Terrorism and Democracy Newsletter: Issue No. 10, October 2009

The tenth issue of IDI’s Terrorism and Democracy Newsletter includes five articles. First, we summarize and review the report of the UN Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza conflict (also known as the "Goldstone Report"), which severely criticizes Israel's recent counter-terrorism operation in Gaza ("Operation Cast Lead"). The second article presents a new bill proposing the amendment of the Civilian Tort Act (State Responsibility). The bill will modify the definition of the "combat action immunity", which releases the state from the duty to compensate individuals harmed by its counter-terrorism activities. In the third article we briefly address some counter-terrorism related issues raised in the speech of Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, before the UN General Assembly during the opening of the Assembly's 64th Annual Session. The fourth article introduces a recent decision issued by the Israeli Supreme Court relating to the interpretation of the Law governing the incarceration of Unlawful Combatants", and its application to a convicted terrorist who has just finished serving 5.5 years of imprisonment. The last and fifth article presents a short update on Moneyval's report on Israel's progress in the field of money laundering. The report suggests that Israeli efforts against terror financing are meeting international standards

The monthly IDI Terrorism and Democracy Newsletter aims to shed light on some relatively unknown measures and policies adopted by Israel or related to Israel, and to foster discussion on the balance between security interests, on one hand, and democratic principles and human rights, on the other hand. It surveys recent developments in Israeli law and practices that are intended to reduce or repress terrorist threats. IDI believes that a greater knowledge of Israel's experience in this area may be of value to other societies; we also believe that engaging in international and comparative discourse about Israel's experience is valuable to Israeli society.