Veteran Israeli security and intelligence analyst Yossi Melman published this week an unusual report, describing Deep State in Israel through collusion of the secretive security apparatus and the judges. Based on entirely different set of facts, OpEdNews.com 2013 article reached the same conclusions: "ISRAEL: Nation hijacked by a Shin-Bet Judiciary Gang". Obviously, "Democracy" is inconsistent with an Apartheid regime. Moreover, the Israeli Apartheid has led to breakdown of formal state governance.
The killing of Palestinian Fadi Wash'ha. Times of Gaza, Twitter, June 02, 2021.
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Tel-Aviv, January 5 - veteran Israeli security and intelligence analyst Yossi Melman published this week an unusual report. [i] The report stems from criminal indictment of Israeli drone manufacturer Aeronautics for illegal exports of drones to an "Asian superpower rival of the United States". [ii,iii]
Foreign press explicitly named the mysterious customer - China. [iv] And US pressure is probably what caused the unusual enforcement of the law in this case, where notable Israeli political and security figures have held senior positions in the company along the years. [v] Melman states that he was the one who had exposed the Aeronautics affair 4.5 years ago. His expose' caused embarrassment to the Israeli establishment and forced the opening of the criminal investigation. The same company is also suspected for bombing Armenia as a mercenary corporation, but that issue is not part of the indictment. [vi,vii] Allegations of criminal exports by other Israeli security corporations, e.g. - NSO, maker of Pegasus, have never resulted in criminal investigation in Israel. [viii]
However, The thrust of Melman's most report is different - the gag orders placed on the affair by the Israeli courts at the request of the security apparatus. [ix] Melman describes his fight against the gag orders in the various courts as "theater of the absurd", since such gag orders were imposed while the information is readily available through the international press and various online sources, including Wikipedia. The gag orders went as far as retroactively prohibiting publishing by Melman of details from his own previous reports of the affair.
Melman notes the obvious: court proceedings leading to such gag orders are held behind closed doors, and in part also ex parte - judges hear the security apparatus and its counsel, while Melman and his counsel are barred from the court.
Referring to a long list of affairs, Melman notes that in his half century career as a journalist he has struggled against censorship by the Israeli security apparatus up and down the courts; he has appeared before "conservative" and "liberal" judges alike. The outcome has always been the same. The courts grant the security apparatus gag orders on any affair, old or new, that is a source of embarrassment.
Melman concludes that the situation in Israel has deteriorated over the decades, and today it reflects the full emergence of "Deep State" regime:
'Deep State' - refers to a state hidden under the surface" condition where a secretive group, made up of invisible power networks, works independently of the elected political leadership of the state and advances it own objectives and its own agenda" In Israel, such dubious term is applicable to the security apparatus, which operates as a state within the state and does whatever it wishes" with backing of the court system. Such joint, two pronged attack exhausts the few that are still ready to fight for justice, Human Rights" I am a Don Quixote fighting the windmills...
While Melman's grievances primarily pertain to Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press, the same phenomena are obvious to no lesser extent in other areas of life in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. For example - long term "Administrative Detentions" of Palestinians with no indictment, no trial, not conviction, but under the stamp of approval by the courts. Such administrative detentions are often used by the security apparatus to cripple any emergence of legitimate, authentic political Palestinian leadership. Under such circumstances, the only way for detainees to regain their freedom is the starve themselves to near death. The most recent case - Hisham Abu Hawwash. [x]
Perhaps the breakdown of formal governance is most notable in events over the past year, where Jewish settlers act jointly with the security apparatus, build illegal "outposts" and perpetrate murderous pogroms against Palestinian villagers in disregard of explicit government policy, Knesset law and Supreme Court rulings. [xi,xii,xiii]
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