Israel's Interior Minister Gilad Erdan has announced that he will soon be forwarding legislation that would make a biometric registration mandatory for every citizen, saying that it will improve security for the state.Biometrics registration is currently undergoing a two-year pilot phase in Israel with citizens given the option of applying either for regular ID cards and passport or biometric versions. However, the Central Bureau of Statistics revealed last September that only around a third of ID card and passport applicants had opted for the biometric option.”Smart biometric records that cannot be faked […] will lead to the full protection of the identity of Israeli citizens,” Erdan said this week, according to Channel 10. “It will provide a balance between our duty to ensure the security of citizens and our duty to protect their privacy. We will promote a gradual transition to mandatory biometric documentation.”A Biometric Database Law passed in 2009 mandated creation of a biometric government database of that information, to be used for management of access control, identification and to find criminals.Some 640,000 people have entered the biometric database as part of the biometric scheme, he added.

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