REPORTER: Matthew Carney
It's early morning on the road to Tel Aviv and Leah Tsemel rouses herself with a protest song about the Israeli Defence Minister, Shaul Mofaz.
LEAH TSEMEL, ISRAELI LAWYER: They wrote this song before Shaul Mofaz became what he is today, they wrote this song when he was still only the chief of staff. But it was like a prophecy, you know - "Shaul Mofaz!" It is still the feeling I have about him.
As an Israeli lawyer who's devoted her life to fighting for Palestinian rights, Leah Tsemel has often found herself pitted against the Israeli establishment. Today Tsemel is representing Israeli-Arab taxi driver Mahmoud Lardy. He's accused of driving a suicide bomber to an attack that killed 22 Israelis. Tsemel says Mahmoud had no idea who his passenger was and picked him up only for the fare.
LEAH TSEMEL, (Translation): I think he'll be acquitted.
REPORTER, (Translation): Isn't he responsible for the death of 20 children?
LEAH TSEMEL, (Translation): No. No, he isn't. It could happen to you, the same thing, and nobody would have put you on trial for it.
DRIVER BEING INTERVIEWED, (Translation): They say I knew, but what can I do? I didn't know. I couldn't even imagine this happening to me. I work to support my family. I've worked since I was 14. I've only ever thought about my work. Work, home, and my children. I don't even have a criminal record, God forbid.
Mahmoud's wife and mother are here to see him sentenced. The judges are swayed by Tsemel's case and she succeeds in getting Mahmoud's prison term reduced from 22 life sentences to 12 years. But it's not the victory his lawyer hoped for.
LEAH TSEMEL, (Translation): We're going to appeal the verdict and the sentence.
REPORTER, (Translation): Had he been Jewish would they have treated him differently?
LEAH TSEMEL, (Translation): The assumption was a Jew wouldn't desire the death of Jews. This assumption dictates the thinking of all of us that because he is an Arab he might have desired the outcome.
LEAH TSEMEL: For me any punishment is extreme because I think he should have been acquitted. On the other hand, when we started this file, he was anticipating 22 life sentences. So 12 years - it's not as bad as it could have been, at the beginning, but it's much worse than it will be probably.
It's these kinds of cases that have made Leah Tsemel a controversial figure in Israel, but she's never taken much notice of her critics. During the latest intifada, she has defended many would-be suicide bombers and their accomplices. She argues that suicide bombing is an act of patriotism.
LEAH TSEMEL: Young people probably want to feel that they have done something for their homeland. And maybe that is the easiest way. They don't worth much so they might just as well give their life away. And you should know every young Palestinian who goes to commit suicide, he knows that his house will be demolished, his parents will suffer, his brothers will be arrested, his sisters will not get permits. They know. They know there is this very vast collective punishment, and yet, they think that it is most, it is more important to make this patriotic act rather than remain oppressed so much.
Now Tsemel sees Palestinian woman Arin Ahmed as her most important case. Arin was not a likely candidate to become a suicide bomber. A popular and bright student who topped her class at Bethlehem University, she was raised by her aunts in a loving home and was not very religious.
AUNT, (Translation): Like any other girl she was thinking of having a relationship, falling in love, having her own house, having children. It's like she had it all planned, how things were to happen. She had a vision.
All this changed when Arin's boyfriend, a Palestinian militant, was killed by the Israeli army. At university the next day she met with her girlfriends and decided to do the unthinkable - blow herself up to avenge his death. After contacting the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Arin expected to undergo months of training. But just four days later someone came to the university and told her there was a van waiting for her outside.
AUNT, (Translation): It was at the university that they told her to go. I'd have noticed if it had been planned before. It was at uni, and within two hours they told her "You'll be going" and so on.
Along with another 16-year-old bomber, she was driven to the Israeli town of Rishon Letzion and given a knapsack full of explosives and nails, the attack was to take place at this plaza. The 16-year-old would blow himself up first and then when people started fleeing towards Arin, she would detonate her bomb. But Arin couldn't go through with it.
LEAH TSEMEL: The moment of her remorse was so important, because she describes it. As she is standing there, about to cross the street and she sees the people, the children, the men, women, walking around and all of a sudden she told herself, "Ah, they have done nothing to me, why should I kill them? I have nothing against these people, I shouldn't kill myself, I shouldn't go and die so young."
Arin went back to the car and told her minders she wasn't going to do it. They were furious and demanded that she blow herself up, saying that paradise and honour were waiting for her. But Arin refused and made them return to Bethlehem. The 16-year-old boy stayed and blew himself up, killing three people. Her aunt says the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade chose the wrong girl.
AUNT, (Translation): Arin's circumstances weren't suitable. She had a future, a chance to study, work, progress. She could even be of benefit to Israeli society. There's the path of dialogue and a hundred paths other than the one she took.
Even though Arin Ahmed didn't detonate her bomb she is now in jail, charged with the three murders. The Israeli prosecution argues that Arin had a key role in the bombing and wants her to serve three life sentences. But Leah is working overtime on her defence. She wants the case to serve as a powerful message to all other potential suicide bombers - they will be rewarded with a reduced sentence if they change their minds.
LEAH TSEMEL: If Israel is serious about what we say about the suicide bombers and if it is not only a false pretence, then yes, Arin can be the right message to those young people who, for sometimes personal reasons, are being misled into volunteering to die. If we can show them through Arin that there is a place to regret and if you regret it will be appreciated.
Leah believes the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is the root cause of all Palestinian violence. When Israel took these areas in the Six Day War of 1967, Leah's life was turned upside down.
LEAH TSEMEL: I did participate in the '67 war as a volunteer and I was disappointed so much by my government because I felt there was a moment to make peace, according to our conditions, right away after this war, after this enormous victory. And it didn't happen. And it took me some time to realise that they never intended to have peace.
She was one of the first Israeli lawyers to take up the Palestinian cause. At the time it was a radical move and she paid a high price.
LEAH TSEMEL: There was discrimination. My children suffered a lot, a lot. They were young and vulnerable and their mother was an Arab lover, you know. To be an outsider in those days was unacceptable in such a small society as Israel was.
These days the right wing in Israel generally tolerates Leah and she provokes more debate than vilification.
LEAH TSEMEL, (Translation): The executive authority should not be able to outlaw an organisation, there are enough legal measures in the law book to prosecute using the right procedures.
LAPID, (Translation): Mrs Tsemel says that when Jewish terrorists are free it's good for the Palestinians, as they're giving the Jews a bad name. And she also wants Arab terrorists to be free.
TSEMEL, (Translation): I'm against the venom you continue to spread while they continue to be free.
Slowly but surely, Leah's work has changed the system in Israel. In 1999, she won a landmark Supreme Court case that outlawed Israeli security forces using some forms of torture when interrogating Palestinians. A colleague, Darlia Kerstein, says it was Leah's persistence that forced the change.
DARLIA KERSTEIN: She's a pioneer because at the time very few people, Israeli people, worked in the field - Jewish Israeli people I should say, and she just keeps on going - the woman is a solid rock, I mean if you need to move a mountain Leah is the person to be there for you.
Recently Leah and a team of younger lawyers cracked one of their biggest cases in years, forcing the state of Israel to admit the existence of a secret prison where torture takes place. The breakthrough came while they were investigating the whereabouts of Palestinian detainees in 2002.
LEAH TSEMEL: And while we were making this investigations, we realised that there is something, some place, some hidden place, secret prison, and then we went to the court and we said, "Tell us about this hidden prison", and the state attorney came and said, "Not necessary, we are not going to use it any more, forget it. Forget it, withdraw your case." We were almost withdrawing the case, only I said "Before we withdraw it, can you give us a promise, a clear declaration, that this place will never be used again." Here you could see that they were hysterical. They would not. And they even made the court so furious that the president of the Supreme Court issued right away an order forcing them to speak about this prison and to give the why and where and how has it been run.
This is the location of the prison, secret military facility 1391 in northern Israel. Filming here is strictly prohibited. For about 20 years the prison operated outside any public or legal scrutiny. Only a select few Israeli government and security officials knew of its existence. Once inside, you effectively disappear. Nobody knows you are there and contact with the outside world is forbidden.
LEAH TSEMEL: You are not even allowed to see your own guards. When the guards come into the room you are supposed to turn around to the wall, to put a sack on your own face. During the interrogation, of course, the major mission is to let you understand and feel that you are there forever in their hands. Nobody knows where you are, this place doesn't exist, nobody knows on the maps where it is, you are on the moon, you are under the water. You don't exist for anyone in the outside world.
Israel refuses to talk about the prison, but Mustapha Dirani doesn't. A senior leader of a Lebanese militia group, he spent eight years in facility 1391.
MUSTAPHA DIRANI, (Translation): They started interrogating me on arrival. Without any delay. The methods of torture were both psychological and physical. As for psychological torture, you start the interrogation with no clothes on. They take off all your clothes. They know that, as Muslims, it's very insulting for us.
Dirani was abducted by Israeli forces in southern Lebanon in 1994 and is now back in Lebanon after being released in a controversial Hezbollah prisoner exchange two months ago.
MUSTAPHA DIRANI, (Translation): They'd use hot and cold water. They'd put pressure on certain sensitive areas that they believed might cause severe pain. They'd use the method of preventing you from going to the toilet so you'd do everything where you were to the extent that no one could enter the room without blocking their nose.
The Israelis kidnapped Dirani because he held an Israeli pilot, Ron Arad, captive for two years. They thought they could extract information from Dirani about Arad's whereabouts. Dirani didn't break and he says the torture just got worse.
MUSTAPHA DIRANI, (Translation): I used to tell them that they could kill me. They'd say they'd go as far as killing us without letting us die. That was their answer.
Through her court actions Leah is campaigning for the closure of facility 1391. Meanwhile, she's dealing with the daily cases of house demolitions, arrests and detentions. Today she is in East Jerusalem trying to find a way to prevent this house from being filled with concrete by Israeli authorities. The father of the Palestinian family who live here was convicted of killing 33 Israelis in several terrorist actions. But Leah says the family should not suffer because of what he did.
LEAH TSEMEL: They take barrels, they put them... and they fill them with concrete and then they put another series of barrels and a third floor of barrels so to make it totally impossible forever in the future.
In the end this becomes another of her small victories. The courts decide that the house will be locked up, but not filled with concrete - offering the family some hope that one day they might be able to return. The demand for Leah's help is never ending, and with each day comes a new battle, but she is not about stop.
LEAH TSEMEL: I am fighting almost all the time. And when I get to the point of despair it's only if I feel that I have not done enough. And then, the motivation would be to do more, not to do less and not to give up.
It's early morning on the road to Tel Aviv and Leah Tsemel rouses herself with a protest song about the Israeli Defence Minister, Shaul Mofaz.
LEAH TSEMEL, ISRAELI LAWYER: They wrote this song before Shaul Mofaz became what he is today, they wrote this song when he was still only the chief of staff. But it was like a prophecy, you know - "Shaul Mofaz!" It is still the feeling I have about him.
As an Israeli lawyer who's devoted her life to fighting for Palestinian rights, Leah Tsemel has often found herself pitted against the Israeli establishment. Today Tsemel is representing Israeli-Arab taxi driver Mahmoud Lardy. He's accused of driving a suicide bomber to an attack that killed 22 Israelis. Tsemel says Mahmoud had no idea who his passenger was and picked him up only for the fare.
LEAH TSEMEL, (Translation): I think he'll be acquitted.
REPORTER, (Translation): Isn't he responsible for the death of 20 children?
LEAH TSEMEL, (Translation): No. No, he isn't. It could happen to you, the same thing, and nobody would have put you on trial for it.
DRIVER BEING INTERVIEWED, (Translation): They say I knew, but what can I do? I didn't know. I couldn't even imagine this happening to me. I work to support my family. I've worked since I was 14. I've only ever thought about my work. Work, home, and my children. I don't even have a criminal record, God forbid.
Mahmoud's wife and mother are here to see him sentenced. The judges are swayed by Tsemel's case and she succeeds in getting Mahmoud's prison term reduced from 22 life sentences to 12 years. But it's not the victory his lawyer hoped for.
LEAH TSEMEL, (Translation): We're going to appeal the verdict and the sentence.
REPORTER, (Translation): Had he been Jewish would they have treated him differently?
LEAH TSEMEL, (Translation): The assumption was a Jew wouldn't desire the death of Jews. This assumption dictates the thinking of all of us that because he is an Arab he might have desired the outcome.
LEAH TSEMEL: For me any punishment is extreme because I think he should have been acquitted. On the other hand, when we started this file, he was anticipating 22 life sentences. So 12 years - it's not as bad as it could have been, at the beginning, but it's much worse than it will be probably.
It's these kinds of cases that have made Leah Tsemel a controversial figure in Israel, but she's never taken much notice of her critics. During the latest intifada, she has defended many would-be suicide bombers and their accomplices. She argues that suicide bombing is an act of patriotism.
LEAH TSEMEL: Young people probably want to feel that they have done something for their homeland. And maybe that is the easiest way. They don't worth much so they might just as well give their life away. And you should know every young Palestinian who goes to commit suicide, he knows that his house will be demolished, his parents will suffer, his brothers will be arrested, his sisters will not get permits. They know. They know there is this very vast collective punishment, and yet, they think that it is most, it is more important to make this patriotic act rather than remain oppressed so much.
Now Tsemel sees Palestinian woman Arin Ahmed as her most important case. Arin was not a likely candidate to become a suicide bomber. A popular and bright student who topped her class at Bethlehem University, she was raised by her aunts in a loving home and was not very religious.
AUNT, (Translation): Like any other girl she was thinking of having a relationship, falling in love, having her own house, having children. It's like she had it all planned, how things were to happen. She had a vision.
All this changed when Arin's boyfriend, a Palestinian militant, was killed by the Israeli army. At university the next day she met with her girlfriends and decided to do the unthinkable - blow herself up to avenge his death. After contacting the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Arin expected to undergo months of training. But just four days later someone came to the university and told her there was a van waiting for her outside.
AUNT, (Translation): It was at the university that they told her to go. I'd have noticed if it had been planned before. It was at uni, and within two hours they told her "You'll be going" and so on.
Along with another 16-year-old bomber, she was driven to the Israeli town of Rishon Letzion and given a knapsack full of explosives and nails, the attack was to take place at this plaza. The 16-year-old would blow himself up first and then when people started fleeing towards Arin, she would detonate her bomb. But Arin couldn't go through with it.
LEAH TSEMEL: The moment of her remorse was so important, because she describes it. As she is standing there, about to cross the street and she sees the people, the children, the men, women, walking around and all of a sudden she told herself, "Ah, they have done nothing to me, why should I kill them? I have nothing against these people, I shouldn't kill myself, I shouldn't go and die so young."
Arin went back to the car and told her minders she wasn't going to do it. They were furious and demanded that she blow herself up, saying that paradise and honour were waiting for her. But Arin refused and made them return to Bethlehem. The 16-year-old boy stayed and blew himself up, killing three people. Her aunt says the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade chose the wrong girl.
AUNT, (Translation): Arin's circumstances weren't suitable. She had a future, a chance to study, work, progress. She could even be of benefit to Israeli society. There's the path of dialogue and a hundred paths other than the one she took.
Even though Arin Ahmed didn't detonate her bomb she is now in jail, charged with the three murders. The Israeli prosecution argues that Arin had a key role in the bombing and wants her to serve three life sentences. But Leah is working overtime on her defence. She wants the case to serve as a powerful message to all other potential suicide bombers - they will be rewarded with a reduced sentence if they change their minds.
LEAH TSEMEL: If Israel is serious about what we say about the suicide bombers and if it is not only a false pretence, then yes, Arin can be the right message to those young people who, for sometimes personal reasons, are being misled into volunteering to die. If we can show them through Arin that there is a place to regret and if you regret it will be appreciated.
Leah believes the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is the root cause of all Palestinian violence. When Israel took these areas in the Six Day War of 1967, Leah's life was turned upside down.
LEAH TSEMEL: I did participate in the '67 war as a volunteer and I was disappointed so much by my government because I felt there was a moment to make peace, according to our conditions, right away after this war, after this enormous victory. And it didn't happen. And it took me some time to realise that they never intended to have peace.
She was one of the first Israeli lawyers to take up the Palestinian cause. At the time it was a radical move and she paid a high price.
LEAH TSEMEL: There was discrimination. My children suffered a lot, a lot. They were young and vulnerable and their mother was an Arab lover, you know. To be an outsider in those days was unacceptable in such a small society as Israel was.
These days the right wing in Israel generally tolerates Leah and she provokes more debate than vilification.
LEAH TSEMEL, (Translation): The executive authority should not be able to outlaw an organisation, there are enough legal measures in the law book to prosecute using the right procedures.
LAPID, (Translation): Mrs Tsemel says that when Jewish terrorists are free it's good for the Palestinians, as they're giving the Jews a bad name. And she also wants Arab terrorists to be free.
TSEMEL, (Translation): I'm against the venom you continue to spread while they continue to be free.
Slowly but surely, Leah's work has changed the system in Israel. In 1999, she won a landmark Supreme Court case that outlawed Israeli security forces using some forms of torture when interrogating Palestinians. A colleague, Darlia Kerstein, says it was Leah's persistence that forced the change.
DARLIA KERSTEIN: She's a pioneer because at the time very few people, Israeli people, worked in the field - Jewish Israeli people I should say, and she just keeps on going - the woman is a solid rock, I mean if you need to move a mountain Leah is the person to be there for you.
Recently Leah and a team of younger lawyers cracked one of their biggest cases in years, forcing the state of Israel to admit the existence of a secret prison where torture takes place. The breakthrough came while they were investigating the whereabouts of Palestinian detainees in 2002.
LEAH TSEMEL: And while we were making this investigations, we realised that there is something, some place, some hidden place, secret prison, and then we went to the court and we said, "Tell us about this hidden prison", and the state attorney came and said, "Not necessary, we are not going to use it any more, forget it. Forget it, withdraw your case." We were almost withdrawing the case, only I said "Before we withdraw it, can you give us a promise, a clear declaration, that this place will never be used again." Here you could see that they were hysterical. They would not. And they even made the court so furious that the president of the Supreme Court issued right away an order forcing them to speak about this prison and to give the why and where and how has it been run.
This is the location of the prison, secret military facility 1391 in northern Israel. Filming here is strictly prohibited. For about 20 years the prison operated outside any public or legal scrutiny. Only a select few Israeli government and security officials knew of its existence. Once inside, you effectively disappear. Nobody knows you are there and contact with the outside world is forbidden.
LEAH TSEMEL: You are not even allowed to see your own guards. When the guards come into the room you are supposed to turn around to the wall, to put a sack on your own face. During the interrogation, of course, the major mission is to let you understand and feel that you are there forever in their hands. Nobody knows where you are, this place doesn't exist, nobody knows on the maps where it is, you are on the moon, you are under the water. You don't exist for anyone in the outside world.
Israel refuses to talk about the prison, but Mustapha Dirani doesn't. A senior leader of a Lebanese militia group, he spent eight years in facility 1391.
MUSTAPHA DIRANI, (Translation): They started interrogating me on arrival. Without any delay. The methods of torture were both psychological and physical. As for psychological torture, you start the interrogation with no clothes on. They take off all your clothes. They know that, as Muslims, it's very insulting for us.
Dirani was abducted by Israeli forces in southern Lebanon in 1994 and is now back in Lebanon after being released in a controversial Hezbollah prisoner exchange two months ago.
MUSTAPHA DIRANI, (Translation): They'd use hot and cold water. They'd put pressure on certain sensitive areas that they believed might cause severe pain. They'd use the method of preventing you from going to the toilet so you'd do everything where you were to the extent that no one could enter the room without blocking their nose.
The Israelis kidnapped Dirani because he held an Israeli pilot, Ron Arad, captive for two years. They thought they could extract information from Dirani about Arad's whereabouts. Dirani didn't break and he says the torture just got worse.
MUSTAPHA DIRANI, (Translation): I used to tell them that they could kill me. They'd say they'd go as far as killing us without letting us die. That was their answer.
Through her court actions Leah is campaigning for the closure of facility 1391. Meanwhile, she's dealing with the daily cases of house demolitions, arrests and detentions. Today she is in East Jerusalem trying to find a way to prevent this house from being filled with concrete by Israeli authorities. The father of the Palestinian family who live here was convicted of killing 33 Israelis in several terrorist actions. But Leah says the family should not suffer because of what he did.
LEAH TSEMEL: They take barrels, they put them... and they fill them with concrete and then they put another series of barrels and a third floor of barrels so to make it totally impossible forever in the future.
In the end this becomes another of her small victories. The courts decide that the house will be locked up, but not filled with concrete - offering the family some hope that one day they might be able to return. The demand for Leah's help is never ending, and with each day comes a new battle, but she is not about stop.
LEAH TSEMEL: I am fighting almost all the time. And when I get to the point of despair it's only if I feel that I have not done enough. And then, the motivation would be to do more, not to do less and not to give up.