Figure: Publication by activists, documenting adulteration of the 2013 election results data about 2 weeks ago on the Central Election Committee web site. [i]
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The response, received today by email from the Knesset Freedom of Information office (copied below):
a) Fails to duly include a FOIA request number;
b) Fails to state the position of the person, who sent the email message;
c) Laptop security system flagged the attachment (the response) as a false electronic file type and a security risk (see Figure 1, below), and
d) When opened, the file contained no text at all (see Figure 2, below).
Reply on the FOIA response has been sent to the Knesset Freedom of Information office (copied below), and copied to Prof Eli Biham -- head of the Technion Cyber Security Research Center, [iii] Prof Danny Dolev -- head of the Hebrew University Cyber Security Research Center, and MK Karin Elharar -- Chair of the State Oversight Committee.
The Knesset FOIA response is not at all surprising: Regardless of payment of request fees, the office refused to duly issue a Request Number, regardless of repeat requests.
The FOIA request was filed following publications alleging large-scale computer fraud in the 2016 general election, where PM Netanyahu's win defied all pollsters' up to the last minute predictions. Petition, which was filed with the Supreme Court in this matter was summarily denied for lack of standing. The fraud was estimated at 4-8 seats in the Knesset (out of 120). [iv]
Circumstances, where the Knesset is not ready, willing, able to uphold the Freedom of Information Act (that the Knesset itself enacted), in request pertaining to IT systems of the Central Election Committee (that the Knesset purportedly developed and operates), whose output is the foundation for the lawful authority of the current Knesset and the current executive, must again raise concerns regarding the nature of the current Israeli regime. [v]
Figure: Attorney Yael Kotick, "coordinator" of the forced psychiatric hospitalization of anti-judicial corruption protester Joelle Ben Simon. Formerly, a senior Ministry of Justice officer, there is no information regarding her current appointment. FOIA response regarding her appointment came back as a black electronic file.
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It is notable that the Knesset's FOIA response today is remarkably similar to a recent FOIA response by the Ministry of Justice, pertaining to the current appointment of Attorney Yael Kotick. Attorney Kotick has gained some recent notoriety as the "coordinator" of the forced psychiatric hospitalization of anti-judicial corruption protester Joelle Ben Simon. [vi] Attorney Kotick was represented to Ben Simon as a senior Ministry of Justice officer. Indeed she had been one until a few years ago. However, there was good reason to suspect that today she was on loan to the Shin-Bet. The FOIA response regarding Kotick's current appointment was a blank electronic file as well. It is possible that blank electronic files are today the operating routine in FOIA requests that get uneasily close to Deep State in Israel"
Following is the reply, sent today to the Knesset Freedom of Information office
Mr Shmuel Hizkiyah
Knesset's Freedom of Information Officer
Jerusalem
By email froi|AT|knesset.gov.ilEmail address
By fax: --02-6408201
RE: FOIA response by the Knesset on my request, pertaining to: IT systems of the Central Election Committee -- Development, Validation, Operation, Security.
Dear FOIA Officer Hizkiyah:
On August 25, 2016, I filed a Freedom of Information request with the Knesset, pertaining to IT systems of the Central Election Committee: Development, Validation, Operation, and Security (copy attached). Request fees were duly paid. However, the Knesset's Freedom of Information office refused to duly issue a Request Number, regardless of my repeat requests.
Today, I have received by email from a person named Anna Matzkin a message, titled: "Response on your Freedom of Information request":
* The message fails to state Ms Anna Matzkin's authority, under which she sent such message.
* The message fails to duly state a Freedom of Information Request Number.
* My security system flagged the attached document (the response) as a false electronic file type and a security risk (Figure 1).
Figure 1
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* The document itself was blank, including no text (Figure 2).
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