Amira Hass The Sacred Task of Preventing Palestinians From Reaching Work
There’s an officer in charge of freedom of information at the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, but she’s not familiar with the Freedom of Information Law. About a month ago, she said so at a court hearing on a petition asking the Defense Ministry to clarify the criteria for revoking entry permits of relatives of assailants against Israelis. The author of the petition, attorney Tamir Blank, asked the officer whether she had considered his request for information under the law’s provisions that temper the Shin Bet security service’s exemption regarding providing information. Her reply was: “I don’t know. I’m not familiar with the law.” This strange revelation just makes worse the off-the-cuff order by then-Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman in August 2016: to cancel the existing entry permits to Israel of relatives of Palestinian assailants. The petition under the Freedom of Information Law is the cherry on the top of a legal battle – which has not received pu