Roundtable: The Counter-Terrorism Memorandum Bill
The Israel Democracy Institute
4 Pinsker Street, Jerusalem
The Israeli Ministry of Justice recently issued a Counter-Terrorism Memorandum Bill designed to provide the state with legal tools that will enable it to deal with the phenomenon of terrorism. This bill includes essential changes to the definition of terrorism, the substantive law, and legal procedures, as well as a dramatic increase in the severity of punishment. Each of the proposed changes warrants thorough and serious public debate, with particular focus on whether the changes result in violations of human rights and whether such violations can be justified. These questions were addressed by a panel of leading experts at IDI's George Shultz Roundtable Forum.
- Dr. Boaz Ganor, Lauder School of Government and Diplomacy, The Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya
- Dr. Khaled Ghanayem, Faculty of Law, University of Haifa
- Attorney Rachel Gottleib, Deputy Attorney General for Criminal Affairs
- Prof. Miriam Gur-Aryeh, Faculty of Law, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
- Attorney Hassan Jabareen, Founder and CEO of Adalah
- Prof. Mordechai Kremnitzer, Vice President of the Israel Democracy Institute and Faculty of Law, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
- Attorney Dr. Elkana Laist, Senior Deputy at the Public Defender's Office
- Colonel Liron Liebman, Head of the International Military Law Branch, Military Advocate General Corps, Israel Defense Forces
- Attorney Lila Margalit, Head of Criminal Justice Issues, Association of Civil Rights in Israel
- Supreme Court Justice (Ret.) Eliahu Mazza
- Prof. Barak Medina, Dean of the Faculty of Law, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
- Attorney Shai Nitzan, Deputy State Prosecutor
- Attorney Daniel Reisner, Partner at Herzog, Fox, Neeman law firm
- Attorney Talia Sasson, Former Director of the State Attorney's Special Tasks Department
- Prof. Yoram Shachar, Radzyner School of Law, Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya
NOTE: A team of researchers from IDI's Terrorism and Democracy project, guided by Vice President Prof. Mordechai Kremnitzer and Senior Fellow Prof. Yuval Shany, reviewed the draft of the Ministry of Justice's Counter-Terrorism Memorandum Bill, focusing on the tension between protecting national security and preserving civil rights, and wrote an extensive review of the proposed legislation.
Click here for the New Comprehensive Counter-terrorism Memorandum Bill from the 17th issue of the Terrorism and Democracy Newsletter.