Much has been made about the differences between Israeli airport safety screenings and those conducted in the US. It is generally accepted that the Israelis use stereotyping to prescreen passengers (although at Ben Gurion, there is a second screening process that resembles those found elsewhere).
This is not the case, however, when the Israeli police break up protests against expulsions and demonstrations. Recently, there have been complaints that young women from religious communities (read: right wing reactionaries) have been subjected to strip searches, with or without invasive procedures. After some play in the local press, the matter has reached the Knesset, which has begun a series of special hearings into the matter.
Arutz Sheva reports on the most recent hearing.
A police officer stunned the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women Wednesday by saying that young Jewish girls at expulsions must be searched bodily because they may be wearing suicide bomber belts.
Police investigator Avi Rosh told the panel, “Our search procedures are carried out according to the law. They require the suspect's consent, but if she does not agree, the officer explains that he has the right carry out a search by force. It is not a full undressing. Remember, a suspect may have a suicide belt.”
See, she consents so it's okay. See, she's a religious fanatic so she could be suicidal. See?
National Union Knesset Member Dr. Michael Ben-Ari, who has asked the committee to hold a hearing on the issue, replied, “You are making yourself look silly. Whoever maintains that a [Jewish] girl at a protest is suspected of carrying a suicide belt needs to be hospitalized for observation.”
Maybe, they, too, should be stripped searched before they are hospitalized! Who knows what messages they have stowed in their abdominal orifices. It's a risk, you know.
Rosh tried to explain that the same law that allows body searches for terrorists and drug smugglers applies to girls at demonstrations and expulsions, and he advised lawmakers “not to restrict our authority.”
Committee chairwoman Tzipi Hotovely, a Likud Knesset Member, told the hearing, "Nothing damages human rights more than disrespectful body searches of women. Our aim is to protect young women who are arrested from suffering what has been described in these hearings as searches that result in what is similar to the trauma of rape."
Israel National News previously has documented dozens of instances of violations of girl’s rights demonstrations and expulsions, including those at Gush Katif in 2005 and later at Amona in Samaria. Male police officers, in violation of the law, frequently manhandled young girls, often brutally touching sensitive parts of the body and sometimes ripping off their clothes.
The fact is that Israel's police practices are an unintended legacy from the former British Colonial administration. This accounts for many arcane practices not found (but envied) elsewhere in the world. The most glaring difference between Israel and US police procedure is a clear statement of individual rights before a police interrogation begins.
MK Hotovely said it was difficult to bring some girls to testify at the hearing because of their trauma from police violence, but several agreed and described their experiences, which included the fear of searches by force if they did not agree to a thorough bodily examination.
She asked why police cannot carry out the law that requires them to explain suspects’ rights. Why is it so difficult to present them with a document explaining their rights? Not every girl who is arrested at a demonstration is a suspect of smuggling drugs or wearing a suicide belt.
Orit Struk, head of the Human Rights Organization for Judea and Samaria, said that a police officer told her that they used body searches of girls as a tactic to stop the girls from acting in a way the police described as “chutzpah.”
Police officer Rosh maintained that body searches are used to prevent self-inflicted damage or the transfer of a note to someone else. He then compared the procedures with those used on criminals. “The criminal world is very creative and knows how to get around the law,” he told the committee.
MK Ben-Ari told him, "The problem is that you do not use your resources intelligently. Most police officers know that that girls at Ramat Migron [a community in Samaria] do not use drugs."
Stereotyping? Rights? Miranda? What about badges? Maybe they have to show their badges?
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