The Supreme Court of Israel vetoes the massive tracking of the spy service to the mobile phones of the infected

Two Israelis returning to their country show the electronic bracelets that have been placed on them to monitor their quarantine, on Monday at the Tel Aviv airport. Sebastian Scheiner / AP

Almost a year after its controversial approval by the Government, the Supreme Court of Israel this Monday vetoed the massive tracking of the mobile phones of those infected by covid-19 with the surveillance systems of the Shin Bet (internal secret service).

At the request of four organizations for the defense of civil rights, the magistrates have considered a serious violation of civil liberties the system of generalized sweeps to detect the contacts of those infected with other people, who are consequently imposed a quarantine.

The High Court establishes that the monitoring of mobile phones can only be imposed in individualized cases of patients who refuse to cooperate with the health authorities.

The secret tracking technology used by Israeli espionage services to follow in the footsteps of Palestinians suspected of terrorism have served to detect 7% of the cases recorded by the Ministry of Health between March 17, when it began to be applied, and the December 31, 2020, according to a report from the Ministry of Intelligence.

The Shin Bet geolocation systems identify those who have been in contact for more than 15 minutes and within a radius of two meters with a registered infected person.

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The Supreme Court concludes that a decision that was imposed temporarily and urgently, at the time of the outbreak of the pandemic, has been successively renewed by the Government, with the sole endorsement of a parliamentary commission, until it became a permanent measure.

The Israeli Civil Rights Association NGO, which described a year ago as a "dangerous precedent of violation of the right to privacy" the implementation of the massive sweep of mobiles, has now held the judicial veto to "an extreme and undemocratic use of surveillance means in the fight against the pandemic, ”according to a statement quoted by Reuters.

The Supreme Court has limited the use of tracking by the Shin Bet to "individual cases" and as a "complementary tool."

The data collected will be used by the police to notify those who have been in contact with those infected that they must undergo a two-week quarantine.

But the sweeps and captures of mobile data by espionage have also raised doubts about its effectiveness.

Last month, 65,000 unvaccinated citizens who had to enter home quarantine were exempted from the isolation measure because of a technical flaw in the tracking, according to

The Times of Israel.

Last January, 144,000 people who tested positive were excluded from Shin Bet monitoring for no apparent reason.

Immunization of Palestinians

The Supreme Court's resolution came the day after the government approved the vaccination of the 130,000 Palestinian workers employed in companies in Israel or in the settlements of Jewish settlers in the West Bank.

This immunization campaign, which has not yet begun, will be carried out in temporary centers set up at the exit checkpoints from the occupied Palestinian territory or at the entrances to the colonies.

The body of the Ministry of Defense that manages the day-to-day running of the occupation has announced that the workers will receive the two doses of Moderna's vaccine, which Israel has acquired as a reserve although it is only injecting its population with that of Pfizer and BioNTech.

More than half of its 9.3 million inhabitants - including 1.9 million citizens of Palestinian origin and more than 300,000 Palestinians with resident status in Jerusalem - have already been immunized with at least one dose.

The 5.2 million Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank have received only 32,000 vaccines so far: 2,000 doses of Moderna from Israel;

20,000 of Sputnik V from the United Arab Emirates and another 10,000 of Sputnik V sent by Russia.

Faced with international calls on Israel to take over the vaccination of the Palestinian population, as an occupying power since 1967, the Israeli Government alleges that the Palestinian Authority has exclusive competence in health matters since the 1993 Oslo Accords. The Committee International Red Cross has recalled that the population of Gaza and the West Bank still has little vaccine protection and has urged Israel to undertake new initiatives such as the immunization of Palestinian workers.