KARP REPORT (1984)

Report into irregularities in police investigations of violence by Jewish settlers against Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.

The Karp Report was issued by a committee of Israeli jurists headed by Deputy Attorney General Judith Karp. The committee was appointed by Attorney General Yitzhak Shamir in 1981 in response to Israeli law professors who expressed concern over the deterioration of the rule of law in the territories occupied by Israel since the 1967 war.

The committee examined seventy cases, fifty-three of which had been left unsolved, in which Israeli settlers were charged with harassing Palestinian residents in the Hebron region who had refused to sell their land. The report found "serious shortcomings" in investigations when Arabs were victims: investigations of complaints lodged by Palestinians were inadequate. It criticized the police for failing to seriously investigate charges, noted delays in pursuing cases, and faulted the separation between the regular and military police. The report advised a reassessment of the instructions given to Israeli soldiers for opening fire on civilians, recommended an increase in the number of civilian police in the West Bank, and criticized the refusal of Jewish witnesses—especially settlers in the West Bank—to cooperate with police in investigations related to Arab victims.

The Israeli right wing charged that the investigation had failed to examine cases in which Palestinian Arabs went unpunished for attacks on Jews. Karp resigned after the Likud-led government neglected the report's findings.

see also arab–israel war (1967); likud; west bank.

Bibliography

The Karp Report: An Israeli Government Inquiry into Settler Violence against Palestinians on the West Bank. Washington, DC: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1984.

"West Bank: Study Cites West Bank Police Failings." In Facts On File, accession no. 1984004260. New York: Facts on File News Services, 7 February 1984.

martin malin
updated by gregory s. mahler