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Moshe Negbi, a legal scholar and journalist, is a member of the Board of Di- rectors of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), the largest civil rights group in Israel. During his Washington visit, Negbi argued that Israel's civil rights problems have deep roots. "The problems in Israeli civil rights and democracy were not created with the in- tifada," he said in an inter- view. "The major problem is the lack of a written con- stitution. The result is that the majority can do anything it wants; the Knesset can enact any law it likes, even a law which infringes on the basic rights of minorities." The Israeli Declaration of Independence, signed on May 15, 1948, promised a constitution by October 1 of the same year. Forty two years later, the nation's lack of a written constitution has combined with the occupa- tion of the territories won during the 1967 war to pro- duce a human- rights powder keg, Negbi argued. Within Israel proper, ac- cording to Negbi, this lack of formal constitutional struc- ture allows an Orthodox re- ligious minority to impose their norms on non-religious Israelis. In the occupied territories, the lack of a constitution produces what he sees as flagrant abuses of power, with little recourse available for the victims. "We have there the military law of occupation, which gives the army almost absolute power," he said. "It gives the courts a very small space to maneuver." Israeli politicians, he said, take a narrow view of civil liberties that compounds the problem. "Israeli leaders tend to take a very simplistic view of the rule of law," he said. "They believe that if a law or a decision has gained the support of the majority, it is therefore a democratic law. And they then believe that they have a moral duty to implement it, no matter what the circumstances." Moshe Negbi: Vacuum worries him. Human rights controver- sies are regarded purely as problems in public relations, he said, not symptoms of a legal system that lacks the essential skeleton of a for- mal constitution that is in- sulated from changing polit- ical winds. Because of this legal vacu- um, Negbi said, he and his colleagues in the civil rights community must content themselves with small vic- tories. One example in- volved a battle last year against army demolitions of the homes of suspected Pa- lestinian insurgents. "These laws permitting demolishing a person's house on the mere suspicion that he has committed ter- rorist actions date back to the British mandate," he said. "Now this is an un- democratic law; if there was a constitution, the Supreme Court could strike it down. It cannot, and we do not ask it to strike it down, because we know there is no chance." Instead, the pragmatic civil rights group convinced the court to allow a minimal opportunity for the accused to defend themselves. "This is far from ideal, from a democratic point of view," he said. "But it's better than what was hap- pening. The court accepted this argument; in July, they forbade the army to demolish houses before let- ting the person appeal the demolition order." It was a small but impor- tant victory, Negbi argued. "If you look at the whole picture, this may not look like much. But from the point of view of the in- dividuals involved, it may mean the difference between having their homes and be- ing homeless." The group has also fought a grueling battle against administrative detention, the process of holding thousands of suspects — primarily Palestinians suspected of participating in the intifada — without judicial hearings. So strong is ACRI's aver- sion to the practice that the group once came to the defense of one of its most bitter opponents, Rabbi Meir Kahane. "We defended him before he was elected to the Knesset, because we are in principle opposed to ad- ministrative detention," Negbi said. "We think it's wrong to do it —even to Kahane." Another important corn- ponent of the group's work is education. "We feel that the only way to achieve a constitution in Israel is to educate the peo- ple that it's important; the only thing that will force the politicians to enact a con- stitution is their assessment that if they don't, they will be punished by the elec- torate. So we go to schools, we prepare curricula about human rights and democ- racy, we send lecturers to the schools." But this educational pro- gram, he warned, could be jeopardized by the expected formation of a narrow Likud government. "We have done all this with the consent and coop- eration of the ministry of education. I don't know if this will go on after the next government is established. I am very worried." American Jews, he said, should not refrain from challenging the human rights practices of the Israeli government. "Americans in general, and American Jews in par- ticular, because of their tra- dition of human rights, must make a major contribution to the challenge of strength- ening Israeli democracy," Negbi said. "American Jewry has much influence on the Israeli leadership; be- cause of this, you have a responsibility to help us work for human rights and democracy in a very difficult situation." ❑