Israel Approves Mass Surveillance to Save Lives
YNET: Israel approves mass surveillance to fight coronavirus
Shin Bet director says security agency would not use new measure to enforce or supervise quarantine and its purpose is to ‘save lives’; data will be stored much longer than the 30 days promised by the PM
Itamar Eichner, 03.17.20
The government amended and unanimously approved early Tuesday a motion allowing authorities to utilize advanced digital monitoring tools to track and surveil Israelis infected with coronavirus.The Shin Bet security agency will document and examine the location patients had visited before entering quarantine or being hospitalized and whether they had broken any government directives related to the spread of COVID-19 (cont.)
JPost: AG Mandelblit: Digital tracking legal, meant to save lives
Staff, March 17, 2020
Mandelblit stressed on Tuesday that emergency measures implemented by the government to allow the Shin Bet to track those infected with the novel coronavirus are legal and are meant to “save lives during an emergency.”
The new measures were checked by Mandelblit’s office with continued dialogue with Health Ministry officials, the political echelon, Israel Police and the Shin Bet in order to ensure that the measures would strike a balance between preserving the health and safety of the public and protecting privacy rights.
Esser Agaroth (2¢):
its purpose is to ‘save lives’
How many times have we heard that one before? Sometimes it’s even true. After all, the best lies are grounded in true. The “potential” lie here is not relating to the saving of lives. Rather, the underlying motive for the increasingly stringent restrictions on our movements is suspect. Control, keeping us off the streets so it will be easier to hide something from us. Who knows?
How many people in the world believe that their governments’ first and foremost concern is the health of their citizens, and without any ulterior motives?
There are even those who would suggest possible motives of governments of the world to include population reduction, particularly older members of the population, as well as yet another excuse to shoot us all up with a new fangled vaccine.
As I write this on the bus commute home, I am listening to a radio interview with Avi Dichter. Avi Dichter is currently the Assistant Minister of Defense, as well as a former chief of the Shabba”k (General Security Service), “affectionately” known Israel’s “secret police.”
The interviewer is questioning Dichter over these increasingly stringent restrictions on our movements. She reminds him how Israelis are not used to such restrictions, even with all of our experience with war and terrorist attacks. We have cowered in bomb shelters, we have dodged missiles, and our armed neighbors have saved many lives, when police and military were not in the immediate vicinity.
We like being outside. Even most apartments have been built with balconies, or huge salon (living room) windows. The idea of not being able to go to a local or national park is foreign to us. And now, the government has added beaches to the list of forbidden destinations. Several people have pointed out that since the coronavirus cannot live in the sea, the beach might be exactly what we need.
Those of you who know me, will already correctly assume that this native San Diegeño very aggrieved regarding this beach ban.
But, I digress…
The other day, I saw an interview with MK Ayelet Shaked (Yamina), former Minister of Justice. She was questioned about the use of smartphones to track the movements of those testing positive for the coronavirus. The interview questioned her on how this compromises the privacy of citizens. Her response was that she hoped the infected person would agree voluntarily to the tracking. Although pushed, Shaked never quite answered this question, at least not to my satisfaction.
Back to the interview with Avi Dichter, the interviewer expressed concern over seeing IDF troops on the streets to maintain order and abiding government restrictions. Ditcher started becoming agitated, continued to harp on the “saving lives” aspect of the restrictions, and reminded the interviewer of troops on the street during times of increased terrorist activity. The two of them went back and forth, but Dichter stuck with his story.
I will let the readers fill in the blanks themselves.
The truth is governments are already following their citizens.
They just want to perform surveillance more effectively and get us used to such a culture.
From Esser Agaroth, here.