Last update - 00:00 02/04/2007
Court tells war panel to explain why it won't release protocols
By Nir Hasson, Haaretz Correspondent
The High Court of Justice released a conditional order to the Winograd Committee on Monday, requiring the committee to respond to MK Zehava Gal-On's petition within eight days, and to explain why it will not publish the testimonies of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Amir Peretz, and former Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Dan Halutz before it releases its interim report.
The court order was released after the committee informed the High Court of Justice on Sunday it will not release any more transcripts of witness testimonies on the Second Lebanon War, and said it will resume deliberations on the matter only after issuing its interim report, due later this month.
MK Zehava Gal-On (Meretz) said in response to the order that "the court's decision is a postponement of the false pretext of the prime minister and of the Winograd Committee. She maintains that "the decision to publish three of the main protocols even before the interim report reflects our opinion that it is the public's right to know the misdeeds of the war's leaders."
The committee had requested Sunday that the court withdraw its insistence that transcripts of testimonies be made available, arguing that it did not have enough time to both deliberate the issue of the transcripts and prepare the interim report.
Several hours later, attorney Dafna Holtz-Lechner filed on behalf of Meretz MK Zahava Gal-On a request for immediate court deliberations for the release of the transcripts.
The committee wrote in a document filed by attorney Osnat Mendel of the State Prosecutor's Office that it had already followed the court's decision in publishing three testimonies - those of Vice Premier Shimon Peres, former military intelligence chief Amos Malka, and the head of the Emergency Economy Administration, Arnon Ben-Ami.
But the much-awaited transcripts of the testimonies of the three main protagonists in the war - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Amir Peretz and former chief of staff Dan Halutz - will not be made available, and may not be made public even after the court addresses the committee's decision.
Explaining its decision, the committee wrote that it "continues to examine the transcripts [containing many hundreds of pages], but has found that a significant portion of them cannot be published and that the publication of the segments of the transcripts that are permitted may place things out of context and mislead."
In view of these difficulties, the committee unanimously decided to continue deliberations on the release of the transcripts after the publication of the interim report.
The Winograd Committee, established by the government to investigate the failures of the Second Lebanon War, says its decision stems from the fact that the time available prior to the release of the interim report is short, and it must devote its time to the report and not the transcripts. The committee also presents five specific reasons against the publication of the transcripts:
1. Concerns of harming the witnesses: The release of the first three transcripts proved that the elimination of segments for security reasons gives a distorted impression, and the committee points to the case of Vice Premier Shimon Peres, who was lambasted for his failure to express his reservations about the war at the time a decision was made.
2. The committee maintains that the partial publication of the transcripts does not contribute to public discourse - it undermines it.
3. The publication may harm the privacy and reputation of individuals, and the committee needs to examine ways of also protecting the interests of witnesses.
4. It will undermine the overall work of the committee and its conclusions.
5. The committee is arguing that by law there are times when the witnesses need to be protected so that the investigative organs can reach the truth.