Haaretz - 'A state in emergency'

[Englander]

By Yuval Yoaz

Israel is in a perpetual state of emergency. This is not a security evaluation or a statement about people's state of mind. It is a legal fact. The legal state of emergency, which grants the government extensive, even Draconian, powers was declared on the establishment of the state and has never been revoked.

On the contrary - every year or six months the Knesset extends the state of emergency, thereby extending the validity of all legislation that derives from it.

"The state of emergency infringes on human rights in a way that violates the Basic Law on Human Dignity and Freedom," says the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), which has been pushing for years for an end to the state of emergency.

In recent months, the government has been acting, almost without anyone noticing, to amend the legal code so that the emergency state could be called off. The moves were prompted by a petition ACRI submitted to the High Court of Justice six years ago.

The first law to be enacted by the Provisional Council of State, on the day Israel's independence was declared - the Law of Government and Justice Procedures - declared a permanent state of emergency. In 1996, the Basic Law on Government was amended: The Government, stipulates that the Knesset and cabinet are authorized to declare a state of emergency.

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