Summary
The 1955 law, with the Archive Regulations (Access to Archival Materials Deposited in the Archive) 2010, governing public access to archival records in Israel — which, on the ISA legal advisor’s reading reported by the Akevot Institute for Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Research, grants neither the Chief State Archivist nor the DSDE any power to deny access to materials in public or private archives (Silencing: DSDE’s Concealment of Documents in Archives, PDF p.11).
Details
- Section 1 defines a public archive as “an Archive that is owned or operated by a non-profit organization and has been certified by the government as a ‘public archive’ in a notice published in the official gazette”; there are currently 22 public archives (PDF p.3, note 4, as of the report).
- Archival materials in public archives are not subject to “foreclosure or encumbrance” and can only be transferred to the ISA or another public archive (PDF p.3, note 4).
- The Access Regulations stipulate Restricted Access Periods of 15 to 70 years by record type and source, and protect three interests: security, Israel’s foreign relations, and privacy (PDF p.12).
- Only three parties may participate in declassification and confidentiality proceedings: the depositors, the Chief State Archivist — who may declare documents “secret” or “confidential” — and the Ministerial Committee for Permission to Access Classified Archival Records, a committee of three ministers approving the Archivist’s decisions (PDF p.12).
- For ISA-branch archives, the correct route to deny access past the Restricted Access Period is Section 10c: a decision by the Chief State Archivist approved by the ministerial committee (PDF p.12).
- The only sanction the law and regulations provide against a public archive whose bylaws lack provisions similar to the Access Regulations is revocation of its public-archive status (PDF p.11).
- The ISA legal advisor found the Chief State Archivist “has no powers under the Archive Law with respect to the public access to archival materials in private hands” (PDF p.11).
- The heritage archives for Ben Gurion, Begin and Rabin are subject to this law and the Access Regulations under their commemorative laws (PDF p.4-5, note 5).
Related pages
Silencing: DSDE’s Concealment of Documents in Archives, Israel State Archive, Director of Security of the Defense Establishment, Yaakov Lozowick