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Two stories about opacity and procrastination: Politicians turn the arena to the High Court - Walla! News

2021-03-05T17:28:23.176Z


The government continues to approve the GSS 'invasive monitoring of the fight against Corona despite the criticism and warning lights. Even in dealing with Ben Gurion Airport's failure, there is a clear unwillingness to balance the war on the virus with civil rights. And if that was not enough, the High Court came and mentioned again - what was is what will be


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Two stories of opacity and procrastination: Politicians turn the arena to the High Court

The government continues to approve the GSS 'invasive monitoring of the fight against Corona despite the criticism and warning lights. Even in dealing with Ben Gurion Airport's failure, there is a clear unwillingness to balance the war on the virus with civil rights.

And if that was not enough, the High Court came and mentioned again - what was is what will be

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  • Corona virus

  • Matanyahu Engelman

  • High Court

Daniel Dolev

Friday, March 05, 2021, 7:15 p.m.

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In the video: The auditor refers to the interim report on the corona crisis (Photo: State Comptroller's Office, edited by: Assaf Drori)

Last October, about six months into the corona plague, State Comptroller Netanyahu Engelman published an interim report on Israel's response to the crisis.

The main criticism of the report itself was that it did not deal at all with the decision-making processes of the government and the Corona Cabinet.

The past week has provided two examples of how relevant this review is.



Engelman's report dealt, for example, with the use of GSS targets for the fight against the plague.

And in exposing possible GSS capabilities, which could impair his ability to meet his main task in the future - to thwart terrorism. In light of the findings, he also recommended that decision-makers reconsider the decision to seek service.

More on Walla!

GSS technology fails, grant criteria distorted | State Comptroller

To the full article

Recommended the decision-makers to reconsider the decision to seek help from the GSS. Engelman (Photo: Official website, Adina Wallman, Knesset Spokeswoman)

And what did the decision makers do with this recommendation?

To get an answer to this question, it is worth reading the High Court ruling published this week regarding the use of GSS IDPs.

After being presented to the judges on the use of the GSS, President Esther Hayut came to a conclusion similar to that of the Comptroller and stated that "because at this time the benefit of using the GSS tool is limited, when faced with a severe and ongoing violation of the right to privacy."



However, unlike the Comptroller, the judges mainly referred to the decision-making process regarding the use of the GSS, and the picture that emerges from the ruling is very disturbing. Continue to use the Service.

The warning words became an operating plan

The law passed in the Knesset, which allows the GSS to operate against the virus, does not give the government an open check. Far from it. The government should announce the use of the GSS only if it is convinced that due to fears of widespread spread of the disease there is an "immediate and real need" to do This, and that there is no suitable alternative to the GSS 'assistance. The government must also rely on the recommendation of a special team of ministers, and most importantly, it should reconsider the use of the secret service every three weeks. This arrangement is intended to ensure that the GSS enters the picture only when all other means have not proved. Themselves, and only to the extent necessary.

In practice things looked different.



The judges note that in recent months the number of epidemiological investigations has tripled - from a thousand interrogators last August to about 3,000 today - as a result of cooperation between the Ministry of Health, the Home Front Command and local authorities.

In addition, there is also the fact that more than a third of the country's population has already been vaccinated with both doses of the vaccine, and even before that the number of patients and the coefficient of infection have risen and fallen.

Despite all this, the use of the GSS remains unchanged, in its most sweeping and extensive version.

The government should reconsider the use of the secret service every three weeks.

Mahane Yehuda Market (Photo: AP)

Two decades ago, when a secret committee of the Knesset discussed the possibility of introducing a section into the GSS law that might allow it to be used for tasks other than counterterrorism, the strongest opponent was MK Benny Begin.

He warned exactly against such a scenario.

"Say: service I have? I have. People I have? I have. Salary they get? Get. Methods I have and work they know? So why not run them."

Two decades later, Begin's words seem to have turned from warning words into an operating plan.



The Privacy Protection Authority has repeatedly opposed the use of the GSS, and in fact the GSS itself has called for a reduction in the use of IDs.

But the government did not listen.

Instead of using the tools designed to fight terrorism to be the last resort in Arsenal, it has become the base layer.

Because it is easy and convenient.

Because the GSS is already there, in the shadows anyway. But the continued use of the GSS is first and foremost evidence of the government's unwillingness, or inability, to act by other means.

This is evidence of failure.

The ideal solution exists, the government fails to enforce

The second example that could have gone directly into the auditor's report that is being formulated these days is the hearing held this week in petitions against the closure of Israel's gates to its citizens.

It is worth mentioning that the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty explicitly states that "every Israeli citizen who is abroad is entitled to enter Israel."

Still, in recent weeks this fundamental right has been denied to many citizens, who have had to apply to the Exceptions Committee to return to their country and home.



The exceptions committee is due to be abolished on Sunday, and the number of people entering Israel will be increased to 3,000 a day.

At this week's debate, President Hayut wondered why the quotas were imposed at all.

That is, why it was decided on such an extreme measure, instead of less harmful measures, such as conducting airport inspections and isolating in the required cases.



The answer of Advocate Jonathan Berman, an excellent lawyer and first-rate public servant, was somewhat depressing. "Ultimately the main barrier is the ability to enforce effective home isolation," Berman replied. .

But the state is unable to enforce it, so it has turned to a more radical solution, which is the duty of isolation in hotels.

In recent weeks, many citizens have been denied a basic right.

Ben Gurion Airport (Photo: Reuven Castro)

Because this is a more extreme solution, in which the state actually imprisons a person who is not suspected, many exceptions have been created for him - such as pregnant women, the elderly, minors who arrive on a flight when they are not accompanied and various exemptions for humanitarian reasons.

"But in Israel, everyone is a humanitarian case, so in practice only a third of those returning from abroad actually went to hotels. This situation led the country to go one step further and close the sky.



" .



"So the solution is not to give the elderly the first place this coming?" wondered animals. "The solution is that when it comes to take care of the matter, will monitor and differentiation.

Whoever is allowed to solve from a hotel, will come and get resolved. "



The discussion ended without a decision, and will resume next week after the decision to repeal the Exceptions Committee takes effect. But already now you can see a direct line connecting the government The government is failing to produce interim solutions that will balance the need to fight the epidemic with the basic rights of the citizens.

Time and time again her choice is to violate these rights in an extreme way, instead of trying new ways to reach the same balance.

Constitutional Twilight Zone

Those who are not yet convinced and are looking for a non-Corona example of the inability of Israeli decision-makers to make complex decisions, accepted it in the High Court's decision on reform and conservative conversions. Israeli religious and ultra-Orthodox parties - and refuse any form of recognition of all religious movement that is not the current orthodoxy. On the other side of the barricade in the majority of world Jewry, and especially the majority of American Jewry who belonged to the Reform and Conservative.



ruling parties in Israel, at least in recent decades, needed almost always parties Orthodox - what resetting a chance to pass any legislation that would recognize these currents. On the other hand, a formal decision not to recognize them also not accepted, so as not to cause a rift between Diaspora Jewry and the State of Israel.



this creates a kind of twilight zone where the constitutional Court repeatedly required to solve A problem of one Jew or another who finds himself in an unbearable situation, and on the way to creating patch by patch the answer to the question "who is a Jew".

First, conversions of non-Orthodox denominations abroad were recognized, then Orthodox conversions but those not made through the rabbinate, and this week also non-Orthodox conversions of those who are legally residing in Israel. The



High Court tried to avoid this.

The judges gave another extension and another extension, postponed the decision once because of a committee headed by Yaakov Ne'eman, and another time gave former Justice Minister Moshe Nissim a chance.

But this week there was a lot of water, and the High Court was forced to come to the aid of those converts who waited a decade and a half for a decision. Perhaps this is what will speed up the Knesset and the government that will be formed after the election The chestnuts from the fire.

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Source: walla

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