1/14 A few quick observations after visiting the "Salame" Military Court with colleagues and students today. The facility is located in the Northern West Bank region of Jenin.
2/14 The court, such that it is, has jurisdiction over crimes directed against Israeli forces, citizens and interests in the West Bank, as well as any criminal activity, including traffic offenses in area C, which under the Oslo accords remained under Israeli civilian control.
3/14 Few Israeli citizens know about the activity of the court. It looks like something between a military base and a prison. Courtrooms and offices for prosecutors and judges are all in precast containers. Detainees caged behind barbed wire.
4/14 There are two separate entrances, whereby Israelis access from one side, and WB Palestinians from another. The only possible meeting point, as far as I can tell, is in the courtroom itself.
5/14 We heard a case against a person charged with illegally transporting an M-16. The military requested to have him arrested until the end proceedings. The judge did not call it a "request" but an "objection": apparently such requests are normally agreed to by the defense.
6/14 The case did not have a political or national security background, but concerned an alleged non-political crime. The adjudication of such regular crime in area C is one aspect in which the occupation is still absolutely direct, and still unmediated by the PA.
7/14 The defense attorney, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, did a very good job and kind of made fun of a less experienced and not well prepared prosecutor. This is apparently very rare, as most defense lawyers working here are WB Palestinians who do not even understand Hebrew.
8/14 I chatted with one such lawyer, a friendly man from the nearby village of Toubas. He was eager to talk in Russian, but we had to make do with my Arabic. Came back three years ago from a decade in Moscow, where he also got his legal training (which he was very proud of).
9/14 Said the courts in Russia are fairer than these military courts, which are "premised on discrimination." Argued my teaching should focus on international law. Relies on the soldier-translator in the court room, but cannot read the evidence files, which are all in Hebrew.
10/14 A problem that has been very central here and is still at the center of our concern is physical pressure during interrogation and torture. As we stood in the yard a Palestinian lawyer realized we were mainly students: "And they came to learn from this place??"
11/14 Unlike in the other more central military court ("Ofer"), here defense attorneys do not have rooms for consultation with their clients. Perhaps even more disturbing is the waiting area for the families of suspects and defendants.
12/14 After they enter through a small checkpoint, they are basically locked into a concrete area until they are called to the courtroom. Often it is hard to know when this will happen. We met a few exhausted family members there, who look like they may be farmers from the area.
13/14 Striking how many roles played by Arabic speakers: defendants and their families, defense lawyers, translators, prison guards. Even the prosecutor was an Arab soldier, presumably Druze. Judge was a Jewish guy in reserve duty who visibly tried to show the procedure is fair.
14/14 Is pushing for better protection of due process rights here a worthwhile thing to do? Such a push may yield results; this place looks like it was basically forgotten. But what are the politics of such an effort?
