The State Attorney's Guideline 14.12 establishes that police must obtain approval from the prosecutor’s office before opening an investigation into speech-related offenses. This guideline is intended to ensure that these investigations are conducted while simultaneously protecting freedom of speech, and that law enforcement operates without political, ethnic, or racial bias. However, shortly after the outbreak of the war, it was made known that the prosecutor’s office was allowing police to open investigations into suspected speech offenses without its approval, contrary to the guideline. Since then, there have been increasing cases in which citizens and residents have been arrested and investigated for expressing their opinions, mostly on social media.
To the best of our knowledge, the exemption given at the start of the war to bypass prosecution approval has ended, but investigations and arrests are nonetheless still being approved widely. The threshold for criminalizing speech has been lowered, and enforcement is carried out even for one-time posts. Additionally, arrests were given approval without a thorough examination of the claims, leading to false arrests. The vast majority of those arrested are Arab citizens and residents, raising serious concerns about selective enforcement and a violation of equality under the law. Worth noting is that while statements in Arabic are criminalized, similar statements in Hebrew are not. The police overlook incitement to violence against Palestinians, statements about committing war crimes, and even mockery of Arab victims of terrorism.
In our appeal (Heb) to the State Attorney and the Legal Advisor to the Police, we highlighted the disproportionate violation of rights in investigating speech offenses, as well as the changes needed in policies regarding investigation and enforcement. Among other things, we requested that facts be carefully examined before an investigation is approved, that individuals will not be investigated for one-time expressions, and that attempts by the police to bypass the guideline be stopped. We also requested that the use of investigation and arrest as means of humiliation and intimidation be prohibited, and that enforcement of offenses be carried out equally, with the same standards applied to Jews and Arabs.