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Or Commission sends warning letters to 14. Barak, Ben-Ami, Wilk among recipients. The Or Judicial Commission of Inquiry yesterday sent letters of warning to 14 of the witnesses who testified before it, including former prime minister Ehud Barak and former internal security minister Shlomo Ben-Ami. Nine policemen and three Israeli Arab leaders also received letters of warning. The commission, headed by Supreme Court Justice Theodore Or and including Tel Aviv University Prof. Shimon Shamir and Nazareth District Court Deputy President Hashem Khatib, heard 349 witnesses during 66 public sessions over a period of one year. Its mandate was to investigate the riots of October 2000 in which 13 Arabs, 12 of them Israeli, were killed inside the Green Line, and the background leading up to these events. The policemen who were warned are former inspector-general Yehuda Wilk, former Northern District chief Alik Ron, former head of the Ha'amakim subdistrict Cmdr. Moshe Waldman, head of operations in Galilee Dep.-Cmdr. Meir Yaron; former Northern Region Border Police chief Benzi Sau, Ch.-Supt. Guy Reif, who was head of the Misgav police station during the riots and reportedly shot and killed two demonstrators near Sakhnin; Dep.-Cmdr. Shmuel Marmelstein, head of the Nazareth police station; First Sgt.-Maj. N.Y. of the anti-terror squad, and border policeman Morshad Rashad. The three Israeli Arab leaders are MKs Azmi Bishara and Abdel Malik Dahamshe and Ra'ad Salah, former Umm el-Fahm mayor and head of the radical northern branch of the Islamic Movement. The letters of warning constitute notification the recipients may be negatively affected by the conclusions of the commission. Those receiving them are now entitled to hire lawyers to defend themselves. The next stage of the commission's hearing will be quasi-judicial. The witnesses and their lawyers will be able to cross-examine other witnesses to try to convince the commission of their innocence. According to the Judicial Commission of Inquiry Law, the commission is not authorized to indict or punish anyone. However, according to legal expert Moshe Negbi, in its final conclusions, it can determine the moral or criminal guilt of anyone bearing responsibility for the events and recommend what should be done with them. According to Negbi, the government always carries out the recommendations. Each of the letters contained two pages, a first identical page informing the recipients they might be adversely affected, and a second detailing the specific allegations against each one. Regarding Barak, the commission found five faults, including: 'In his capacity as prime minister, he was not sufficiently aware of the changes taking place in the Arab community in Israel during his time in office. These changes created a substantial possibility that riots would break out on a large scale. 'One example of this failure was the fact that he ignored requests and recommendations to hold a meeting with all the relevant bodies and institutions [regarding the situation in the Israeli Arab sector]... 'On October 2, he ordered the police to use every means to keep the roads open, with special reference to the Wadi Ara road (Route 65), thus ignoring the many casualties, including fatalities, that could have, and should have, been anticipated as a result of the order.' The commission also found five faults involving Ben-Ami, among them 'he did not do enough to make sure the police would be ready to handle widespread riots in the Arab sector even though he was aware of the changes taking place in the Arab community during this period... During the period before the riots and the first days of the riots, he was not sufficiently aware of the dangers involved in the use of rubber-coated bullets in dispersing riots, and did not take the necessary measures to prevent or limit their use during the riots.' The commission leveled three charges against Salah, including 'in the period before the October riots, including the period 1998-2000, he was responsible for conveying repeated messages encouraging the use of violence and threats of violence as a means of achieving goals for the Israeli Arab community... He also conveyed messages denying the legitimacy of the existence of Israel and portrayed the state as an enemy.' The commission said it suspects Wilk and Ron of 11 failures each. Regarding Ron, the commission wrote: 'In his capacity as head of the Northern Police District in the period before the riots, Ron contributed, by word and deed, to the ugly relations, often to the point of breaking off contact altogether, between himself and the Arab leadership in the Northern District... He was responsible for the use of sniper fire during the severe confrontation between the police and the rioters on October 2, 2000 in Umm el-Fahm. This shooting was unjustified. Seven people were wounded and one killed as a result. In this context, he personally commanded and issued instructions to the snipers to fire at stonethrowers without justification and in violation of the rules governing the use of live fire by the police.' Barak spokesman David Zisso said the former prime minister is not in the country, but he knows about the letter. He declined to elaborate. 'I express admiration for the creative thinking involved in the timing of the letters - they were Purim gifts,' Ron told reporters last night. The Israel Police issued a statement saying the policemen and officers risked their lives and will receive all possible help. 'After the long months the Or Commission deliberated, during which more than 200 police officers testified, the commission today decided to send warning letters to several police officers who worked, endangering their lives, to prevent the difficult and unprecedented disturbances which erupted that endangered the lives of both civilians and policemen,' the statement said. The statement said the police will continue to cooperate with the Or Commission, but at the same time said the issuing of warning letters 'did not attribute responsibility to the officers and commanders in question.'
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