Who is watching the watchers? Who is judging the judges?
What a mess.
Will any of us ever know the real story and chronology behind the events of the last 19 days? As an Israeli citizen I would like to ask questions about some of the ‘facts’ that have come to light. 1. The police (100) received a call lasting 2 minutes and 9 seconds. 2. It took 6 to 8 hours for the police to advise shabak and or the IDF. 3. More than 2 and a half weeks later the bodies of the 3 children were discovered.
Who took the call and who were the supervisors that rejected the call – all 2 minutes and 9 seconds – as a hoax? Now that we have all heard the call in all its gruesome details, we need to ask – how could anyone in their right mind have dismissed this as a prank? Firstly there was a plea for help, followed by gun shots, sounds of moaning of someone in pain, then rejoicing and singing. How could his or her supervisor, or supervisors, also reject the call as a joke? Why? How?
Who released the tape? Shabak? The police themselves? The IDF? The government? A third party? Is there a game plan here that we are not aware of? Is Shabak in a blame game with the police and the IDF? Is it a distraction and diversion to take the attention away from some very serious shortfallings of one organisation or another? Is this a budgetary thing – organisations petrified of cuts?
And then the car was discovered with forensic evidence including bullet casings. When and how did this evidence come to light? Who was notified concerning the evidence?
Could the outcome have been any different if things went differently?
Why did it take 18 days to find the bodies? Shabak boasts that they watch every move out in the field.
We don’t know and I suspect that we never will be told the truth. I am not a conspiracy theorist by a long way. Yet I believe that the public deserve and need to have the facts.
No one watches the watchers. No one judges the judges.
Who polices the police? Who supervises Shabak? Who oversees the IDF? As I understand it, only internal mechanisms stand in judgement and adjudication over their own organisations and they in turn are not required to be transparent or accountable to the very public that they serve.
In a democracy, public bodies, even semi-secretive organisations, must be accountable to the public. This is the way it is in Australia and New Zealand where I am from. In such a situation the PM or members of the government can appoint a Royal Commission to investigate and report back to the public on any matter whatsoever. This Royal Commission is headed by a retired High Court Justice who has almost no restrictions when it comes to the investigation and the subsequent reporting. The process is public, transparent and accountable. This is what is missing here. Accountability and transparency is the public’s right.
It is time for the various organisations that serve the public to be made accountable to the public. It is enough of the chauvinistic attitude that pervades Israeli society – that is ‘trust me I know best’.
Mistakes will continue to happen unless mistakes are revealed and fixed. This can only be done in an open and honest way. Let us not forget that the civil servants serve the public, and not the other way around.