Europe, Headlines, Human Rights

EUROPE: Police Cooperation With Israel Challenged

David Cronin

BRUSSELS, Feb 4 2009 (IPS) - A European Union body has cast strong doubts over efforts to boost police cooperation between the 27-country bloc and Israel.

In 2005, the EU’s governments decided that Europol, the Union’s police office in The Hague, could consider reaching a formal cooperation accord with Israel.

More than three years later, a board of data protection officials tasked with supervising Europol’s activities has identified flaws in Israeli legislation which it views as incompatible with rules applying to Europol.

In an internal paper, seen by IPS, the supervisory board says that unless improvements are introduced to Israeli law, the flaws constitute an “obstacle” to concluding an accord that would allow the exchange of police intelligence deemed valuable for investigations against terrorism and organised crime.

The board notes, for example, that Israel’s protection of privacy law does not contain provisions stipulating that data collection and processing by police authorities should not be “excessive”, or state a maximum length of time for which data on suspects can be stored. By contrast, such principles are enshrined in the 1995 convention which established Europol.

The board also contends that “direct connection” between Europol’s files and the 45 databases run by the Israeli police would breach the 1995 convention.

Nathalie Stanus from the Euromed Human Rights Network argued that a formal link-up between European and Israeli police would be problematic, too, as a result of the ill-treatment of detainees in Israel. Whereas the 1995 convention forbids Europol from processing data obtained through methods which violate human rights, Amnesty International has said that Israel has “routinely tortured” Palestinians for over four decades. Israel currently detains some 11,000 Palestinian political prisoners.

“It is well known that Israel uses torture,” Stanus added. “So how do you avoid Israel sending information that has been obtained through torture to the EU?”

Policing is one of a variety of policy areas in which the EU is poised to increase its contacts with Israel.

In December 2008, the EU’s governments agreed with Israel to formally ‘upgrade’ their relations.

And while some staff in the European Commission have signalled that work on improving these ties has been suspended as a result of Israel’s recent offensive against Gaza, others have moved to integrate Israel more into the Union’s programmes.

Antonio Tajani, the Commission’s vice-president, visited Tel Aviv in late January to discuss Israel’s participation in Galileo, a satellite navigation system. Though officially dedicated to civilian purposes such as environmental monitoring and rescue missions, the Commission raised the possibility in 2006 that Galileo could also assist the military.

Agnes Bertrand, a Middle East specialist with Aprodev, a grouping of anti- poverty organisations linked to Protestant churches, said that Tzipi Livni, Israel’s foreign minister, had been eager to secure moves towards an enhanced relationship with Europe ahead of general elections in her country this month.

While a police cooperation deal would be a more long-term objective, “the symbolism of it would be huge,” Bertrand added. “It would be a jewel in the crown.”

Still, she underscored that jurisprudence in Europe is explicitly opposed to ill-treatment in custody, noting that Britain’s House of Lords has ruled that no evidence gleaned through the use of torture is admissible in British courts.

Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas strongly condemned Israel’s attacks on Gaza in a formal address to the European Parliament Feb. 4.

Labelling the actions as “insane”, Abbas noted that 500 of those wounded remain in “a critical condition and are dying by the day.”

“This war also destroyed what the Palestinian national authority has established over 15 years,” he added. “Many of these facilities were thanks to the contribution of your countries and other friendly countries.”

The economic blockade of Gaza which preceded the recent attacks was “an episode in a continuing series of actions aimed at separating Gaza from the rest of the Palestinian lands,” he said, berating the Israeli government for expanding its settlements in the West Bank.

“We must not deal with Israel as if it is a state above accountability, above international law,” he said. “We must hold the leaders of Israel accountable for violations of international and humanitarian law.”