About a month after the GSS ministerial staff decided to stop using the placements, the Supreme Court is holding a hearing on the Association for Civil Rights petition
The Supreme Court is currently holding a hearing on a petition by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and others against the GSS.
The hearing in the Supreme Court // Photo: Spokeswoman for the Judiciary
The hearing was held in an expanded panel headed by President Esther Hayut, with Vice President Hanan Meltzer and Justices Neil Handel, Yitzhak Amit, Noam Solberg, Dafna Barak-Erez and Anat Baron.
It takes place against the background of the decision made last month to discontinue the spotting, except in cases where corona infections do not cooperate in the epidemiological investigation, as well as in cases where there will be a significant increase in morbidity.
The decision was based on the recommendation of the Ministry of Intelligence and the GSS position, and against the background of the trend of improvement in the system of epidemiological investigations.
In November, the High Court issued a conditional order in a petition filed by the movement: "The state must respond within 21 days why not reduce the use of the locating tool only to cases where the verified patient does not cooperate, and also - why not promote a civil alternative?"
Following the conditional order issued, the government considered reducing the use of the GSS only to cases where a patient does not cooperate with the epidemiological investigation, but finally decided to extend the use of the GSS locations in the existing format until January 7.
The temporary order that allows GSS surveillance will expire on Wednesday, but since the Knesset is on election break, its validity may be automatically extended for up to three months after the convening of the new Knesset (ie until around August 2021).
The association is expected to raise various arguments in the discussion against the continued use of the regulation.
In a response filed last December, the association mentioned that there is a marginal benefit, which decreases as time goes on, of GSS surveillance in preventing infection. , The association argued that the section that allows for automatic extension of legislation during the holiday period is not intended to extend emergency legislation, based on the existence of an emergency situation.
According to data presented to the GSS ministerial staff last month, about 93% of all patients are located by the Home Front Command's human epidemiological investigations system, which reduces the exclusive GSS assistance to only 7% of patients.
During the discussion held last month, the GSS recommended that the use of the tool be made only for those who refuse to interrogate, and in cases where the daily morbidity is over 3,000 infected per day. The Ministry of Health stated that it is interested in continuing to use the tool until the end of March. This is against the background of his contribution to locating the infected. In the summary of the hearing, it was determined until the next hearing, which as stated takes place today (Sunday), the definitions for those who refuse to be questioned will be determined and the daily number of infected.
Intelligence Minister Eli Cohen: "The GSS tool made hundreds of thousands of contacts, saved the lives of at least 400 Israelis and reduced the economic damage to the economy.
Although this is not the core of the organization's activities, the best GSS experts have been involved in rescuing civilians from the disease and have achieved significant results. "In cases of infected people who do not cooperate with the human interrogation system or in cases of a significant outbreak of the disease."
