Supreme Court Rejects Adalah's Petition Opposing Closed Commission Hearings for GSS Witnesses

On 4 February 2002, the Supreme Court rejected a petition filed by Adalah Staff Attorney Marwan Dalal demanding that the official Commission of Inquiry into the October 2000 protest demonstrations (“the Commission”) hold open hearings for General Security Services (GSS) witnesses scheduled to testify on 6 February 2002. The Court affirmed the Commission’s decision to hold in camera hearings and to consider releasing portions of the GSS testimony at a later date, reasoning that this decision strikes a reasonable balance between the interests of state security and the public's right to know.

Adalah opposed the Commission's decision to hold in camera hearings on the grounds that it violates the rights of the victims' families as well as the rest of the public to attend the hearings. As Adalah argued in the petition, many intelligence officers have testified in open hearings before the Commission in the past, and the GSS should not receive special treatment. According to the testimony of other intelligence officers before the Commission, the GSS had direct and primary involvement in the Palestinian community of Israel before and during the October 2000 protest demonstrations. Moreover, based on the findings of the Landau Commission (1987) and the State Comptroller's Report (2000), the GSS have a history of giving false testimony or otherwise obscuring the truth of the events in which they played a role.

(See also Adalah News Updates,  "Supreme Court to Hear Adalah's Petition Against Closed Commission Hearings for GSS Witnesses" - 1 February 2002; and "Adalah Submits a Motion to the Commission Opposing Closed Hearings for the GSS" - 28 January 2002.)