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Jan. 25, 2021
It has been 10 months since Haaretz embarked on a battle to reveal the transcripts of cabinet meetings during the period of COVID-19, and seven months since the High Court of Justice sent us to exhaust the option of the Freedom of Information Law – even though it was clear that we wouldn’t get a thing that way. So clear, that on his way out of the courtroom, cabinet minister Tzahi Braverman gloated as he told us: “You won’t get a thing.” He didn’t even wait a full minute for the sake of appearances. After all, who cares about freedom of information.
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Jan. 11, 2021
A tax dispute between a ranch in Israel’s southern Negev desert and the country’s tax authority has given rise to an issue which could have far reaching repercussions on the public’s ability to oversee and even understand government acts.
The issue, currently being debated in the Justice Ministry, is whether a software or its source code can be seen as “information” the authorities are obliged to disclose to the public.
The story began in 2014 when the farm Har Shemesh, which is not part of any community, asked the Tax Authority to explain how it had calculated a fine they were required to pay.
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Dec. 16, 2020
The Gush Etzion Regional Council, which administers the bloc of West Bank settlements south of Jerusalem, transferred 1.6 million shekels ($490,000) in 2018 and 2019 to a movement in charge of the development of unauthorized outposts in the area under the council’s jurisdiction.
More than 900,000 shekels of the funds were earmarked for the development of shepherd outposts there and to pay 20 percent of the salary of the Amana staff person working as the coordinator for the outposts. The council provided the figures in response to an administrative petition filed by the Movement for Freedom of Information.
How COVID – and Israel’s Trump-brokered lovefest with Arab states – are affecting Palestinians