Israel: Information on police and immigrants from the former Soviet Union

The following interview was held with the Project Director of the Police Watch Unit at the Association for Civil Rights In Israel (ACRI). The interview was conducted in Tel Aviv on 11 April 1995.

Background

        The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) was established in 1972 to bolster Israel's commitment to civil liberties and human rights through legal action, education and public outreach. ACRI is a non-partisan, nonprofit organization that protects the rights of all individuals in Israel and in the occupied territories, regardless of religion, nationality or political beliefs.

ACRI pursues its goals by preparing curricula for Jewish and Arab schools and provides teachers with the information and skills required to teach civil rights. Training programs are initiated to foster human rights awareness among police officers and prison personnel. The organization provides legal counselling for rights violations at offices in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Beersheva.

                ACRI has approximately 1,000 members and its offices employ 40 workers. It is funded by membership's contributions, grants from foundations and individuals.

ACRI does not ask for Teudat Zehut(1) when a person comes to the office for services. ACRI assists people in need whether they are citizens or not, Jewish or non-Jewish, men or women. For example, ACRI assists foreign workers coming from Thailand and Romania to Israel.

ACRI advertises its services in the Russian press in Israel. ACRI services, along with those of several other organizations, have also been advertised in public awareness publicity that appeared in the Russian-speaking press. This public awareness advertisement was aimed at providing new immigrants with information about the various services available to them.

Police Watch Unit

        The Police Watch Unit originated from another organization called "Or Adum" or "Red Light". Red Light was an independent organization whose clientele was mainly West Bank Palestinians who experienced many problems with the police. After the beginning of the Intifadah the number of complaints against police was low because Palestinians were experiencing more serious problems with the Israeli Army in the West Bank. It is at that time that Red Light staff decided to join with ACRI in 1990.

The Police Watch Unit has three groups of volunteers located in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa. The units provide assistance to the public in general, follow cases and appeal decisions. The units are also involved in efforts to press for legal and policy changes at the social level by drawing attention to the main issues of these cases. Another aspect of the unit's work is to deal with the conditions of temporary detention in police custody. We visited several of these facilities and issued a series of reports that were submitted to the Minister of Police. The next issue that will be tackled is overcrowding in prisons.

As a general rule of conduct, Israeli police officers must provide services to everyone regardless of their ethnic or religious affiliation. During the five years of its operations, the unit has heard of only one case of an Israeli policeman who refused to provide services to a non-Jew. The non-Jew was a West Bank Palestinian and the policeman was an Israeli Arab. The complaint was against Israeli soldiers who were accused of robbery. After the incident with the police officer, the West Bank Palestinian made a complaint against the policeman. The policeman was brought to a Police Disciplinary Board and sentenced to a fine. The unit has never heard of a case where a non-Jewish Soviet immigrant had a complaint against police officers who refused to provide services.

It is important to point out that the unit receives only an average of one hundred complaints a year. This is a small portion of all the cases of complaints against the police. The special unit at the Ministry of Justice which deals with complaints against the police receives between 3,000 and 4,000 complaints a year on police brutality.

There may be instances where Israeli police officers treat all new Soviet immigrants, whether Jewish or non-Jewish, with contempt. For example, police officers may not always provide new Soviet immigrants with translation services allowing them to communicate. Police stations are supposed to provide Russian translation services for people who experience difficulties speaking Hebrew. Whether or not the Soviet immigrants are Jewish is irrelevant. People who are dissatisfied with regard to translation services can make a complaint to the police station or to ACRI.

If a person wants to complain about police brutality, there is a special unit at the Ministry of Justice which receives these complaints(2). The unit was established three years ago following public pressure against what was seen as the inability of the police to investigate themselves. Although the unit at the Ministry of Justice is an independent department, most of the individuals who investigate these complaints are members of the police. ACRI is attempting to change this situation by pressuring to have civilians incorporated into the investigation team. The special unit at the Ministry of Justice takes complaints about criminal behaviour of police officers(3).

People who have complaints about police officers refusing to provide services have to proceed through a police station. Almost all the police stations have a service for receiving complaints. People have to make an appointment with the officer in charge of complaints and provide them with their account. People can also come to ACRI for help. ACRI will help them to write their complaints and provide follow-up to their cases. However, ACRI's role would be as mediator. The success of such a complaint depends on the amount of evidence a person can provide to support his/her case against a police officer. Often it is the person's account against the police officer's. In these particular instances, the cases are almost all closed. The Police Watch Unit is not aware of one case where, with opposite testimonies given by a police officer and a civilian, the civilian party would win. However, if the person has witnesses, or if the police officer admits his/her wrongdoing, disciplinary measures will follow. Israeli police stations must provide services to everyone regardless of their status or nationality.

According to our knowledge, there are no special police services for Soviet immigrants. However, most police stations have Russian-speaking police officers who will provide services to Russian-speaking immigrants who require such service. If a person does not understand Hebrew, police stations must provide written Russian translation of the testimony. In the past, Soviet immigrants complained to ACRI about the fact that they had to sign written testimonies that they did not understand because their were in Hebrew. However, these complaints were made during the first two years of immigration from the former Soviet Union. ACRI has not received this type of complaint since 1992.

It is common procedure for a police officer to ask for a person's Teudat Zehut before providing services. There are problems with the police and Teudat Zehut, although it is not related to the issue of Soviet immigrants. Police officers have the tendency to conduct security checks on everyone who has the physical features of an Arab. During these security checks police officers require the Teudat Zehut. We get complaints on this issue from Jews coming from Arab countries who physically resemble Arabs, and from Israeli Arabs as well. We have never received such a complaint from new Soviet immigrants.

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(1) Teudat Zehut is the Israeli identity card. For additional information on this issue, please consult the REFINFO database available at your regional Resource Centre.

(2) The address is: Ministry of Justice, P.O. Box 35232, Givat Shaoul Area, Lev Hagiva Building, Jerusalem 91351.

(3) For additional information on the issue of complaints against police, please consult an article by Tom Sawicki entitled "Cops on the Beat" published in The Jerusalem Report (20 April 1995, 26-28). The magazine is available at the DIRB Resource Centre in Ottawa.