Karp Report Under Fire

The report by Deputy Attorney General Yehudit Karp citing shortcomings in the maintenance of law and order in the administered territories came under sharp attack today by two of the groups criticized in the report — the settlers and the police.

Representatives of the settlers in Judaea and Samaria charged in a statement that the Karp report “was full of lies” and that most of the cases cited in it dealing with Jewish vigilantism were based on unreliable information, obtained primarily from one former police officer who had served in the territories.

The Karp report, published by the government last Tuesday, some 18 months after it was completed, maintained that the settlers were mostly responsible for the tensions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the settlers noted today. Actually, they asserted, in most cases, the Arabs were responsible for the tensions and frictions between Arabs and Jews. They charged, furthermore, that the Karp report was motivated by hostility toward the Jewish settlements in the territories.

According to the settlers, Karp now faces the challenge of either suing them for libel or resigning. Karp had resigned last year to protest the government’s failure to act on her report. She withdrew her resignation later and her report came under review at the highest government levels.

ELEMENTS IN THE KARP REPORT

The Karp report deals specifically with 70 cases of clashes involving Arabs and Israeli security forces and Jewish civilians. It charged that police investigation into some of the cases was “poor and faulty,” and noted that delays in the investigation process were caused by the separation of powers between the police and the military. Nearly half the cases — 33 out of 70 — were closed with no action taken against suspects, Jewish civilians. The police recommended pressing charges only in 15 cases.

The report noted, however, that there were many objective problems in law enforcement in the territories, including manpower shortage, poor quality of police work, language difficulties and a hostile Arab population.

The settlers’ charges were supported today by Commissioner Yehoshua Caspi, the head of the Israeli police southern command. Addressing police officers, be said that the proportion of charges against 15 of the 70 cases cited in the Karp report was not less than the proportion of cases moved for prosecution in Israel proper.

Caspi did note, however, that there were not enough police to handle the work in the territories only one policeman in Kiryat Arba, for example–and that there was insufficient intelligence work beyond routine criminal cases.

Eli Kulas, chairman of the Knesset Law Committee, responded to the settlers statement and to Caspi by observing that if the preservation of law and order was necessary within Israel proper, it was even more necessary in the territories.

In a 10-point statment last Sunday, the Cabinet promised that the army, the police and other security agencies would assign more manpower and resources to deal with Arab and Jewish lawbreakers, and agreed on a series of “guidelines” aimed at correcting the deficiences in law enforcement.