On January 22, 2014,
HaMoked contacted the Director of the National Insurance Institute (NII) to request the immediate publication of all NII procedures, both in the NII’s branches and on the NII website. HaMoked noted that in assisting East Jerusalem residents who sought to exhaust their rights vis-à-vis the NII, it had often come across replies from the NII that relied on various work procedures. These procedures had never been published to the general public and, if at all, were only provided to HaMoked in the framework of legal proceedings and Freedom-of-Information applications. HaMoked asserted that the procedures’ concealment effectively prevented Israeli citizens and residents from pursuing their rights, and stressed that the duty to publish procedures had already been anchored by law and the rulings of the High Court of Justice.
On February 16, 2014, HaMoked received the response of the NII official in charge of the Freedom of Information Law, whereby “the relevant NII officials have been instructed to ensure the publication of the circulars and procedures on the website”. But for months on end, only one procedure appeared on the NII website. In a telephone conversation with HaMoked, the freedom-of-information supervisor clarified that the publication process would take long, and suggested that HaMoked’s representative go to the NII’s East Jerusalem branch office to review the entire folder of current procedures there. However, it later turned out that such a compilation in print was not available in that branch office and that only specific procedures might be reviewed there upon prior request.
More than a year later, the publication of procedures was still in its initial stages. Therefore,
HaMoked wrote again to the NII, inter alia, to inquire when all the procedures would be published, and to ask for a full list of names of all the procedures followed by the NII clerks, to enable HaMoked to determine how many had already been published. On July 8, 2015, HaMoked received the NII’s brief response, whereby “the NII’s procedures are regularly published on the website of the NII/circulars and procedures”.
HaMoked’s online search shows that many procedures have indeed been published on the NII website. HaMoked will continue monitoring the publication and updating of procedures online, and will pursue their translation to Arabic.
