A rerun -- or deterioration?

In January 1989 I was questioned by the Jerusalem police over the publication of the "Service Notebook 2" of the "Yesh Gvul" movement, which included information about what soldiers could expect if they refused to serve in the Occupied Territories. I was one of the of five activists in the movement who were invited for questioning on the orders of the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), which wanted to know where the Notebook had been printed and who wrote it.

Since I retain nearly every crumb of information that is related to my activism and my writing, I found in my files a report by Lily Galili about that investigation that was published in Haaretz, which stated among other things: Spiro refused to disclose any information to the interrogator, saying that "this is a political investigation and therefore it is not an appropriate forum for giving information" and that "all of the activities of the Yesh Gvul movement are overt and known." (Haaretz 9/1/1989) The others who were questioned did the same.

At that time there were protests that the investigation was a political one, the purpose of which was to silence people and intimidate members of the movement and its sympathizers. One of the comments at the time that I remember was that in Israel, unlike in democracies worthy of the name, the ISA has a state, the institutions of which dance to the ISA's tune. In the end we were not charged with any crime. The reasons for that are not known to me, because police did not see fit to report why they chose to close the file.

I was reminded of that affair a few days ago when the police raided the homes of activists of the New Profile movement, seized their computers and detained them for questioning on suspicion of "incitement to evasion of military service".

The officer who was responsible for that heroic operation said that the raid was the result of an investigation that had been going on for the past six months.

This is a pathetic attempt to glorify a squalid police action. Half a year to investigate an organization all the actions of which are overt and known? To seize computers when all the information on its activities appears on the movement's Internet website and it is available to anyone? It is clear on its face that this is not about information but political persecution.

Now as then, the initiative for the police investigation came from the a security source, this time the Chief Military Prosecutor, who asked the Attorney General to investigate the activities of New Profile, and the latter complied with the order and instructed the police to launch an investigation. Not only does the ISA have a state, the army has one too. It is no wonder that the Chief Military Prosecutor, Brig.-Gen. Avichai Mandelblit, initiated the investigation. For the man who gives judicial backing to the army's war crimes and the crimes of the Occupation, young people with consciences and a commitment to human rights who refuse to be war criminals represent a real danger. The Chief Military Prosecutor fears that those youths will influence others to reconsider their relationship with the army, and the army will thus be confronted with a diminished pool of manpower to carry out its dirty work.

The police investigation is intended not only to intimidate the activists of New Profile – which I am sure that the police and the army will fail to do – but first and foremost to strike fear into the hearts of young people who may be receptive to the ideas of New Profile, and to return them to the conformist groove of willingness to enlist without asking too many questions.

The police raid and the seizure of computers is a classic tactic of a despotic regime that fears the spirit of freedom and citizens who think outside the box. It is a blatant and crude attack on freedom of expression and political organization. New Profile is an important movement that works for civil society and against the militarization of Israeli society. Those objectives are the anchor and the basis of a democratic society.

Judicial language can be used flexibly to justify any abomination. With its help any legal and democratic action that is intended to encourage critical thought and humanist values can be converted into "incitement to evasion". It is as if parents who prevent their children from using drugs were accused of "cruelty to minors". That is how a government of maniacs operates.

From a narrow judicial perspective, New Profile`s actions do not differ from those of accountants who advise their clients how legally to avoid paying taxes. Young people who want to avoid military service are told: "listen, these are your rights under the law". Since I have been doing that since long before New Profile came into existence, nothing remains for me except – in the framework of my solidarity with the movement and its objectives – to report to a police station and file a complaint against myself. If a few hundred or thousand more supporters of the movement do that, the police will be flooded with complaints and the courtroom scenes will be interesting.

And as for the Chief Military Prosecutor, he should be put on trial together with all the rest of the top echelon of the army and the government for war crimes and violations of human rights over 42 years of occupation and various superfluous wars. And in this context the Spanish Judge, who has not been dissuaded from continuing his investigation into Israel's war crimes and war criminals, is deserving of our praise and gratitude.