A panel of seven High Court judges ordered the state to reduce the use of GSS staff and ruled that as of March 14, it will only use them in the event of non-cooperation with the epidemiological investigation • Kish: "So far we have saved the lives of more than 500,000 Israelis Thanks to GSS characteristics
The President of the Court of Justice, Judge Esther Hayut (Archive)
Photo:
Jonathan Zindel, Flash 90
The Deputy Minister of Health, Yoav Kish, today (Monday) sharply attacked the High Court's decision to reduce the use of GSS personnel starting in the middle of the month.
The decision states that the government can not continue to authorize the GSS in a comprehensive manner to assist in conducting epidemiological investigations, and must limit the organization's assistance only to patients who do not cooperate in an epidemiological investigation or have not reported any contacts.
Kish noted that "this is a blatant intervention by the High Court in the fight against the virus.
Starting from 14.3 the de facto abolition of the use of GSS capabilities to locate patients.
To date, we have saved more lives of 500,000 Israelis thanks to the GSS 'capability. "On March 14, because of the High Court, it will end."
He added: "In my opinion, this is a crime against the health of the citizens of Israel. All that remains is to congratulate the tremendous achievement of vaccines that may have exceeded the need."
In the petition, filed by four civic organizations, the court was asked to order the repeal of the "GSS Accreditation Law" - or alternatively to cancel the government's declaration of GSS accreditation by virtue of the law.
The panel of judges, which included Supreme Court President Justice Esther Hayut, Vice President Hanan Meltzer, Justice Yitzhak Amit and Justice Dafna Barak-Erez, ruled that the sweeping use of the GSS would be stopped and that the government should formulate measurable criteria that would determine the extent of assistance in the GSS. Will ensure that this assistance will only be a complementary tool.
"In order to formulate the aforesaid criteria, a reorganization period will be set so that the deadline for their formulation will be March 14, 2121, and that from that date onwards, GSS certification will in any case be limited only to those cases where the verified patient does not cooperate in the epidemiological investigation." Or he did not report any contacts at all, "the judges wrote in their decision.
They added: "The arrangement enshrined in the law, which allows the government to declare the GSS authorized to assist in conducting epidemiological investigations for a period of up to 21 days, is an exceptional arrangement that violates a real violation of the constitutional right to privacy." Judicial in the force of the permanent arrangements in itself. "
The judges also explained that "the clear 'warning signs' set by the law in the form of the various mechanisms contained therein, are intended to mitigate the violation of the right to privacy and the limited period set from the outset in relation to the duration of the law."
The judges focused on examining how the government exercised administrative discretion in its decisions on GSS accreditation. ".
