Behind Israel’s Democracy: Deconstructing the Israeli military system

On January 21st 2015, the Israeli military court sentenced Malak Khateeb, 14 years of age, to two months in prison. Lina Khattab, 18, who was just beginning her freshman year of university has been in the Israeli military court system since December 13th 2014. It has been a month and a half and Khattab has not received any conviction. Moreover, the judge has refused Khattab bail. During her 5th court hearing the judge proclaimed “if I release her now, she will be treated like a celebrity.”

According to the Palestinian Prisoners Affairs Ministry approximately 70 percent of Palestinian families have had a family member arrested by Israel at some stage. Through creating a military court system, Israel paints a portrait of being a just, democratic state acting in accordance with the rule of law. What is left unmentioned, however, is the sinister manner which these courts are orchestrated.

For Palestinians, the conviction rate by the Israeli courts is 99.7 percent. Rarely do Palestinians stand a chance at being found innocent and released. The military courts endorsed by the Israeli government revolve around breaking the will of Palestinians; a tactic to ensure that there is no paradigm shift in the unequal power dynamics.

Walking through Ofer military camp east of the West Bank, passing through two checkpoints, you are greeted with gray concrete walls and a wire fence. Israeli soldiers in uniform are present everywhere and every move one makes is essentially controlled by the guard in charge.

Although we were present to audit Lina Khattab’s court session, it was as though we too were being incarcerated. Khattab’s father explains as he walks back and forth outside the courts attempting to keep himself warm “Look at this, this is exactly like jail. The fence, the gate that is guarded, you can’t enter or leave without their permission, you’re under their mercy. It’s exactly like jail”

The courts are built around reiterating the colonial narrative that Israel is in control of Palestinian lives both inside jail and outside. Through its intricate military court system, Israel attempts to enforce collective punishment on both the detainees and their families, placing those involved in a state of anxiety and helplessness.

As they are being processed into the system, Palestinians must endure constant harassment, dehumanization and humiliation by Israeli police. Between 2009 and 2014, human rights organization B’Tselem recorded 64 testimonies from Palestinians, 54 being minors, of violence being used against them during interrogation as they were being processed in Israel’s “justice” system.

Khattab herself has reported mistreatment where she was verbally and physically attacked by Israeli forces during her detention. There is no justice in the Israeli military courts. The judge merely acts as a symbol and the prosecution will employ any idea in order to rationalize the imprisonment of the detainee.

In shackles, Palestinians sit behind a barred area attempting to decipher the ongoing trial which takes place in Hebrew. The translators provided by the court are never sufficient, nor do they care enough to correctly translate throughout the entire hearing. There is an insidious denial of Palestinian existence. Instead, Palestinians are constantly objectified and viewed simply as the “other.”

This is evident in the manner in which the prosecution approaches the detainees: never making eye-contact and using the same language to illustrate every Palestinian detainee to the judge, with no regard to the actual case presented against the detainee. The prisoner is portrayed as a delinquent who places Israel at risk, someone who does not belong within society because they may encourage violent behavior – discounting whether or not they have actually committed the allegations against them.

Usually in cases such as stone-throwing or demonstrations, the evidence presented by the prosecution is based on testimonies by Israeli soldiers. Whether they are true or not is rarely investigated, rather it is a familiar ploy of pitting their words against that of Palestinians. In Israeli military courts, the word of an Israeli soldier overrides the evidence presented.

It is worth noting that Israel is built around its military and a perpetuation of jingoism. Consequently, such testimonies are viewed as the word of those that preserve the state and ensure the safety of Israelis. To question their word is to question the ethics of the military, and thus conceding that their system may be flawed.

One Palestinian female explains “as they [Israeli army] detained us, one of them told me ‘I’m going to mess up your life.'” Subsequently, she was arrested on the basis of a soldier’s testimony. Israeli soldiers are well aware of the privileges they possess in Israeli courts and whether or not they are saying truth, the voice of Palestinians holds no authenticity for the court.

At the same time as presenting propaganda to the international community to produce an illusion of democracy and justice, Israel continues to escalate its oppression of Palestinians, constantly provoking them in order to exploit the perpetuated frustration to justify their continued occupation.

Whether you are 10 or 60-years-old, you are a threat to the state. It is not an act to maintain justice, but a different manifestation of colonialism designed to break the will of Palestinians. An endeavor to have Palestinians succumb to the status quo.

After her 5th court hearing, Lina Khattab’s family walked out of the court uttering: “They’re trying to break her. They see her smiling and fighting and they’re trying to break her. This is not for justice, it’s an attempt to bring her to a state of hopelessness.”

This is emblematic of Israel’s idea of democracy. The routine of the military court system evokes memories of “breaking the bones” policy, utilized during the First Intifada under former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s orders. The point of the tactic was not to kill Palestinians, but to disable them from continuing any more actions against the occupation – to immobilize their efforts at resistance and remind them that they are still alive but under the mercy of the occupier.

As the Israeli army is crippling the Palestinians physically, the Israeli military court system attempts to produce a similar effect on a psychological level. It is rewiring the Palestinian’s cognitive processes to yield to the despotic power controlling the territories. The courts are merely an act under the pretext of democratic rule, with judges that are purely symbolic and jail cells that asphyxiate. Papers continue to be typed out and files prepared, as more Palestinians are processed through this charlatan court.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.