CORONAVIRUS: Adalah, Joint List petition Israeli Supreme Court against emergency regulations that allow Shin Bet security service to track citizens’ cellphones

17/03/2020

Netanyahu’s government approved regulations that will allow Israeli security agents to track the cellphones of coronavirus patients or people suspected of being infected.

Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel and the Arab Joint List filed a Supreme Court petition this afternoon, 18 March 2020, against the emergency regulations just approved by the Israeli government that will allow the Shin Bet security service to track the cellphones of coronavirus patients and individuals suspected of being infected.

Adalah Attorney Suhad Bishara and Adalah General Director Attorney Dr. Hassan Jabareen wrote in the petition that the electronic tracking of citizens – a move approved by the Israeli government without any legal authority – constitutes a disproportionate violation of human rights.

Just a day prior, 17 March 2020, Adalah and the Joint List had sent a letter to Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit demanding he freeze the implementation of emergency regulations allowing the Shin Bet to track the cellphones of coronavirus patients and individuals suspected of being infected.

Adalah issued a statement on the issue:

"The government cannot bypass the legislature and hide behind a general state of emergency to commit such extreme human rights violations. This crosses a red line no less troubling than the coronavirus epidemic itself.”

Joint List Chairman Knesset Member Ayman Odeh also issued a statement:

"The Joint List will not allow Benjamin Netanyahu to obliterate a basic civil right in the middle of the night. It is now more clear than ever that we are fighting on three fronts: health, economic, and democratic. We know that what is called ‘temporary’ always turns into permanent, so we must immediately halt spying on citizens.”

CLICK HERE to read the Supreme Court petition [Hebrew]