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CNN Live At Daybreak

Israel's Supreme Court Makes Landmark Ruling

Aired September 03, 2002 - 05:34   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Israel's supreme court has made a landmark ruling. The judges have approved the expulsions of two relatives of a man accused of masterminding a suicide bombing.
Let's go live to Jerusalem for details.

Our Jerrold Kessel is following the developments -- good morning, Jerrold.

JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. And, good morning to you, Carol.

And an interesting case, this in the Israeli Supreme Court, which human rights lawyers, Israeli human rights lawyers who'd petitioned the court on behalf of the three Palestinians whom the Israeli Army wants to transfer from their West Bank homes to Gaza, had been hoping that this landmark decision would cut into the sweeping actions that the Israeli military wants to take to combat Palestinian suicide bombers.

The army and the state, or the state attorney's office, which is representing the army and the government, wanted court endorsement for various actions to enhance this battle against the Palestinian suicide bombers.

Well, neither side got exactly what it wanted out of this court ruling. Because what the nine justices decided unanimously in the court today, handing down their ruling, was that it is legitimate for the army to transfer from their West Bank homes to Gaza relatives of Palestinians who are convicted of or suspected of promoting suicide bombings and other major terror attacks but only on the condition that the people, the relatives, were, in fact, privy to information about those terror attacks or had actively been involved in helping further those terror attacks to take place, not somebody who had not known anything about that.

So two of the three people, a brother and a sister, were found permissible for the army to transfer to Gaza, the court ruled. The court doesn't call it transfer. It says "relocation" or "reassignment of residency" from West Bank to Gaza.

And they're able to go, they're able, the army is able to transfer them after it was decided that the court found that they had, in fact, helped their brother to carry out or to mastermind a number of suicide attacks.

But the third man, whom the court heard evidence had only helped the brother by providing him with his car and providing him with food and clothing in his house, did not know of the in -- of what the brother was doing, so the court ruled. And therefore he was not able to be transferred to Gaza.

So this is an interesting ruling which human rights lawyers are hailing as something of a landmark in terms of the fact that the court did not buy the army's argument that it needs to deter Palestinians by targeting families in this way. And it is a very limited way in which they can go after family members.

But there also is the other aspect that the court make very plain that it's a very difficult time for Israel, the suicide bombings campaigning against it, and that the question of Israeli security is concomitant with human rights. One does not necessarily contradict the other. Security is also a factor in human rights.

Interesting resolutions, but the fact of the matter is two Palestinians will soon be transferred from the West Bank to Gaza and Palestinians are very angry about it, calling it a black day for human rights -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Jerrold Kessel reporting live for us from Jerusalem this morning.

Thank you.

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