Israel's ruling right-wing coalition has agreed to discuss a new draft bill in the ministerial committee for legislation looking to prevent activists from human rights organizations or any ordinary citizens from documenting actions of Israeli soldiers or policemen against Palestinian citizens.
The draft law forbids soldiers from being photographed on duty on the pretext that this could negatively affect their determination. But some jurists considered the move to prevent them from documenting violations by Israeli military personnel.
The argument made for criminalizing the documentation of security personal is that there are institutions of civil society and human rights organizations working to demonize the soldiers, and intimidate them with the possibility of pressing charges in international courts, and allegedly ‘distorting’ Israel's image and calling for its boycott.
The bill states, “anyone who shoots a video or a photo, or records soldiers while they are doing their job, with the aim of disturbing the morale of soldiers and citizens, will be sentenced to five years imprisonment. In case this is done with the aim of destabilizing the state’s security, the perpetrator will be sentenced to ten years in prison.”
In addition, the bill prohibits the sharing of photographs or recorded content on social media or in the media.
The bill, initiated by Knesset Member Robert Ilatov of Yisrael Beiteinu, a secularist and right-wing nationalist political party in Israel, aims to boost Israeli soldiers and citizens’ morale. The bill also seeks to protect Israeli soldiers who commit offenses against Palestinians.
Moving for such a measure comes two years after the infamous case of Israeli soldier turned murderer Elor Azaria, who executed an unarmed and wounded Palestinian Abdel-Fattah al-Sharif, in the West Bank city of Hebron.
The crime was documented on video cameras, and footage recorded presented fundamental pieces of evidence against Azaria.
However, he was acquitted of charges of premeditated murder and sentenced to two years in prison, nearly half of which was spent before being released.
