Last week, video clips showed a group of young men detaining truck drivers on the streets of Jerusalem and searching their trucks, seemingly with the aim of obstructing the implementation of the security cabinet decision to transfer These video clips came on the heels of events in the past few weeks, in which groups of citizens attacked food trucks passing through the West Bank and destroyed their contents, to prevent the aid from reaching the residents of Gaza. Though the video from Jerusalem does not show violence or destruction of food, the possibility of private citizens subverting the law in an organized fashion represents a dangerous phenomenon, which might undercut Israel’s identity as a democratic state. These events, and the lack of enforcement measures against them, constitute a clear failing in the state’s obligation to maintain public order and safety, revealing its difficulty in dealing with independent civilian action relating to internal security.
In effect, the citizens seen in the video are using powers of search against other citizens and residents of the state and are briefly limiting their freedom of movement. It’s worth remembering that according to Israeli law, private individuals have no right to conduct searches of other persons. Nor are private individuals allowed to limit the freedom of movement of other persons in the public sphere except in very particular and severe conditions, which clearly, do not apply in this case.
In addition, public ga.
