In July, ACRI submitted to the Justice Ministry a position paper on Israel’s draft Counter-Terror Bill, 5770, highlighting the need to balance the actions taken within the context of the fight against terror with human rights and democratic values. Though ACRI recognizes the importance of fighting terrorism as well as the provision of effective tools to enforce these policies, we highlighted that these efforts cannot be unlimited and without oversight. We pointed to several problematic clauses in the draft law, including the use of secret evidence and mechanisms employing administrative detention and control orders in Israel’s contemporary and permanent legislation.
The current draft legislation aims to replace emergency laws which have been in place for several decades and in some cases since before the establishment of the State; these do not provide proportionate or effective options to fight terrorism. In the paper, ACRI claims that despite efforts made to adapt the previous legislation to today’s reality, the bill does not accomplish this in a substantive manner; although the bill partially annuls the emergency legislation, it perpetuates many of their draconian measures. The institutionalization or “normalization” of certain elements of past emergency legislation – particularly in relation to administrative detention and control orders – is unacceptable because of its practical and immediate implications – i.e. grave human rights violations – but also because of the message it sends to the public as to what means and measures are legitimate in dealing with terror in our society. To this end, the draft bill does not significantly ameliorate the protection of human rights in the context of counter-terrorism, which given that the bill would be permanent, would cause irreparable damage to Israel’s overall protection of human rights – and its standing as a democratic state. Any law aiming to formalize counter-terror practices must ensure that any steps taken against an individual that harm his freedom or freedom of movement must be based on full due process, wherein the individual is privy to adequate defense.
The position paper further details the potential for severe violation of individual rights – with a key problem being the very loose definition for the terms “act of terror”, “terror organization” and “member of a terror organization”. The broadness of the bill’s language would allow the authorities to apply the law to individuals and groups not remotely connected to terrorist activities; in addition it would allow for potential breaches of Israel’s most basic democratic values and constitutional rights including freedom of expression, the right to free association, and the right to own property. To summarize, the bill – in its preliminary form – does not provide the most basic protections to ensure due process and instead lays the groundwork for arbitrariness, selective enforcement, and grave human rights violations.
