In a significant move, Israeli police and the National Security Ministry of Israel seek to amend rules to give more powers to police forces.
The move to enhance the capacity of police aimed at reducing the incidents of Palestinian protests. If approved, the proposal will also allow the police to use live ammunition to disperse Palestinian protesters.
The authority to use live ammunition, particularly aimed at Arab-Israeli protesters, under the pretext that protesters may block the roads and other supply lines used by the police and defence agencies of Israel in futue.
According to Kan, the matter was discussed during the recent meeting to review the lessons learnt from the days of protests usually organised against the Israeli offensive against Gaza in May 2021.
This discussion was mainly held between the police commissioner Kobi Shabtai and the then Director–General of the ministry, Shlomom Ben Eliyahu.
According to sources, the move to use live fire is focused on circumventing the findings of the OR Commission.
The Or Commission was against the use of live ammunition and concluded that live fire use would only escalate the existing tensions.
It is worth mentioning that the Or Commission was formed in 2001 to investigate the death of 13 Palestinian people who died in a clash between Israeli police and protestors.
The Above said Commission, in its report, held that “police must keep in mind that the whole arab public is not enemy and only some persons with vested interests are causing the tension in the whole region”. The commission also added further that police must instil in their officers the sense of harmony, not hate for whole Arab populations.
Meanwhile, the legal Centre for the Arab minority in Israel, with the collaboration of the High Follow-up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel, declared that they are planning to make the authorities of Israel accountable for wrongs committed by them against Israel’s Arab Palestinian citizens through the UN and other international bodies.
Conversely, Israeli authorities claimed that police officers must find it easier to respond quickly and forcefully to those threatening their lives.
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An independent human rights organisation and legal Centre called “Adalah” criticised the move. According to Adalah, it will give rise to incidents human rights violationjs .