Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has authorized the use of mass electronic surveillance methods, usually used only in the fight against terrorism, to stem the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus epidemic. Monday evening, March 16, the government was to extend in this sense, urgently, the prerogatives of the internal intelligence service, the Shin Bet, with the agreement of the Attorney General, Avichaï Mandelblit. This amounts to applying surveillance methods in Israel comparable to those used in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, and in areas under the control of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, in Gaza.
In practice, the measure announced by the government authorizes the Shin Beth to track, without prior authorization from the courts and for thirty days, the location data of the mobile phones of infected people, such as those who were near them in the fourteen days before they were tested. An analysis of this data will be sent to the Ministry of Health, which will have to warn by SMS those likely to have been infected, asking them to place themselves in quarantine at home.
"Serious invasion of privacy"
The involvement of the Shin Bet in a civil crisis, outside the already broad framework of anti-terrorism and the defense of state security, has drawn criticism from the left opposition, among lawyers and organizations defense of liberties. "The government has the power to pass emergency measures for a short time", recalls Daniel Friedmann, former justice minister and former dean of the law school at Tel Aviv University. "But I doubt that this legislation is appropriate for the situation: it represents a serious invasion of privacy (Israelis) and Parliament is not really in a position to decide for the time being. "
On Monday afternoon, the Knesset intelligence committee, whose approval is necessary for the implementation of such a measure, failed to decide after a brief debate. It was automatically dissolved at 4 p.m. following the nomination of the new deputies, elected during the legislative elections of March 2. In an empty hemicycle, they took the oath three by three, in application of the anti-contagion measure. In the evening, Netanyahu said the government would apply these emergency measures without the consent of parliament.
