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The Israel Security Agency, Shin Bet, routinely denies Jewish suspects access to lawyers during interrogation, an abuse of due process long applied to detained Palestinians.
According to an investigation by Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Shin Bet “has turned denying meetings with lawyers into a norm, with dozens of Jews suspected of political crimes being denied legal counsel in recent years, a statistic law enforcement bodies have hidden.”
Under Israeli law, an individual detained on suspicion of “security offenses” can be denied access to a lawyer for up to 21 days.
While the vast majority of such detainees are Palestinian, the newspaper, citing the testimonies of lawyers who have worked on such cases, claims that “denying legal counsel [to Jews suspected of political crimes] has become the default since 2012.”
An Israeli attorney who has represented a number of Jewish suspects told Haaretz: “Israel is perhaps the only Western country that prevents a meeting between a minor suspect and a lawyer.” Another attorney said Shin Bet officials “prevent the meeting [with a lawyer] until the suspects confess.”
According to the paper: “Lacking legal counsel, the detainees are liable to believe the false threats and confess, even to things they did not do.”
A., who the Shin Bet detained and interrogated for eight days before being allowed to see a lawyer, was a minor at the time of his arrest. “I personally believed every word. They also explain to you why what they say is logical, as if it were the truth. You believe everything.”