Israel's attorney general has upheld the Shin Bet security agency's use of mobile-phone tracking technology to monitor Palestinian protesters at Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site last year.
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The decision, which came on Tuesday, drew harsh criticism from the civil rights group that challenged the use of the technology. The group warned that it would have a "chilling effect" on the country's Arab minority.
The attorney general's move was in response to a complaint over a series of text messages sent out last May to hundreds of Palestinians at the height of one of the city's most turbulent periods in years. At the time, Palestinian protesters were clashing with Israeli police at the Al Aqsa Mosque in violence that helped spark an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.
Using its tracking technology, the Shin Bet sent a text message to people who were determined to be in the area of the clashes and told them "we will hold you accountable" for acts of violence.
