The Knesset is expected to approve the second and third readings of the Protection of the Public from Criminal Organizations Law (on 23.7.2024) , which will enable the police to apply to the District Court and request the issuance of administrative orders against a person based on secret administrative evidence and intelligence assessments. This precedent-setting law changes the world order in the field of criminal enforcement, creating an administrative-criminal bypass track, without the guarantees and balances of criminal law designed to protect individual rights. It allows for the imposition of dramatic restrictions that violate constitutional rights of the individual (house arrest, preventing travel by car, restriction on Internet use, prohibition of contact with people, prohibition on entering or leaving a certain area, etc.), based on confidential intelligence material that neither the person nor his attorney will have the opportunity to review and defend against. All this was done, not because of an offense committed by that person, but because of suspicion of an offense that he was about to commit. The law also imposes heavy penalties on those who violate the administrative order, including a minimum sentence of imprisonment for one year.
Once again, under the pretext of rising crime in Arab society, the police seek and succeed in adopting tools that violate basic principles of criminal proceedings, including the presumption of innocence and the required level of proof. This law continues the growing trend in Israel to establish a separate enforcement system for Arab citizens, including predatory enforcement tools whose contribution to reducing crime is questionable. Thus, more than a year ago, the Knesset passed a temporary order allowing the police to conduct an immediate search without a judicial warrant where there is suspicion of the presence of weapons or for the purpose of seizing cameras, but since then the extent of crime in Arab society has continued to expand unhindered, and the police failure to solve murders and file indictments has reached an unprecedented low.
The way to combat serious crime in the country in general, and in Arab society in particular, is not a deviation from basic principles of criminal law and the protection of human rights. Instead, the police must take a variety of measures to meet the required evidentiary threshold and criminally prosecute offenders, such as recruiting quality forces, changing priorities, and streamlining processes. At the same time, the government must promote in-depth solutions, including implementing five-year plans to close socioeconomic gaps (in the areas of welfare, education, and employment), in order to reduce serious crime.