Two Knesset committees are demanding the right to see the report submitted to the government more than a year ago by a special judicial panel that investigated Jewish vigilantism on the West Bank. But Attorney General Yitzhak Zamir insists the time is not ripe to publish the report and have it discussed in the Knesset.
Zamir told the Knesset Interior Committee today that to publicize the findings and recommendations of the committee, headed by Deputy Attorney General Yehudit Karp, would be contrary to “proper administrative procedures ” at this time since various ministries are presently involved in implementing the recommendations. He offered the same argument before the Knesset’s Constitution Committee.
Karp has resigned from the panel, originally set up by the Justice Ministry. She charged that the Ministry failed to act on its recommendations. She also complained that her investigation was hampered by the failure of the military and police authorities on the West Bank to cooperate. The investigation focussed on a long series of incidents on the West Bank from mid-1980 to the end of 1982 in which acts of harassment, vandalism and violence allegedly by Jewish settlers against West Bank Arabs went unpunished.
The report was said to have found that the police on the West Bank, who are controlled by the army, have been unable to cope with offenses by Jewish settlers because of a shortage of competent manpower, lack of coordination between police and the military and the refusal of settlers to cooperate in the investigation of Jews suspected of offenses against Arabs.
WANT POLICE FUNCTION DEFINED
Members of the Interior Committee insisted that the status and function of the Israeli police in the occupied territories be clearly defined so that they could investigate cases of alleged Jewish vigilantism. Yehezkel Karti, chief of the investigations division at police general headquarters, told the committee the police were powerless because they were subordinate to the military authorities in the territories.
Zamir told the committee that the still unsettled situation in Lebanon was one reason for delaying a discussion of the report. He apparently convinced the Interior Committee to wait another month for the ministers of defense, justice and interior to complete their study of the Karp report and issue directives. The Constitution Committee insisted that the Attorney General submit the report at once.
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