2017-03-31 E-government in Israel - Transformation into the Post-truth Era
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My paper was accepted for publication in European Conference on Digital Government (sponsored by the European Commission).
The reviewers noted: "Theoretical paper that advances/challenges/adapts current theory"
E-government
in Israel - Transformation into the Post-Truth Era
Joseph
Zernik, PhD
Human
Rights Alert (NGO), Tel-Aviv, Israel
Abstract:
Previous
reports (e.g., ECEG2015) reviewed e-courts in Israel, documenting
large-scale fraud in new IT systems of the Israeli courts, amounting
to
an unannounced regime change. The current report reviews e-government
across the branches of government, re-affirming the same conclusion.
The underlying research is based on data mining, system analysis,
Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA)
requests, State Ombudsman, Judiciary Ombudsman, UN Human Rights
Council reports and case studies. The Knesset
(parliament) refuses to duly answer on FOIA
requests pertaining to development, validation, operation, and
security of its own
IT systems and electronic records.
The
Knesset’s
records
themselves are patently invalid and insecure.
The Central
Election Committee’s
IT systems have
been repeatedly alleged as a tool for
a
2015
general election
fraud. State Ombudsman’s reports document ongoing
critical
integrity and security failures
in
the Committee’s systems.
The
Committee’s initial
FOIA
response states
that its IT systems were
examined and certified by the Shin-Bet (secret service).
However,
the
Shin-Bet
denied such claims, and subsequently the Committee’s
amended FOIA response, states
that it
doesn’t
have
any information regarding validation and certification
of
its
systems.
The Ministry
of Justice
implemented the E-signature
Act
(2001) in collaboration with Comsign,
a
private corporation, controlled by senior IDF Unit 8200 (cyber-war)
veterans. “Detached” e-signatures were implemented, and public
access to e-signature data is universally denied, permitting
routine Shell
Game
Fraud
(Confidence
Trick)
by state
officers. Such
officers
issue false
and misleading,
unsigned official records, which
are deemed
by them “drafts”, but are
deceptively
represented to others as valid and
authoritative
state
legal
records.
Fraudulent
IT systems have
also
been
implemented in
administrative courts under the Ministry of Justice: The
Debtors’ Courts and the Detainees’ Courts, as documented in State
Ombudsman and
UN Human Rights Council reports, respectively.
Judges
have
been repeatedly caught perpetrating
Fraud Upon the Court through
issuing
false and deliberately misleading, sham/simulated “drafts” and
falsely representing them to others as valid, effectual and
enforceable court records.
No
such
judge has been held criminally accountable.
The Israel
Bar Association and
the legal profession should
be generally
viewed
central to such
fraudulent government
practices. However,
leading
law professors have recently voiced their protest in
view of
patent corruption of the courts
and the State Prosecution in the Roman Zadorov affair. CS
departments
in leading academic
institutions are now
home
to two newly
established, state-funded
Cyber Security Research Centers.
With
a few exceptions,
academic
CS
experts are
unwilling to comment on the
fundamental deficiencies
of
e-government in
Israel.
The Security
Apparatus
controls all critical e-government systems, and over
the past year the
Prime Minister has assumed total authority
over such systems with no clear foundation in the law. In
an our
era,
“[computer]
code
is law”. Therefore,
e-government
systems
are
a
central
control
tool, which
defines
the nature of the regime.
Israel
may present an extreme case, but not a unique one
at
all.
IT experts in general, and e-government experts in particular, should
assume a central civic duty in the safeguard of Human Rights and
Civil Society in
the Post-Truth
Era.
Keywords:
Shin-Bet,
Cyber Authority, Regime Change, Deep State
2017-03-31 Zernik, J. “E-government in Israel – transformation into the post-truth era – ECDG 2017, Lisbon, Portugal
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