New stop and search powers – no reason needed
This posting has 4 items:
1) Ynet: ‘Stop-and-frisk’ bill gets final approval;
2) Ma’an news: Israeli Knesset passes stop and frisk law for ‘suspicious’ individuals, being suspicious means being a young Palestinian in the ‘wrong’ place;
3) ACRI: Success in the Fight Against the Stop and Frisk Bill, a little over-stated;
4) Times of Israel: Knesset okays cops to stop and frisk without reasonable suspicion
Israeli police search a Palestinian man at Damascus Gate, in Jerusalem’s Old City, October 18, 2015. Police set up checkpoints in the Palestinian neighbourhoods of East Jerusalem after recent attacks by Palestinians. Photo by Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org
‘Stop-and-frisk’ bill gets final approval
Knesset passes bill permitting police to conduct body searches with probable cause; wording softened from previous version, but some fear that minorities will be unfairly targeted.
By Omri Efraim, Ynet news
February 02, 2016
A Knesset plenum approved on Monday night the “stop-and-frisk law” proposed by Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, which expands law enforcement’s authority to conduct searches. The law permits police officers to search someone’s body and belongings if there is a reasonable suspicion that he may be about to commit violence, or in the event that he uses threatening or violent language.
The bill permits police to search anyone in a group believed to be suspicious. Police will only be able to conduct weapons searches in certain places in accordance with the law, or in the event that there reasonable suspicion of someone carrying a weapon.
Israeli police officers conduct a body search of a Palestinian near the scene of a stabbing attack in Jerusalem. Photo by AP
Furthermore, the law will allow the chief of a police district to designate a location in which there is suspicion of terrorist activity as a location where body searches are permitted in order to locate illegal weapons. This declaration would remain in effect temporarily and would be the result of heightened security.
The bill is essentially a softened version of the original, which was formulated by the Public Security Ministry and encountered widespread public opposition, including by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.
Attorney Avner Pinchuck, director of the association’s Civil and Political Rights Unit, said the bill originally allowed body searches without probable cause, “but the approved version threatens citizens no less.” Pinchuk argued that Ethiopian Israelis, Arabs, and darker-skinned Jews will remain vulnerable to harassment without any oversight. Indeed, the bill has raised fears of discrimination among Ethiopian Israelis and Arabs.
Minister Erdan, for his part, said passage of the law constitutes “an important boost to the police’s ability to more effectively fight terrorism and violence.”
Israeli forces search a Palestinian, on suspicion of having a concealed weapon, at the entrance of Damascus Gate in occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City on Oct. 4, 2015. Photo by Emily Mulder /MaanImages
Israeli Knesset passes stop and frisk law for ‘suspicious’ individuals
By Ma’an news
February 03, 2015
BETHLEHEM — Israel’s Knesset on Tuesday passed a new law allowing Israeli forces to stop and frisk “individuals who appear suspicious” for unlicensed weapons.
A statement released by the Knesset said the measure was passed 39 to 31 during its third and final reading.
The new law will permit Israeli police officers to search “anyone in a place prone to violence if they have reason to believe he or she may use a weapon,” the statement said.
“If someone is fighting or is engaged in ‘verbal violence’ — without a visual clue that the person may be carrying a weapon — that person could be searched and evidence found would be admissible in court,” according to the Knesset statement.
The bill stipulates that an officer also now has the legal ability to search anyone, regardless of behaviour, in a “location that is thought to be a target for hostile destructive actions,” referring to situations where there is a “suspicion of terrorism.”
Israeli Police and the Civilian K-9 Unit carry out a stop and search on every car that leaves the Palestinian neighbourhood of Jabel Mukaber on Oct. 14, 2015 in Jerusalem. Photo by Ilia Yefimovich/Getty Images
Such locations can be declared as such by a regional commander for a period of 21 days which may be extended for up to two months.
Knesset member Ilan Gilon of the Meretz party criticized the new law, saying the measure ”perpetuates the viewpoint that every citizen is guilty until proven innocent — exactly the opposite of what criminal law should be.”
MK Jamal Zahalka of the Joint List for his part said: ”This law sends a message to police officers: ‘do whatever you want. There is no need for any criteria, and everything can be approved retroactively.’”
The new law comes as Palestinian citizens of Israel and particularly Palestinians living in occupied East Jerusalem already come under heavy surveillance and searches by Israeli forces.
The law initially received major push back from Israeli human rights groups who argued the measure would lead to racial profiling by Israeli security forces.
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel lobbied against the law but welcomed changes approved by the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee.
The group said in a statement last month that a revised version of the bill “substantially restrains the powers of the police and achieves a better balance between the need to preserve public order and individual rights.”
According to the group, the law that was passed was more limited than initially proposed, permitted searches only in cases of “real verbal abuse” and includes “stricter conditions for conducting more invasive searches.”
Regardless of the changes, ACRI expressed “significant concern” for “unacceptable profiling of Ethiopians, Arabs and people of Middle Eastern background.”
The group said the communities still faced high risk of over policing and voiced concern over discriminatory behaviour of police.
Success in the Fight Against the Stop and Frisk Bill
Briefing by ACRI
January 26, 2016
ACRI welcomes the changes to the Stop and Frisk Bill, as approved yesterday by the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee. The proposal that was approved substantially restrains the powers of the police and achieves a better balance between the need to preserve public order and individual rights.
The law, which in its proposal stage included a power to search someone’s person without reasonable suspicion, now poses less of a threat to civilians. The new law is more limited, permits searches in cases of real verbal abuse and not mere insults, and includes stricter conditions for conducting more invasive searches.
Nevertheless there is still significant concern regarding unacceptable profiling of Ethiopians, Arabs and people of Middle Eastern background. These communities are still at risk of over policing, in the absence of supervision of police conduct on this matter. The moving film of journalist Gal Gabai on the program “The System” demonstrated the unacceptable and discriminatory behaviour of police, and the fact that there is a need for closer supervision of police activities on the ground. There is also a need to hold separate hearings on the issue of profiling, in order to combat this unacceptable phenomenon.
Israeli security forces frisk Arab Israelis, on suspicion of having a concealed weapon, near the Central Bus Station in Herzliya, January 5, 2016, as the city was on high alert. Photo by Tomer Neuberg/Flash90
Knesset okays cops to stop and frisk without reasonable suspicion
Opponents say Ethiopians, Arabs will be targets of police as new powers allow them to search individuals on basis of ‘fear’
By Times of Israel staff
February 02, 2016
Police got the formal green light to stop and frisk citizens, even without “reasonable suspicion,” after the Knesset passed a controversial bill into law on Tuesday.
Opposition MKs and civil rights activists have warned that the legislation will increase police discrimination against minority groups.
Until now, the law only allowed frisking if police had sufficient reason to suspect the person was concealing a weapon and even then, according to a court definition, only if they saw a bulge in the target’s clothing which suggested a knife or a gun, said MK Nissan Slomiansky (Jewish Home), chairman of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee.
Now, police officers will have the right to search any individual’s body, clothes and bags even if there is no reason to suspect the person is carrying a weapon.
Police will be able to frisk passersby if they have “a reasonable suspicion” they are “about to carry out an act of violence against another.” A “reasonable suspicion” is defined as a person in a public place “acting in a bullying manner, including verbal violence, or threats, or acting in another intimidating or frightening manner.”
A temporary provision, valid for a year, allows police to frisk even without reasonable suspicion, on the basis of “fear” that the person intends to carry out a terror attack.
The new law waters down some provisions of the original version of the bill presented at first reading, reducing the slew of businesses police are allowed to enter to carry out body searches. “Reasonable suspicion” will allow the cops to enter nightclubs, but only after they have informed their district commander in advance, the Haaretz daily reported.
The measure passed the Knesset 39 to 31 on third reading.
During the Knesset debate, opposition MKs claimed the new law would boost discrimination against minorities who will always be suspect in the eyes of the police.
“The coalition is once again flagrantly ignoring the daily distress of weak groups, who suffer serious discrimination in Israel,” said MK Michal Rozin (Meretz).
She predicted that police would employ “selective discrimination” against minorities such as Arabs, ultra-Orthodox Jews, and immigrants from Ethiopia and the former Soviet Union and would rush to frisk them.
“Police are no less racist than anyone else. Whoever says he or she doesn’t see colour is the biggest racist of all.”
MK Dov Khenin (Joint List) said he feared the legislation would also lead to more sexual harassment of women.
Jamal Zahalka (Joint List) said the new law “unleashed” the police to do whatever they wished.
In the run-up to the vote late Monday night, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel warned that “the first to suffer will be Ethiopians, Arabs and people of Middle Eastern appearance.”
Nissan Slomiansky said the compromise struck the right balance between the needs of the police and respect for individuals.
The bill was proposed by Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan as part of a series of measures aiming to prevent further Palestinian attacks in the current wave of unrest.
Last year, the Ethiopian immigrant community was enraged by video footage which showed two police officers pummelling an Ethiopian-born Israeli army soldier, Damas Pakada, who alleged he was the target of a racist attack.
Violent protests erupted after Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein closed his probe of the incident, claiming the soldier had provoked the clash.
In late 2014, thousands of Israeli Arab protesters massed in the Galilee town of Kafr Kanna, protesting the shooting to death of a man while he was fleeing from them after attacking their vehicle with a knife. In May, the case against the police officer was closed.
Last month, Arabs complained of abuse and discrimination as police searched for terrorist Nashat Milhem, who murdered three Israelis including two outside a pub in Tel Aviv.
In one popular and sarcastic Facebook status, Ramat Aviv resident Ahmad Amer wrote:
“So the police decided today 4.1.16, that it makes perfect sense to enter our apartment in Ramat Aviv, to turn it completely upside-down in a barbaric way, to take out the clothes in the closet, because obviously the terrorist is hiding in the third shelf, to turn over the couch because, no doubt, he crawled under there.
“Of course, all this without any warrant — because we are Arabs and we — a doctor, an engineer, and manager in the stock exchange want to hide your terrorist.”