12 rights and freedoms. In this context, what is really a priority now is to put an end to the tyranny of preoccupation with security and security considerations…We must move away from the mentality “Security First”, for it tends to seriously set aside rights and freedoms and the rule of law. This mentality will definitely lead to total chaos or the abyss…the abyss of security and police regimes which we have witnessed and are still witnessing live on television in neighboring Arab countries, particularly the extent of the brutality these regimes have resorted to in order to suppress their peoples. And I believe that we have also seen live on television how these regimes of oppression have been falling down through the will of the Arab peoples. This leads me to emphasize again and again the need to expedite the creation of civil overseeing to monitor the actions of th‐e security apparatuses as long as the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) continues to be absent from playing its role in controlling the process of how the security apparatuses are built, how their budgets are determined, how they behave and how they could become subject to a strict but fair system of accountability. This civil overseeing is of course different from that necessary system of control which is exercised on the political level. This is a settled question, of course, given that security in general has to be subject to the control of the prevailing political system; otherwise what will emerge is a system of security and police. There is therefore an urgent need to provide a mechanism of control over the security apparatuses now as we are making the necessary preparations for the pre‐state phase so as to determine, define and formulate from this very moment onwards the features and major components of our political system to be implemented in our future independent state. It is important to note here that civil overseeing becomes increasingly important once we examine the experiences of intelligence services in Arab and non‐Arab states: that security apparatuses tend in their reports to their governments to exaggerate the internal risks and threats that will endanger the stability of their countries. The aim behind this of course was to tighten the hold of these apparatuses over almost everything in the country. In many cases this has empowered the security intelligence services and made them seem more in control rather than the government itself. In fact some governments have come to be at their mercy. To ensure justice and the protection of the rule of law, and to limit the possibility of the development of a repressive and police regime, an independent, fair and efficient judiciary in Palestine should be created and institutionalized. The independence of the judiciary in particular is an extremely important issue that cannot be disregarded. It should be noted here that what the results of the survey in the judicial system in Palestine, issued by the Supreme Judicial Council, refer to, regarding the partial pressures and the interventions in the work of judges that usually emanate from the Executive Authority, is a very serious and dangerous matter. It is a matter that should not be tolerated. Additionally, we in the ICHR and the human rights community in Palestine should try our best to soon find means and mechanisms that would fully eradicate it as a problem before it succeeds in undermining the independence of the judiciary.