Police in Israel collect information about the sexual orientation of people they arrest, according to documents and testimony gathered by Shomrim. The practice originally began at the request of the Israel Prison Service but even though that demand was changed several years ago, the police force decided not to curtail its collection of sensitive information.

“I remember the form that the duty officer at the police station filled out before I spent the night in detention,” author Orna Coussin wrote this week on her website. Coussin was arrested on February 10 at a rally calling for the release of Hamas hostages in Gaza. “Among the clauses in the form that we had to fill out were all the usual things: do I or have I ever used drugs; have I ever had suicidal thoughts; do I suffer from any chronic diseases (the officer wrote down that I have asthma); and there was also one clause that was utterly extraordinary: Is my sexuality ‘abnormal.’ I asked the officer what is considered abnormal sexuality, and he said, You know, sex with your own gender. I was astonished and the officer laughed. I thought to myself that, in the space of a single day, I had experienced moments that belong to the 21^st century and moments that belong to the 19^th century – and that all the moments in the world exist at the same time.”

On occasion, the collection of such sensitive information can have serious implications. Amir (not his real name) was arrested at Ben-Gurion Airport a year ago on his return to Israel from overseas. Officers found a small bottle in his bag, which they suspected to be a date rape drug (GBL). When administered in large doses, the drug can lead to unconsciousness and blackouts but ingested in smaller quantities, it causes a feeling of euphoria similar to Ecstasy. Therefore, it is also a popular party drug, especially among the gay community. It was this fact that led the police to ask Amir about his sexual orientation.

Officer: “This question is a little intrusive, but it's necessary: What is your sexual orientation?”

Amir: “What’s that got to do with anything?”

Officer: “I’ll tell you why. GBL is used a lot in the LGBTQ community. Are you a homosexual?”

Amir told the officer that he is “very deep in the closet,” even adding that if his sexual orientation became public it would put him in danger. “I showed up for the interrogation at the airport and the officer started to ask me all kinds of regular questions. And then – boom! He asked me about my sexual orientation,” he tells Shomrim. “I froze on the spot. I remember it very clearly. I asked him how that contributes to the investigation. I told him it was an invasion of my privacy and that I am in the closet and don’t want the whole world to know. If someone from the community I come from would find out, they could kill me. I’m not exaggerating.”

Another person who was arrested under similar circumstances and was also asked about their sexual orientation declined to be interviewed for this article.

The information does not stay on the form

When a detainee is transferred from the custody of the police to the Israel Prison Service, the officer fills out a form known colloquially as the “exes form.” Shomrim has obtained a copy of this form. Under the heading “Details about the detainee,” the officer can record anything about the person under arrest that came up during questioning. For example, whether the person needs special protection while in custody, whether they are a flight risk, whether they are vulnerable to exploitation or whether they use drug alternatives. The final clause, as Coussin reported, is “abnormal sexuality” (see photograph).

According to Prison Service and police protocol, the stated reason for collecting this information is the need to protect inmates. According to the “Handling inmates who need supervision” regulation, which was drawn up by the police’s Operations Division, “a detainee [who], because of their sexual orientation or because they have committed a crime of a sexual nature, could suffer harassment from other detainees” requires special supervision. The phrase “abnormal sexuality” can be found in an obsolete version of Prison Service’s protocol for transferring detainees – but does not appear in the current version, which is accessible on the organization’s website. First-hand testimony, however, suggests that police are continuing to ask the people they arrest about the “abnormal sexuality.”

Even if it appears that there are justifiable reasons for collecting this information, the way that it happens in practice is hugely problematic – as is the fact that it is subsequently fed into a computerized database. The information is fed into a police database known as “Rimon,” which is used to manage information about detainees and to relay information between the police and the Prison Service. When a suspect is moved from the police station to a Prison Service facility to be remanded, for example, the database displays all of their personal information, alongside documentation relating to their incarceration and how long they will remain behind bars.

Shomrim has obtained a printout from this system, relating to someone who was recently arrested. Under the “Detainee characteristics” section of the form, the “abnormal sexuality” category still appears. In this case, the officer wrote “LGBTQ community.”

The “Rimon” system is classified as “confidential,” a relatively low level of secrecy. Moreover, a State Comptroller’s Report from 2014 specifically mentioned this system, saying that it is “connected to the police system used by the interrogations unit.”

Attorney Aviran Asabag: "It is inconceivable that someone should be questioned about their sexual orientation and that belonging to the LGBTQ community is defined by the police as ‘abnormal sexuality.’”

Nonetheless, police say in response that the information is not stored in the system. In the past, police have explicitly denied in court that they keep any information on a suspect’s sexual orientation. As part of a legal proceeding, attorney Aviran Asabag argued that the police database that is installed at Ben-Gurion Airport instructs officers to detain and search anyone for whom there is information indicating that they are homosexual. The police vehemently deny this. Superintendent Dr. Zohar Pasternak, head of the Israel Police’s data mining unit, wrote to the court that “we do not make any use of the ‘sexual orientation’ variable, which does not exist in police systems.”

“As I argued at the time,” Asabag tells Shomrim, “and in contrast to the police’s statements, it now appears that information about sexual orientation is, indeed, fed into the police's systems. It is inconceivable that someone should be questioned about their sexual orientation and that belonging to the LGBTQ community is defined by the police as ‘abnormal sexuality.’ This is a clear violation of privacy and opens the door to negative labeling and unlawful discrimination. In some cases, it could even lead to a serious threat to life and limb.”

Anne Suciu, an attorney with the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI): "It is extremely worrying to discover that there are still some public authorities in Israel which treat an individual’s sexual orientation in this way."

Anne Suciu, an attorney with the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), adds that “forcing someone to reveal their sexual orientation to the police is not legitimate and harms their privacy and their dignity – even if the goal is to protect them from harassment. And certainly, referring to sexual orientation or gender identification as ‘abnormal sexuality’ is humiliating and is a reflection of the police’s disdaining attitude. It is extremely worrying to discover that there are still some public authorities in Israel which treat an individual’s sexual orientation in this way.

“We must ensure that, even in cases when an individual voluntarily provides information about their sexual orientation or their gender identity to the police, in order to ensure their own safety during incarceration, that this information is not kept in the police’s databases and that it used only for statistical purposes once it has been anonymized.”

The Israel Police submitted the following response: “These are parameters which, in the past, were used to ensure that detainees were optimally protected and to prevent them from being attacked during their incarceration. In response to your questions, the issue was raised and discussed at length, after which it was decided to remove it from the existing form. We stress that this is not information which remains in the database. We are grateful that you brought this to our attention and we regret any harm to the sensibilities of anyone involved.”