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No to Extension of Temporary Provision Allowing Search Without a Warrant

>> Read the full position paper

In May 2023 the Knesset enacted a temporary provision, valid for one year, to amend the Criminal Procedure Law to include two new grounds under which a police officer is authorized to conduct a search without a court order. Thus, a warrantless search can now be conducted if there is “exigent reasonable suspicion” that a weapon, an essential component of a weapon that may serve as evidence, and “documentation or a camera that may serve as evidence of the commission of a serious crime” is to be found on the site. To prevent its expiration, on 8 May 2024 the Knesset briefly extended the provision until 1 July 2024. At the same time, a draft bill proposing to extend it by two more years, endorsed by the Ministerial Committee for Legislative Affairs on 19 May 2024, is expected to be put to a vote in the Knesset plenum.

Article 25 of the Criminal Procedure Law establishes the authority of a police officer to search a house/venue without a warrant in the following cases: If there is reason to assume that a crime is being committed or was recently committed on the site, if the occupant of the house/venue asks for the police’s help, if a person on the scene asks for the police’s help and there is reason to assume that a crime is being committed there, or if the officer is in pursuit of an individual evading arrest or fleeing legal custody. The temporary provision enacted a year ago (Amendment No. 15), whose extension by two years is being sought now, adds a clause detailing the new grounds allowing a search without a warrant.

Zulat’s position is that the temporary provision must not be extended because it was unsound to start with. It contains no checks or balances, appears to be intended to deceive the public in the face of the government’s sustained failure to combat organized crime, might be misused to violate human rights, or could even be used for collective punishment of the Arab sector where most of the homicides occur. The explanation provided in the draft bill only highlights the danger inherent in it.

Given that fighting extortion, firearms attacks, and possession of illegal weapons is of utmost urgency, Zulat proposes to regulate warrantless searches solely through legislation that contains checks and balances. Instead of the flawed temporary provision, we propose to promote the Criminal Procedure Law-2014 (Enforcement Powers: Discovery, Search, and Seizure), which was compiled on the basis of the recommendations of a public committee headed by Supreme Court Justice Dov Levin, was approved in first reading but was never advanced.

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Dr. Maha Sabbah Karkabi

 

Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Tel Aviv University (2015), a postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Gender Studies, SOAS, University of London (2015-2016), a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Sociology at Tel Aviv University (2016-2017), and a postdoctoral fellowship Ph.D. at the Humphrey Institute for Social Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (2018-2020).
Dr. Maha Karbahi’s areas of interest focus on the connection between social change, family behavior, and gender inequality in societies in the process of change and specifically in Palestinian Arab society in Israel. Her research draws attention to the study of family life and employment, using a combined “ethnic lens” and “gender lens” and paying attention to the perspective of Palestinian Arab women, a group characterized by intersections between multiple marginal locations, which over the years has remained hidden from the research eye. Dr. Karkabi-Sabah’s research is published in professional journals and chapters in scientific books that are considered pioneers in family research, work, and gender equality.

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Prof. Frances Raday

Professor Emeritus in the Lieberman Chair in Labor Law, in the Faculty of Law at the Hebrew University and serves as a full professor in the College of Management’s academic track, where she also serves as chair of the graduate program and as honorary president of the Concord Center for International Law Absorption. Radai was a member of a working group of the UN Human Rights Council on discrimination against women. In addition, she is a prominent and feminist human rights activist.

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Dr. Rawia Aburabia 

Faculty member of Sapir Academic College’s School of Law, received her PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research deals with the interface between law, gender, minorities, and human rights. Has published in leading journals on the subject of the matrimonial laws pertaining to Muslim women in Israel. Her book Under the Law, Outside Justice: Polygamy, Gendered Citizenship, and Colonialism in Israeli Law is expected to be published as part of the Gender Series of Kibbutz Meuhad Publishing House.

Dr. Aburabia has extensive experience in international human rights and public law. She has worked as a jurist for the Association for Civil Right and has been invited as a specialist to address such international forums as the United Nations and the European Parliament on the subject of indigenous communities and minority rights. She has interned with Human Rights Watch in Washington DC, and has been a member of the executive board of Amnesty International. In 2018, she was selected by the magazine Globes as one of the 40 most promising young persons in Israel under the age of 40.

 

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Ron Kessler

With over two decades of experience in the field of digital content, Ron has participated in numerous political and social campaigns. He helped run the digital activity of senior public officials, and worked in various NGOs. Ron is a fundamentally optimistic man, who believes that Israel can be changed and so can people. Lives in Tel Aviv.