Chaos, confusion in cabinet over coronavirus emergency powers bill
The cabinet erupted into chaos regarding a new coronavirus emergency powers bill on Monday with confusing reports that the bill was partially moving forward and partially frozen.
Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) Director Nadav Argaman’s opposition to his agency’s continued involvement in the surveillance of coronavirus-infected patients played a major part in the potential stalling of the legislation.
Though a cabinet statement on Sunday had indicated that both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz support the legislation, if the bill is frozen, the Shin Bet’s authority to continue surveillance of coronavirus infected citizens could potentially expire later Monday or by Wednesday.
Presuming the cabinet would approve the bill late on Monday, the cabinet had requested that the Knesset Intelligence Subcommittee hold a hearing on Monday to extend the deadline for the government to bring the legislation before the Knesset from Monday to Wednesday.
However, if the bill is frozen, the Shin Bet’s coronavirus involvement would expire Wednesday.
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel expressed hope that the delay would finally end the controversial Shin Bet program.
Argaman had never desired the Shin Bet to be involved in the coronavirus crisis, but complied upon the request of Netanyahu.
Generally, the Shin Bet technology being used for coronavirus tracking is used only to track terrorists.
Some of the key parameters of the bill are still unclear and may evolve if and when it reaches the point of a Knesset debate, but overall, it normalizes many of the emergency powers the state has been using since March, while imposing a greater degree of limitations.
Regarding the key question of who will monitor crisis-level coronavirus trends, it appears that despite heated debates in the Knesset for the last 10 weeks, the government still prefers to have the Shin Bet take a key role.
No other democracy has used its intelligence agencies to perform such surveillance, though many have pressed their citizens to voluntarily download an application to their cellphones in order to perform the surveillance. Others have convinced cellphone companies to hand over citizens’ data to follow coronavirus trends.
In a statement issued by Justice Minister Avi Nissenkorn on Friday, he emphasized the bill’s aspects, which will limit emergency powers and protect privacy.
The provisions he flagged included the following: The Knesset and the courts will continue to function even during a general nationwide coronavirus emergency absent some additional specific reason; the right to protest is protected; police officers cannot enter a residence without a warrant; and initially, a coronavirus emergency is supposed to last only 30 days.
Additional limits, Nissenkorn noted, were that the Knesset itself can end the emergency despite government objections; lockdown orders for a specific city or area will be initially limited to one week; the state will take the country’s economic needs into account; and the government will repeal restrictions as soon as the danger passes.
Other provisions deal with prisoners’ rights and access to their lawyers during the crisis period. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel criticized the policy on prisoners’ rights, saying the bill still made it too easy to block lawyers’ access to the prisons. ACRI also said that based on past experience, it was concerned that the Prisons Service would ignore the new law and add new stringent restrictions on prisoners.
The cabinet and the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee moved forward with a 45-day extension of the part of the bill that allows conducting certain defendants and prisoners’ court hearings via videoconference.
There were also reports that Netanyahu will have to consult the broader cabinet on additional aspects of using the bill’s emergency powers (even the bill’s prior version required cabinet decisions on many issues).
However, critics of the use of emergency powers since mid-March had demanded a date and limit for them, for the use of Shin Bet surveillance or at least a clearer set of benchmarks for ending the surveillance and emergency powers period.
In recent Knesset debates, despite pressure from Knesset opposition members and civil society NGOs, the Likud and Blue and White appear united to continue Shin Bet involvement in coronavirus-related surveillance. This is despite the growing voices that techniques used by other countries could be sufficient and less invasive of people’s privacy.
Previously, National Security Adviser Meir Ben Shabbat and Health Ministry officials claimed to the Knesset Intelligence Subcommittee that other methods are insufficient because of the large haredi (ultra-Orthodox) sector, whose restricted cellphones cannot be accessed without Shin Bet technology.
They also claim in general that the agency’s technology is superior, that speed is crucial in preventing a second wave and that around a third of coronavirus-infected citizens were found by the Shin Bet.
Critics note that 93% of those sent into quarantine due to Shin Bet warnings were not infected and that the technology is not as useful if the coronavirus wave either drops or spikes dramatically.
Furthermore, they are worried that despite the law’s limits, citizens’ private information will be abused by various government agencies or foreign actors.
Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee chairman UTJ MK Yaakov Asher said on KAN radio on Sunday that he would seek to make it harder for the government to lockdown certain areas. Asher is from a party that represents haredim, which were hit hard by the coronavirus and had several of their neighborhoods locked down. It was unclear if this was another one of the reasons the bill may be stalled.
The government has committed to pass a law on the coronavirus issue within weeks to satisfy a late April order by the High Court of Justice that said the state could not maintain emergency powers without passing new and properly debating legislation.