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the Biometric Databases Bill passed its first call in the Israeli parliament.
On October the 29th, the Biometric Databases Bill passed its first call in the Israeli parliament. The bill requires all Israeli citizens to submit finger prints and facial photos to the Israeli government where they will be stored in a database and on an electronic chip. The chip will be imbedded in one’s ID.
The law passed by a vote of eighteen representatives in the colonial government and requires all citizens of Israel to submit their finger prints and photos to authorities, or face up to one year in jail. Furthermore, the database can be used by the Israeli secret police and military without the approval of a court.
According to one representative of the apartheid government, the law is meant to stop the forgery of identification cards; adding that those who oppose this bill are “either terrorists or criminals”. Civil organizations, however, argued that the law would be a major threat to civil rights and that the clear excess to it by security forces will be an attack on privacy.
This bill follows another law passed in November 2007 which allows the police to establish a phone database of citizen’s suspected of criminal activity. The database includes telephone numbers and other contact information. This grants the police the ability to spy on people’s locations and on who they are communicating with.
According to one representative of the apartheid government, the law is meant to stop the forgery of identification cards; adding that those who oppose this bill are “either terrorists or criminals”. Civil organizations, however, argued that the law would be a major threat to civil rights and that the clear excess to it by security forces will be an attack on privacy.
This bill follows another law passed in November 2007 which allows the police to establish a phone database of citizen’s suspected of criminal activity. The database includes telephone numbers and other contact information. This grants the police the ability to spy on people’s locations and on who they are communicating with.
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Important to understand the relationsips because it's something we don't tend to think about very much.
Now I like the idea of a "constitution" which defines certain rights as being OUTSIDE the democratic process. But it is important to understand that having a constitution represents a limitation on democracy, is essentially an anti-democratic control on possible excesses or other short sighted implementaton of "the will of the people".
The Israeli system is much more "democratic" than ours in that sense, less in the way of direct implementation of the will of the majority. That's the reason you will see things like this. Remember, the more democratic the stystem, the more say the extremists and kooks have. They get to vote too.
Now I like the idea of a "constitution" which defines certain rights as being OUTSIDE the democratic process. But it is important to understand that having a constitution represents a limitation on democracy, is essentially an anti-democratic control on possible excesses or other short sighted implementaton of "the will of the people".
The Israeli system is much more "democratic" than ours in that sense, less in the way of direct implementation of the will of the majority. That's the reason you will see things like this. Remember, the more democratic the stystem, the more say the extremists and kooks have. They get to vote too.
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