CORONAVIRUS: Following Adalah’s petition, Israeli Supreme Court issues interim injunction limiting security service’s tracking of cellphones

19/03/2020

Adalah: Even parliamentary oversight cannot legitimize such a serious violation of human rights. Public health emergencies must not be exploited to grant additional powers to security services.

The Israeli Supreme Court issued a temporary injunction on Thursday evening, 19 March 2020, limiting the state’s and the Shin Bet security service’s use of tracking and monitoring of citizens – both coronavirus patients and the location of persons who were in the vicinity of individuals with a positive lab result for the virus – through various technological means, including cellphone surveillance. The court specified that if a parliamentary oversight committee is not established to monitor these practices by Tuesday, 24 March 2020, the whole program will be banned.

The Supreme Court decision comes after it heard three petitions today against the practice filed by Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel and the Arab Joint List, attorney Shahar Ben Meir, and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.

The court accepted Adalah’s argument that the executive branch has no legal authority to bypass the Knesset and approve emergency regulations, hiding beyond a general state of emergency in place since 1948, that are deeply invasive of citizens’ right to privacy.

Adalah issued a response to the ruling on Thursday evening:

“We applaud the Israeli Supreme Court’s decision, which stresses that the government is not allowed to act without oversight. Nevertheless, even parliamentary oversight cannot legitimize such a serious violation of human rights. Public health emergencies must not be exploited to grant additional powers to the Shin Bet security service and the Israeli police.”

The Israeli Supreme Court also granted the state until Sunday 22 March 2020 to respond to arguments made by Adalah General Director Attorney Dr. Hassan Jabareen during today’s hearing that the government has no legal authority to unilaterally approve such emergency regulations.

Adalah Attorney Suhad Bishara and Adalah General Director Attorney Dr. Hassan Jabareen also wrote in the petition that the electronic tracking of citizens constitutes a disproportionate violation of human rights.

CLICK HERE to read the court ruling [Hebrew]