Adalah Demands that Interior Minister Rescind Order to Close Islamic Movement Newspaper

Yesterday, Adalah sent a letter to Interior Minister Eliyahu Yishai demanding that he rescind his closure order, issued the same day, against Sawt Al-Haqq Wal-Hurriya. This newspaper is affiliated with the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, led by Sheikh Ra'ed Salah.

In the letter, Adalah Staff Attorney Suhad Bishara wrote that the closure order violates the basic rights to freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of information. Such an order empties these principles of any meaning.

The Interior Minister issued the closure order in accordance with Article 19(2)(a) of the Press Ordinance (1933). This mandatory-era law, which empowers the Interior Minister to close a newspaper if it “poses a danger to the public order,” is rarely invoked. A precedent-setting Supreme Court ruling in the case of Kol Ha'am, delivered in 1953, held that this Ordinance may only be invoked to close a publication in the event that there is a “near certainty” that it will seriously damage public security or welfare. Adalah argued in the letter that the Minister's decision does not fulfill this condition of “near certainty.” In addition, the closure order is overbroad, relies on irrelevant considerations, and fails to note any specific newspaper articles published in Sawt Al-Haqq Wal-Hurriya that pose “a danger to the public order.” Further, Adalah objected to the Minister's failure to issue a warrant explaining his claims against a specific article or article(s) before delivering a closure order, as provided by Article 19(1) of the Press Ordinance.

Adalah is gravely concerned by an emerging pattern of government actions aimed at undermining the rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel, of which this closure order is the most recent example. Other actions include the Minister of Interior's decision to revoke the citizenship of two Palestinian citizens of Israel as well as his orders, issued pursuant to emergency regulations, banning Sheikh Ra'ed Salah from leaving the country. Similarly, in an unprecedented move last week, the Attorney General submitted a motion to the Central Elections Committee seeking to disqualify the National Democratic Assembly political party list, headed by MK Azmi Bishara, from participating in the upcoming elections.