Israel just passed a law legalizing the repression of its own citizens
Israeli police officers arrest a demonstrator at an anti-war protest in Haifa in June 2024
The lead editorial in Haaretz on 13 December 2024:
A dangerous, extremist coalition has been pushing a wave of antidemocratic legislation while lying nonstop to the public about the significance of its actions. It cannot be judged in isolation from its bad intentions. That is also true of a new law titled “The law to defend the public against organized crime,” which passed its final Knesset vote on Wednesday. It will allow restrictions to be imposed on Israelis through administrative orders solely on the basis of collected intelligence, without due process.
The law’s name and the arguments in which this draconian legislation come wrapped make it sound as if it were meant to address the serious crime wave that has affected Israel’s Arab community. But in reality, the police force under National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has always had the means necessary to tackle the issue; that was never the problem. Had the police truly wanted to fight crime, it would have made a more convincing effort to utilize the capabilities it already has.
It’s impossible to play dumb by claiming that the legislation’s sponsor, MK Tzvika Foghel of Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party – who ignored the Justice Ministry’s objections to his bill – is troubled greatly by Israeli Arabs’ suffering. A police force whose minister asks police officers whether they will “be loyal” to him during the interviews he holds to decide on promotions within the force, as revealed by Josh Breiner in Thursday’s Haaretz, is a police force whose every request for more power that infringes on civil rights must be vigorously opposed.
The new law allows a district court, with the approval of the attorney general, to issue restrictive orders against Israelis based on intelligence provided by the police. The court is even entitled to “deviate from the laws of evidence” if convinced by the information it is shown. Through such orders, the court can bar someone from entering a certain town or region, require them to live or at least stay in a certain place, bar them from leaving their place of residence, bar them from having contact with certain people, restrict their driving, restrict their internet use and bar them from leaving the country. Moreover, the police will be given expanded search powers, allowing them to enter the workplace of anyone slapped with such an order. And anyone violating a restrictive order may face a jail sentence of one to four years.
On paper, oversight by the courts and the attorney general may seem reasonable. But that is a serious mistake. Even now, the courts tend to serve as rubber stamps when the authorities show them classified security information in ex parte hearings. Moreover, it’s impossible to evaluate this law in isolation from the judicial overhaul the government is advancing, which could change the face of both the courts and the Attorney General’s Office for generations. In the hands of Ben-Gvir’s police force and the judicial overhaul government, dangerous laws of this sort won’t be used to fight crime. Rather, they will be used to repress ordinary citizens.
This article is reproduced in its entirety