New undercover police unit posing as Arabs constitutes discrimination and racial profiling against Arab citizens of Israel and is illegal

On 13 October 2009, Adalah sent an urgent letter to the Minister of Internal Security, and the Chief Commander of the Israeli police demanding that they refrain from activating a new undercover police unit—whose officers, referred to as mista’aravim, infiltrate the Arab community—against the Arab minority in Israel. The existence of the unit was revealed by the Ha’aretz newspaper on 13 October 2009. Adalah further demanded the publication of the working directives and standards of the unit, as well as the rules that guarantee against racial profiling in the work of the police, if they exist. Ha’aretz disclosed that the unit had been established on the pretext of fighting Arab “crime families” in Israel and gathering intelligence information on them.

In the letter, Adalah Attorney Orna Kohn argued that the specialization of this unit was defined by the national identity of the community within which it operates, and not according to the type of crime that it will combat or a specific professional specialization, as is generally the case. Attorney Kohn further emphasized that the establishment of a police unit for the purpose of working within the national minority community gives rise to suspicions and fears of discrimination in the work of the police and of racial profiling against Arab citizens of Israel.

These fears are compounded by the mode of conduct that continues to be employed by the police towards Arab citizens, and the prevailing perception among the police of Arab citizens as the enemy. The report issued by the Official Commission of Inquiry into the killings of October 2000 (the Or Commission) confirmed the existence of racial stereotypes against Arab citizens, even among senior officers and commanders.

Adalah further argued that the secrecy that characterizes the unit and the uncertainty that surrounds its working methods, as well as its decision to operate through mista’aravim create serious concerns that it will lead to the violation of basic, constitutional rights of Arab citizens of Israel. Furthermore, Adalah stressed that there is no direct legal authority to sanction the establishment of such a unit, which raises questions about the legality of its existence and operation.