Court Rejects Bid to Disqualify Ex-Shin Bet Chief from Knesset Run

Israel's Supreme Court, known as the High Court of Justice (Bagatz), has dismissed a petition seeking to disqualify Yoram Cohen, a former head of the Shin Bet security agency, from running for the 26th Knesset. The court's decision contrasts sharply with a previous ruling in 1992 that barred Yossi Ginosar, another former Shin Bet official, from serving as Director-General of the Ministry of Housing due to his involvement in past Shin Bet affairs. The current petition against Cohen was filed by members of the "Justice for Amiram" campaign, with the author of the article being a member. The author questions the differing standards applied to senior security officials, drawing parallels to the Ezat Nafsu affair and the Amiram Ben-Uliel case.

The Nafsu case involved a Shin Bet officer accused of treason and aiding the enemy. Declassified documents later revealed that Nafsu was framed, coerced into a false confession during a brutal interrogation at a secret Shin Bet facility, and that his interrogator, known as "Mansour," was Yossi Ginosar. Despite Nafsu's claims of torture, he was convicted and sentenced to 18 years, only to be exonerated years later when it was proven he had been tortured and falsely confessed.

The article highlights that the Nafsu case was the first instance where Shin Bet interrogators were found to have extracted confessions through illegal means and lied in court. Similarly, in the Duma case, concerning the conviction of Amiram Ben-Uliel, questions arose regarding the use of "special means" during interrogation. While Shin Bet agents denied using such methods, a trial-within-a-trial revealed their employment, leading the court to disqualify some confessions while accepting others that contributed to Ben-Uliel's conviction.

Following the Nafsu and the related "Bus 300" affair, the the former Supreme Court President Commission was established to regulate the use of exceptional interrogation methods. However, the article points out that exceptional means were reportedly used again during Ben-Uliel's interrogation, during Yoram Cohen's tenure as Shin Bet chief. Cohen himself addressed this in an interview, stating he consulted with the Attorney General and State Prosecutor regarding the use of exceptional means, concluding that Ben-Uliel confessed willingly.

The author questions why Ginosar faced severe public and institutional consequences for his actions before the the former Supreme Court President Commission, while Cohen, whose tenure saw the alleged use of exceptional means after the rules were established, was allowed to run for Knesset. The article also references Menachem Begin's 1953 warning against security personnel exceeding their authority and becoming "true masters" of the state, suggesting this concern is relevant to Cohen's transition from the Shin Bet to the legislature.