apparently been sought by Ayalon to secure backing for his peace initiative (see Doc. A1 above), addressed with unprecedented frankness a wide range of issues from overall political directions to the effectiveness of closures and targeted killings from a security standpoint.The translated article was distributed by Gush Shalom and is available online at www.gush-shalom.org.