In response to a demand put forward by Akevot Institute, the Ministry of Defense informed us this week it would stop collecting a fee for digital copies of records kept in the IDF and Defense Establishment Archives (IDEA). The fee has been collected so far without legal authority to do so.

In February 2017, Akevot Institute researcher, Adam Raz, filed a complaint with the Ombudsman of Israel, (a division of the State Comptroller’s Office) stating the fee policy presented a substantial financial barrier to researchers who use the archive and undermined research. A similar critique was made in Point of Access, a report Akevot Institute published in the spring of 2016. Following the complaint, the Ombudsman’s office made a lengthy inquiry with the Ministry of Defense before delivering its conclusion that the complaint was justified (Hebrew) in August 2019. One of the findings made by the Ombudsman was that there was no legal basis for the IDEA’s decision to charge a fee for copies of archival materials. Over the course of the review process, archive fees for copies were initially reduced and later dropped altogether for academic researchers. The IDEA did, however, continue to illegally charge fees for digital copies, despite the Ombudsman’s finding there was no legal basis for this policy.

Last week, Akevot Institute’s legal council (Hebrew), Adv. Attorney Shlomi Zachary, contacted the Legal Advisor for the Ministry of Defense and the director of the IDEA, demanding the Archives drop the illegal fees. The response of Adv. Yishai Yudkevich (Hebrew) of the Ministry of Defense, which was received within a few days, stated that the Ministry of Defense “accepts” the Ombudsman’s finding regarding the lack of authority to charge a fee for digital copies of documents, and that it “ceased charging a fee for this service,” at least until the relevant regulations are amended.

This is an important achievement in our long-standing fight to remove illegal barriers to public access to records stored in government archives. These records are public property and they are meant to serve the public.