Alik Ron's judgments faulted by Or panel

The Or Commission of inquiry yesterday harshly criticized a series of faults and errors of judgment they found in the testimony of former northern police district commander Alik Ron, concerning his use of snipers against unarmed demonstrators. Police bullets killed 13 people last October during rioting throughout Galilee Arab villages and towns.
Ron admitted he did not consult with his superiors - Inspector General Yehuda Wilk or Public Security Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami - about the use of snipers and he described as a "mistake" his decision not to use loudspeakers to warn demonstrators that the police would open fire.
The panel criticized Ron for not making the effort to be kept briefed in real time on the events in his district; did not pressure his subordinates to investigate each of the serious incidents; and only found out about some of the most critical incidents as a result of the commission's own investigations.
Ron, for his part, reiterated his view that the commission was a "slap in the face" to the police, and that it was established only as a result of pre-election pressure by an Arab lobby.
Ron admitted it was a mistake not to report, and that he knew nothing about the use of snipers from the crack police anti-terror unit - which he once commanded - in Nazareth during the rioting.
As opposed to his testimony on Sunday, when he was confident and appeared sure of himself, Ron was on the defensive all day yesterday under sharp questioning by the panel members who expressed skepticism about his judgment. Although he is formally on leave from the police, Ron wore his police uniform during both days of testimony.
Most of the testimony yesterday focused on the use of snipers during the demonstrations, the first time snipers were ever used inside “Israel” to disperse a demonstration.
Ron admitted that he initiated the use of snipers, ordering the anti-terror unit to Umm el Fahm on October 2. He explained he had the authority to do so without reporting as much to his superiors.
He ordered the snipers brought in, he said, because of concerns that armed civilians would shoot at police. But that didn't happen. Instead, Ron ordered snipers to target demonstrators who were using slingshots after one rock hit a car window, resulting in an accident, and another hit a policeman in the eye.
Ron explained the demonstrators with slingshots were a long distance from the Wadi Ara roads, too far to reach with rubber-coated bullets or tear gas, and due to the danger posed to the traffic on the road, he decided to order the snipers to use live ammunition, which he said is more accurate, in the hands of a trained rifleman, and therefore less dangerous.
Ron's testimony contradicted earlier testimony by members of the anti-terror unit, who said that Ron had authorized each shot after precise identification of the target. Ron said he gave a general order to fire on people using sling-shots more than once, and that the order was to hit them in the legs.
The panel pointed out a large number of apparent faults in judgment by Ron during the rioting. These included:
Ron did not report to his superiors on the intention to use snipers against the demonstrators with slingshots, nor after the fact in forums in which he was asked to report on the events in his district. Nor did he tell Wilk about the use of snipers. He could not remember the first time he spoke to Wilk about the snipers. Pressed by Justice Theodor Or, Ron admitted he could not explain why he did not report the use of snipers, and he objected strenuously that there was anything "conspiratorial about it," when Or suggested that the decision to use snipers might have been something "best to keep quiet about."
Ron did not warn demonstrators about the police plan to use riflemen to disperse the crowd - a direct contravention of police standing orders
Ron ordered the use of 7.62 mm ammunition, far more likely to cause serious casualties than 0.22 mm, the usual ammunition for snipers. Asked why, he said the snipers weren't equipped with the smaller caliber bullet.
He said he ordered the Wadi Ara road closed after seeing that the sniper fire did not achieve its goal - cessation of the demonstration. Or commented that meant that the rifle fire was meant as a deterrent, and not just to deal with the danger posed by the men with slingshots. Ron said deterence was "just a by-product"
The commission has a videotape showing a demonstrator holding a rock, not a slingshot, who is hit by a bullet. Ron denied that any of the snipers shot at anyone other than those with slingshots.
In a direct contradiction of testimony by his subordinate, Valley Subdistrict commander Moshe Waldman, who detailed how Ron gave the snipers to Waldman in the afternoon of October 2 to use in Nazareth, Ron said he never spoke about it with Waldman and never sent him snipers. Furthermore, he admitted that he only found out about the use of snipers in Nazareth from the commission hearings, months after the events. Indeed, he only heard about how police shot at a civilian car in mid-Nazareth, wounding a doctor and his wife in their car, only from the testimony they gave to the commission.
He was repeatedly asked why his officers did not conduct thorough investigations of the incidents in which people were killed, and other serious incidents involving violence. He wanted such reports, he said, but his men were "tired" and couldn't take on the task. And on October 23, he noted, National Police Headquarters ordered all investigations into the shootings to cease due to the establishment of the Or commission.
Politics in the hearing
Ron's testimony on Sunday obliquely criticized the political echelon, but yesterday he attacked former public security minister Shlomo Ben-Ami and former prime minister Ehud Barak, and less directly, but with no less force, Wilk, the former national police chief.
He said that he and Ben-Ami did not speak at all during the events. They did meet three times, in the first week of October, he said, "but the minister didn't deign to speak to me directly, to ask, tell, protest or complain." He said that Ben-Ami's attitude "made me think that I had become persona non grata with him."
Indeed, further on in Ron's testimony, he complained that Ben-Ami had made no secret about his desire to replace Ron, even before the October riots, and that Ron felt slighted by the minister's intention. When Ben-Ami suggested at one point that even more necessary that increasing the police budget was increasing the social welfare budget, "I raised my eyebrow," said Ron, "and left it raised."
His attack on the former prime minister focused on Barak's decision to seek forgiveness from the Arab community for the dismal results of the October events. Ron said he felt "anger, terrible frustration and a sense that those who were sent by the government to stand in the breach were abandoned by those who the police defended."
As for Wilk, he was too "cautious" about providing policemen with legal aide once the Or commission was appointed and it became apparent some policemen might be facing legal action as a result of what happened during the riots. Ron said he demanded that Wilk send legal advisors to the northern district to help policemen prepare for their testimony, but Wilk hesitated, and when he finally did send them, the legal advisors were forbidden to speak directly with the policemen.

Haaretz, 5-9-2001.