Amira Hass asks what is delaying treatment of a 47-year-old Palestinian woman, Khalida Jarrar, who needs diagnostic brain tests that cannot be done in the West Bank due to lack of the necessary medical equipment?

This is a mere footnote in the chronicle of the Palestinians’ life under foreign rule. But this footnote is a typical chapter in the history of Israeli society: a democratic society that gives those wonderful fellows from the Shin Bet a blank check to act like the last of the great dictators and juggle with their subjects’ lives – without elections, without oversight, without supervision. Their word is sacrosanct. And if they say, as they did in reply to Haaretz, "Relevant information exists indicating that [Jarrar’s] exit from the area poses a risk to our security," we all salute.

‘Salute’ cuz that’s what’s done in an incorrigibly (?) militarized society (things seem to have gone much further militarization-wise than they have in the U.S., though Americans _can_ relate). And, of course, as Hass notes, if there were any evidence that Jarrar was dangerous, she would’ve been arrested long ago. The real explanation for her brutal treatment may relate to the fact that she is a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, representing the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. She wants the Israel occupiers out, and the occupiers don’t like that.

Hass concludes:

For what is the endless postponement of an urgent medical test if not torture of a sick person and her family? . . .

Until six or eight years ago, a journalist’s report of a similar situation would have embarrassed someone up there on the security ladder and an exit permit for medical reasons would have been issued despite the "security considerations." But today, the sense of shame has disappeared. Society’s backing is assured.

What has happened to Israel that virtually no one there anymore stands up against this sort of brutal injustice and bullying? Why are the good people both of Israel and among her sympathizers so silent?