Adalah to Transport Minister: Cancel New Illegal Regulations Authorizing the GSS to Prevent Citizens of Israel from Obtaining Driving Licenses
On 17 March 2005, Adalah wrote an urgent letter to the Israeli Transport Minister, Meir Sheetrit, urging him to cancel a new amendment to the Traffic Regulations - 1961, which authorizes the General Security Services (GSS) to intervene in the granting of driving licenses to Israeli citizens.
The letter was sent in response to the Knesset Economic Committee's approval on 7 February 2005 of an amendment to Article 15 b(2) of the Traffic Regulations, according to which the Licensing Office can prevent any individual from obtaining a driving license following a decision by the GSS based on "security" considerations. Contrary to claims made by Transport Ministry representatives during a Knesset session that the GSS's powers to intervene will be limited to cases involving licenses for trucks carrying hazardous materials, the text of the amendment makes it clear that GSS is authorized to interfere in all requests for driving licenses, and not only those submitted by truck drivers.
As Adalah Attorney Abeer Baker argued in the letter, affording these powers to the GSS is illegal, since the GSS's powers are clearly defined by law, and this new authority does not come under any of the GSS's given powers. These include, for instance, the authority to gather and pass on information to interested parties, and to interrogate those suspected of security crimes. Therefore, a broadening of the GSS's powers by means of regulations which are incompatible with the law constitutes a gross infringement of the principle of the rule of law and a threat to the stability of the public order. Moreover, the implication of the amendment is that the GSS will from now on have the right to interfere grossly and unlawfully in various areas of daily life, and to violate citizens' constitutional rights, since conferring such powers is tantamount to an acknowledgment from the state that the GSS is the "ultimate authority," whose influence outweighs all other considerations, even the rule of law.
Adalah further argued that, given the nature of the GSS's operations, which are characterized by total confidentiality and a prohibition on disclosing the reasons for its decisions and the evidence in its possession, its decisions are absolute. As a result, if the GSS is authorized to intervene in the issuing of driving licenses, citizens adversely affected by its decisions will face a substantial obstacle in challenging them. The GSS's interference will therefore increase the likelihood that citizens' basic rights will be infringed, as well as endanger the universal principles of justice.
