Israel - Israel’s attorney general on Wednesday upheld a
practice to allow security personnel to read people’s email accounts when they
arrive at the airport, arguing it prevents militants from entering the country.
The ruling followed an outcry last year when some people
trying to enter Israel were ordered to open their emails after hours of
interrogation at Israel’s Ben-Gurion airport. In one instance, three
Palestinian-American women were forbidden from entering after email checks were
conducted.
Critics say it primarily targets Muslims and Arabs and
appears to be aimed at keeping out visitors who have histories of
pro-Palestinian activism, citing a history of such people being turned away
from Israel’s border crossings.
Security personnel may ask visitors to open their email
accounts for inspection if they are perceived as being suspicious, wrote Nadim
Aboud of Israel’s attorney general office. In a response to the Association for
Civil Rights in Israel, he said potential entrants may refuse to allow their
emails to be checked, but that would be a factor in deciding whether a person
would be allowed to enter the country.
Aboud said the checks were justified because there was an
increasing risk of foreigners being involved in militant activity. He said
security services could not properly investigate the backgrounds of some
potential entrants without the additional check.
A Justice Ministry official said the search was conducted
only in “extraordinary cases.” He spoke anonymously in line with ministry
policy.
The attorney general’s office wrote the letter in response
to a request for clarification by ACRI after incidents were reported last year,
said attorney Lila Margalit of the organization. She said Aboud’s response
effectively legalized the checks, which could now be challenged only in court.
“It was a concern because of the level of invasion inherent
in (checking) a personal email account,” Margalit said. “It constitutes a
violation of privacy.”
She said inside Israel, police could search a person’s
computer data only with court approval, even if there was a criminal
investigation underway.
Israeli officials tend to conduct exhaustive checks on
foreigners entering the country, or passing through border crossings they
control, if they are deemed suspicious.
It particularly affects people who hope to travel to
Palestinian areas of the West Bank. The Palestinians a measure of
self-government in the West Bank, a territory east of the Jewish state; but
Israel controls entry into those areas.
Such visitors frequently complain that they risk not being
allowed into the country if they announce they will visit areas under
Palestinian Authority control; but risk being accused of lying if they omit
that information to security investigators.
There are no statistics on how many people are refused entry
into Israel or through border crossings that Israel controls.
One aspect of the issue is that most people entering Israel
obtain visas at the airport or other border crossings. Unlike many countries,
Israel does not require people to obtain visas from their embassies in advance
of their trips, eliminating possible screening before visitors arrive in
Israel.
In contrast, Israelis themselves are required to obtain
visas far in advance before visiting many countries. Even the U.S. requires an
exhaustive interview process at its embassy in Tel Aviv, and it does not grant
visas to all who apply. Iranian-born Israelis, for example, are often refused
visas.
The practice of email checks appears to be a step beyond
what some Western countries allow, while others permit similar measures.
Germany does not allow such searches. The U.S. Department of
Homeland Security has seized computers and other electronic devices from people
arriving in the United States to search them.
In a narrow ruling last month, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals ruled that while Customs and Border Protection officers can do “a
quick look” at a laptop computer or other equipment, reasonable suspicion is
required for a more in-depth forensic exam of electronics. It was not
immediately clear if that included email.
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