In the Maws of Israeli Justice – A First Hand Report

The court is in the police station,

That’s the first clue,

A building constructed by the British

To help contain the Arab population

Before the modern Israeli Era.

That purpose has not changed.

The judge is wearing an army uniform,

That is your second clue,

Something that suggests the outcome is foreordained.

You do not need any other clues.

But if this message is unclear

Or too nuanced

Please note that the translator is wearing an army uniform

The court reporter is wearing an army uniform

And the half dozen armed soldiers in the courtroom are wearing army uniforms.

Only the prosecuting attorney is out of uniform,

But he is still sneeringly self-assured,

For he too knows the outcome of this case,

As do the soldiers,

The court reporter,

And the prisoner,

Who has been denied access to his lawyer

for over three months.

Everyone knows the outcome,

Guaranteed and assured by hand and ankle cuffs,

By automatic weapons,

By nuclear weapons,

By the overwhelming power of the state.

The prosecutor speaks first.

He says the prisoner is suspected

Of being a member, or associate, or backer,

     follower, fan, devotee, adherent, sympathizer,

     organizer, sycophant, protégé, or operative,

Maybe.

Or perhaps being in the known presence

Of someone, or some organization,

Perhaps the political party that won the popular election,

Perhaps he is seditious

Perhaps a supporter of terrorism by the starving oppressed

Perhaps he holds positions antithetical to the government’s.

Besides, free speech and free association are not assured

Nor is the free exchange of ideas assured

And although no formal charges have yet been brought

And none are known to exist

Not to the defense

Not to the prisoner

Not to his lawyer

Not even to the judge

We are conducting an investigation,

Says the prosecutor,

And the investigation is not complete

And we need more time

Because during the time we had the prisoner

Chained and interrogated twenty one hours a day

For six straight days –

We rested on the seventh –

And he was most cooperative

Our prisoner

But we learned no thing

So the investigation must continue

And we need him in prison to do so

And an extension of his detention is needed

Away from his family and young children

Away from his students and his neighbors

Just like the hundreds of others we arrested and detained this week

Or was it last week, or the week before that,

On suspicion of being Palestinian.

The prisoner is allowed to speak

May it please the Court, the prosecutor,

The members of the army here today

And others in the courtroom, he says.

I am professor of law Hassan A. Gassan.

There are six Hassan Gassan’s at my university.

How does the prosecution even know

It was I, this Hassan Gassan, who was meant to be arrested?

That it was me intended to be dragged from his home

At two A.M.

My wife and children made to wait in the cold

My home searched without a warrant.

I have told the investigators everything I know,

Answered every question they have asked.

I know nothing more than the investigators now know,

Do not even know what the charges against me are

Or what separates me from my two month old daughter,

My son, my anxious wife

Other than the arbitrary power of the state.

Thank you.

Yes, yes, says the judge, tired of this tedium,

And who are these other people in the court with you,

It is unusual for anyone to attend these proceedings

Because the families of Palestinians

Are not permitted into Israel

And why would anyone else care?

Perhaps they will identify themselves.

We are Israeli friends of the prisoner and his family, we say,

We are international peace activists,

Educators, lawyers,

We are observers, 

We are here to see how justice will be rendered in this case.

Very impressive, says the judge,

And most unusual.

That said, the ruling of this court

Is that the government’s request for an extension of detention

Is completely reasonable in this case and hereby granted.

It is really that brusque, that arbitrary

And that fina,l

Again and again

For Palestinian prisoners in the Israeli courts of justice

In the democratic Israeli state.

© B.R.Taub, Feb, 2008